The future of water for irrigation in California and Israel16-18 July, 2018

Efficient use of water in dryland agriculture(…in the world)

P. Berliner

Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

BIDR

EVENARI FARM AT AVDAT- ISRAEL

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1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000Year

Tot

al se

ason

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ainf

all

The Nabataean City - Avdat

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8/12/040:00

8/12/041:30

8/12/043:00

8/12/044:30

8/12/046:00

8/12/047:30

8/12/049:00

8/12/0410:30

Time (Date+hour)

Rai

nfal

l and

Run

off i

nten

sity

(mm

hr-1

)

NT_A NT_NA Rain

I,Ra,Ru

ET

D

T

Internal boundary layer

E

GOAL: DECREASE EVAPORATION IN ORDER TO INCREASE W.U.E.(WITH AN EMPHASIS ON SIMPLE APPROACHES).

a. Intercropping (Runoff Agroforestry)b. Changing geometry for flooding systems c. Polyethylene mulching

P:precipitationR: runoffE: evaporationT: transpirationW: retaining wallS: spillwayD: drainageB: basin

RUNOFF AGROFORESTRY SYSTEM

WETTED AREA[ROOT ZONE]

T

E

Pit Depth

PRECIPITATION

DX

Hypothesis: The rate of evaporative losses will be reduced if the runoff water is stored in narrow trenches.

Ra Ra

1 m.

1 m.

2.7 m.

0.15 m.

1.5 m.

0.4 m. 0.4 m.0.3 m.0.5 m.

Access tubes for moisture measurement

Ground surface area tree-1= 4 m2 Ground surface area tree-1= 9 m2

Schematic plot outlay. Microcatchment and Trench runoff collection systems

Granier Sap flux sensor

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140 190 240 290

WAT

ER L

OSS

(x10

-3) m

3d

-1

DOY

ET TrenchesET MCT TrenchesT MCClass A Pan

-5

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EVAP

. FLU

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) m3

d-1

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E MCE Trench

-1

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Clas

s A

Pan

evap

orat

ion

(mm

d-1

)

Tran

spira

tion

(mm

d-1

)

DOY

MC

T

TRANSPIRATION NORMALIZED BY CANOPY CROSS-SECTION

Blackpolyethylenemulch

Dripline Furrow

Neutron probe

Blackpolyethylenemulch

Dripline Furrow

Blackpolyethylenemulch

Dripline Furrow

Neutron probe

MAIZE FIELD TRIAL

0.82 m

Distance between plants in the row:0.14 m

0

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25000

Dry

biom

ass

(kg

ha-1)

Furrow+mulch

Furrow

Drip+mulch

Drip

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aa

b

b

a a

bb

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32 60 74 (83)DAS

Cons

umpt

ive

wat

er u

se (

mm

)

ba ab

a

a aa a

b

aab

a

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5000

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15000

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25000

Dry

biom

ass

(kg

ha-1)

Furrow+mulch

Furrow

Drip+mulch

Drip

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a a

bb

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biom

ass

(kg

ha-1)

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b

a a

bb

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32 60 74 (83)DAS

Cons

umpt

ive

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er u

se (

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)

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0-32 32 - 60 60 - 74 (83) Final [0 - 74 (83)]

DAS

GW

UE

c (g

DM

Kg

wat

er-1

)

Furrow+mulchFurrowDrip+mulchDrip

a a

a a

aa a

aa

a

b b

b

b

b b

0

1

2

3

4

5

0-32 32 - 60 60 - 74 (83) Final [0 - 74 (83)]DAS

Rat

io m

ulch

ed to

non

-m

ulch

ed

*

ns ns †

01020304050

Furrow Drip

Eva

pora

tion

(%)

SUMMARY

• The water losses due to direct evaporation from the soil to the atmosphere were significant in the three agrosystems tested.

• The reduction in evaporation increased the water available to crops and hence the total biomass yields per unit planted area.

• The implementation of the techniques that lead to a reduction of the aforementioned losses require different types and levels of investments and may be adapted to the possibilities of various population groups.

• The reduction in evaporative losses may compensate the expected reduction in precipitation due to climate changes in the Eastern Mediterranean.

THE END

RELEVANT LITERATURE AND CO-AUTHORS

1. LOVENSTEIN, H., P. R. BERLINER and H. van KEULEN (1991). Runoff Agroforestry in arid lands. Forest Ecology and Management 45:59-70.2. LOVENSTEIN, H and P. R. BERLINER (1993). Biometric relations for non destructive above ground biomass estimations in young Acacia Salicina and

Eucalyptus occidentalis plantations. New Forests 7:255-273.3. NATIV, R., J. E. EPHRATH, P. R. BERLINER and Y. SARANGA (1998). Drought resistance and water use efficiency in Acacia saligna. Australian J. of

Botany. 47:577-586.4. EPHRATH, J., M. SILBERBUSH and P. R. BERLINER (1999). Calibration of minirhizotron readings against root length density data obtained from soil

cores. Plant and Soil. 209:201-208.5. DROPPELMANN, K. J. and P.R. BERLINER (2000). Biometric relationships and growth of pruned and non-pruned Acacia saligna under runoff irrigation

in Northern Kenya. Forest Ecology and Management. 126:349-359.6. DROPPELMANN, K. J., J. E. EPHRATH and P. R. BERLINER (2000). Tree crop complementarity in a Runoff Agroforestry System. Agroforestry Systems.

50:1-16.7. DROPPELMANN, K. J., J. LEHMANN, J. E. EPHRATH and P. R. BERLINER (2000). Water use efficiency and uptake patterns in a Runoff Agroforestry

system in an arid environment. Agroforestry Systems. 49:223-243.8. DROPPELMANN, K. and BERLINER, P.R. 2003. Runoff agroforestry - a technique to secure the livelihood of pastoralists in the Middle East. Journal of

Arid Environments. 54: 571-5779. BERLINER, P. R. and K. DROPPELMANN.(2003) Validation in an arid area of an algorithm for the estimation of daily solar radiation. Journal of

Hydrometeorology 297-30310. WENGWANG, ZHAO, RUSSELL J. QUALLS and PEDRO. R. BERLINER (2003) Modeling of the short wave radiation distribution in an agroforestry

system . Agricultural and Forestry Meteorology118:185-206.11. ZEGADA, W., Y. EPHRATH and P. BERLINER (2007) "Above and below ground development of Acacia saligna shrubs grown under different irrigation

frequencies in an arid environment. Pland and Soil. 297:157-16912. G. CARMI and P. BERLINER (2008) . “The effect of soil crusting on the runoff generation of small plots in an arid environment”. CATENA 74:37-4213. ZEGADA LIZARRAZOU, W and P.R. BERLINER (2011). "The effects of the degree of soil cover with an impervious sheet on the establishment of tree

seedlings in an arid environment" .New Forests. 42:1-1714. ZEGADA LIZARRAZOU, W and P.R. BERLINER (2011)." Inter-row mulch increases the water use efficiency of ffurrow-irrigated maize in an arid

environment". J. of Agronomy and Crop Science. 197:237-24815. S. ZHANG, G. CARMI AND P. BERLINER (2013)" The effect of the geometry of runoff collecting areas on the overall efficiency of microcatchments"

Journal of Arid Environments, 95 (2013), 22-29.\16. DAVID PEARLMUTTER AND PEDRO BERLINER. EXPERIMENTS WITH a ‘psychrometric’ roof pond system for passive cooling in hot-arid regions. Energy

and Buildings 144 (2017) 295–30217. NURIT AGAM, SOLOMON LEAKE AND PEDRO R. BERLINER. Modeling short wave solar radiation flux in a trench water harvesting system. Agricultural

and Forest Meteorology 221 (2016) 152–163