Author(s)

Alaa M. Akol^1,2, Nadine Nassif³, Khudhair Abbas Jaddoa⁴, Haider M. Zwain¹, Kareem Radhi¹, Nadhir Al-Ansari^5*

¹Ecole Doctorale en Sciences et Technologie, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon.
²College of Water Resources Engineering, Al-Qasim Green University, Al-Qasim Province, Babylon, Iraq.
³Faculty of Agronomy and Veterinary Sciences, Environment and Natural Resources department, Lebanese University, Dekwaneh, Beirut, Lebanon.
⁴College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences, Baghdad University, Baghdad, Iraq.
⁵Department of Civil, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering, University of Technology, Lulea, Sweden.

A field trial was conducted at a private farm in AL-Hashimiya district Babylon Governorate—the republic of Iraq during the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 growing seasons. This study was conducted using two irrigation methods, sprinkler and surface irrigation, for each of them had three Tillage methods (zero-tillage, medium-tillage, deep-tillage) and each tillage system had four seeding rate of wheat yield (120, 180, 240, 300) kg∙ha^-1. Results indicated that the consumptive water use was 557.5 and 535.9 mm for surface irrigation and 460.9 and 442.6 mm for sprinkler irrigation in the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 growing seasons. Sprinkler irrigation significantly increased the flag leaf area with no significant effect on plant height. However, the minimum tillage and seeding rate (240 kg∙ha^-1) significantly increased the plant height and flag leaf area in both growing seasons. For the grain yield, the sprinkler irrigation, minimum tillage, and seeding rate (240 kg∙ha^-1) also increased the plant height and flag leaf area by 13%, 10, % 11%, 11%, 12%, and 14% in both growing seasons, respectively, through an increased number of spikes/m², the number of grain spike-1, and 1000-grain weight in both growing seasons, respectively. Interestingly the grain yield was increased by 33% and 32% in both growing seasons under the effects of these three factors altogether, respectively. It can be concluded that these factors act synergistically, resulting in a significant improvement in the wheat grain-yield of, less consumptive water use, and high water use efficiency.

Irrigation, Tillage system, Seeding rates, Wheat (Triticum Aestivum L.), Grain yield, Water Consumption

Akol, A. , Nassif, N. , Jaddoa, K. , Zwain, H. , Radhi, K. and Al-Ansari, N. (2021) Effect of Irrigation System, Tillage System, and Seeding Rates on Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Growth, Grain Yield and Its Water Consumption and Efficiency. Engineering, 13, 574-594. doi: 10.4236/eng.2021.1311042.