Total water allocation for Egyptian clover and alfalfa and their water economics

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Agricultural Economic Research Institute, Agricultural Research Centre, Giza, Egypt

2 Animal Production Research Institute, Agricultural Research Centre, Giza, Egypt

3 Soil, Water & Environment Research Institute, Agricultural Research Centre, Giza, Egypt

4 Faculty of Agriculture "Sadat branch", Al-Azhar University

Abstract

The current study focuses on Egyptian clover and alfalfa crops in old and new lands as well as inside and outside the Nile Valley and the Delta. The weather data were obtained from the Agricultural Research Center and the Egyptian Meteorological Authority during the three study periods (2017/18-2019/20). The data of cultivated areas of Egyptian clover and alfalfa, as well as their productivity during the study periods, was obtained from the Economic Affairs Sector, Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation. The main objectives are: identify the total water budget acquired by both crops; crop water productivity, and the economic return of land and water units. The results showed that the average amount of irrigation water applied under different climatic regions (inside and outside the Nile Valley and Delta) amounted to 4435, 4311, 4439 m3 / feddan for Egyptian clover and 8788, 8671, 8743 m3 / feddan for alfalfa through 2017/18, 2018/19, and 2019/20 seasons, respectively. The overall average of total water budget for the total cultivated area amounted to 6.570 billion m3 for Egyptian clover and 614.462 million m3 for alfalfa. The net return per land unit for Egyptian clover crop was 15263 LE/ feddan, and it was 56739 LE/ feddan for alfalfa crop, while the net return per water unit were 3.55 and 7.49 LE/ m3 for the corresponding crops.

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