Camila Aparecida da Silva Martins

Desempenho de sistemas de irrigação por aspersão convencional na cultura do milho (Zea mays L.)

In irrigated agriculture inadequate uniformity of water application in irrigation systems provides an excess of one part of the acreage and a deficit in another, reducing the availability of water to corn and increasing the cost of production. The objective of this study was to evaluate in the field the performance of systems for conventional sprinkler irrigation in the south of the state of Espirito Santo. Five irrigation projects with conventional sprinkler irrigation were chosen randomly. Each project was tested for uniformity of application of water by determining several coefficients of uniformity (Coefficient of Uniformity of Christiansen, Coefficient of Statistical Uniformity and Coefficient of Uniformity of Distribution), and for the efficiency of application of water. The results show that 60% of the irrigation projects with conventional sprinkler irrigation evaluated presented low uniformity of application of water; that the depth of water applied in the appraised period is superior to the required depth for the plant; and that the average of the application efficiency in the projects was 71.88%, below the 75% recommended in the literature as the acceptable minimum