M. Saber

ACTUAL EVAPOTRANSPIRATION OF THE ORANGE ORCHARD IN NORTHERN SINAI, EGYPT

Studies on soil-water management in the Nile Delta and Northern Sinai (Egypt) were carried out in 2011–2013 by the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement. The El-Salam orange orchard was selected as a ‘standard’ station to study the management of appropriate irrigation, including the development of a model to assist in the management of irrigation of other crop covers in the Nile Delta. The model simulated actual evapotranspiration with a one-day step resolution, using the approach of Penman-Monteith (with daily input data, i.e. standard data from the national network of weather stations), by taking account of the specificity of the crop cover (cover resistance). We compared the amounts of irrigation applied to the orange orchard (Imean = 994.3 mm · year–1; 2.7 mm · day–1; crop coefficient Ea/ET0 = 0.78) with the requirements of water estimated by the model (Easimulated). This comparison enabled us to propose a daily amount required for irrigation. It is reasonable to sustain water losses of 94,570 m3 water · year–1 for the total area of the plantation (80 ha; drainage from the root zone), that is, 1,182 m3 water · year–1 · ha–1. These water losses involve hydraulic adjustment of the sites of crop production and the costs of routing water.

Use of sesame and sorghum crops to verify the remediation of contaminated sewaged soils

At the time being, treated sewage effluent is repeatedly used in farming, particularly in newly reclaimed sandy soils, as it fortify their content of nutrients and organic matter as time goes on, despite there are significant concerns about the long-term accumulation of PTEs in the soil ecosystem. Pot experiment was conducted to verify the effectiveness of bioremediation of two sewaged soils, highly and marginally contaminated, with either canola ( Brassica napus ) or Indian mustard ( Brassica juncea ) plants in the absence and presence of AM inoculation, by growing sesame ( Sesamum indicum ) and sorghum ( Sorghum bicolor ) plants. Results indicated that the vegetative parameters of both test crops did not show any sign of adverse symptoms when grown in either bioremediated sewaged soils. Phytoremediation with either canola or Indian mustard obviously reduced Cu and Zn contents in both sesame and sorghum plants and completely removed Ni from soil. Both sesame and sorghum plants grown in both bioremediated sewaged soils contained lower PTEs, however, at varying degrees. Zinc equivalent value in marginally and highly decontaminated soils after harvesting either sorghum or sesame obviously decreased compared to control soil. After phytoremediation, the dehydrogenase activity increased in all soils. Generally, the efficiency of phytoremediation with canola far exceeded that with Indian mustard, despite both were effective tools.