Etude de l’effet de l’irrigation d’appoint sur l’amélioration de la production du blé tendre (Triticum aestivum L.) dans la région de Sétif

Abstract

The present study has for objectives to evaluate the effect of supplemental irrigation applied at specific target physiological stages, under the semi-arid water stress conditions of Sétif region, on the improvement of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) production both quantitatively as well as qualitatively. In this context two sets of genotypes; the first one represented by two locally improved and widely cultivated varieties Hidhab (HD1220) and El-wifak and the second consisting of two recently introduced varieties; Djemila (ACSAD 969) and Djanet (ACSAD 899) provided by ACSAD institution, was examined under both rain-fed and irrigated conditions during two consecutive wheat cropping seasons 2013/2014 and 2014/2015. On the basis of this study, it was demonstrated that the adoption of supplemental irrigation will effectively contribute to improve the production of bread wheat in the region of Setif. In fact, the supplemental irrigation contributed to significantly increase the grain yield by 24% and 25% consecutively for the two years of experimentation compared to rainfed conditions, principally for the two newly introduced genotypes; Djemila (ACSAD 969) and Djanet (ACSAD 899). Under conditions of limited irrigation, the application of an irrigation regime brought in two watering (SI2); the first at jointing corresponding to the 1st node stage (Z31), and the second at flowering stage when the anthers are visible on 50% of the spikes (Z65-Z69) significantly improved the grain yield by 14.60% and 11.10% consecutively during the two years of experimentation, without it being significantly different from the most watered regime SI5.This increase was related to the improvement of most agronomic traits that had significant and positive correlations with grain yield, including its major components namely; the number of grains per spike, the number of grains per unit area and the weight of grains per spike. On the other hand, and under rain-fed conditions, where relative low grain yields were obtained for all the tested genotypes, most of quality appreciation characteristics of flours produced from these genotypes, such as the protein content, the Zelény sedimentation index and wet gluten content were at higher levels, particularly for Hidhab (HD1220) genotype, which presented the highest protein contents of 13.58% and 13.86% respectively for the two years of experimentation.