Introduction:

Optimizing the irrigation water resource is essential due to its scarcity, so it is therefore important to consider efficient crops such as sunflower.

Objective:

To estimate the sunflower grain yield at different levels of available soil moisture depletion to estimate water use efficiency (WUE) of the crop under different water conditions.

Methodology:

Seven treatments resulting from four soil moisture levels (40, 60, 80 and 100 % of available soil moisture [ASM]) and two periods of sunflower growth (from emergence to the beginning of flowering [first stage] and from flowering to physiological maturity [second stage]).

Results:

The highest grain yield (5.5 t·ha-1) and WUE of (0.922 kg·m-3) were recorded in the 60-60 % ASM treatment in the first and second stages of sunflower development, and by consuming 62.8 cm of water.

Limitations of the study:

The results should not be extrapolated to conditions outside the study levels.

Originality:

To generate research methodologies to quantify, in a more realistic way, the relationship of yields with crop water requirements.

Conclusions:

The highest WUE in sunflower (0.922 kg·m-3) was recorded when it consumed 31.4 and 28.12 cm of water, with 58.8 and 60.5 % of ASM in the first and second stages, respectively, which was similar to the 60-60 % treatment.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in English | Spanish     · English ( pdf ) | Spanish ( pdf )