Optimizing Surface Irrigation For Water Table Control And Salinity Minimization By Polymers And Surge Technologies

AbstractFour factors, the irrigation method, PAM, flow rate and slop are analyzed in laboratory experiments. Furrow erosion was significantly reduced by the PAM treatment, the erosion with PAM treatment was only 10%~53.8% of those without PAM. PAM application with lOppm reduced the infiltration rate (IR) by 54% compared with the treatments without PAM, and only 42% for 20ppm PAM application. Compared with PAM effects, surge irrigation can not reduce soil erosion, but can increase the efficiency of the water use in surface irrigation. Besides the laboratory experiments, the field experiments also performed in Hetao region. The field experiments showed that large flow rate can not only reduce much irrigation time, but can also increase irrigation efficiency. The crop can be significantly affected by ground water, the yield of corn with 10% ground water concentration was 11.8% lower than those with pure Yellow River water, and 18.1% was lower with 20% ground water contained in the irrigation water. Compared with basin irrigation, the yield in furrow irrigation area was 20.3% higher.