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Abstract. Soil water deficits and associated plant water stresses comprise the greatest abiotic hindrance to sustainable plant growth. Essential supplemental irrigation without water conservation practices is expensive and often contaminates groundwater, it usually decomposes rapidly, and is time consuming. Subsurface water retention technology (SWRT) is a new method which reduces deep drainage and leaching and many of the ecological and environmental dilemmas occurring among today's crop production enterprises established on highly permeable sandy soils. Therefore, this study was established to investigate the resilient contributions of the SWRT on soil moisture, temperature and electrical conductivity of a sandy soil. Additionally, surface applied straw mulch treatments were added to these membranes to identify separate and combined contributions to maize yields in an arid region of Kerman, Iran. This field study was performed in a completely randomized block design with three treatments: i) depths of polyethylene membrane, ii) surface straw mulch and iii) irrigation water quality. All treatments were under maize cultivation in June 2013. Results demonstrated that installing water-saving SWRT membranes below plant root zones reduced the frequency of irrigation compared to controls without membranes. Soil water reductions were slower in SWRT membrane treatments. Water loss was reduced even more when surface mulch was added to soils equipped with SWRT membranes. Soil temperature reductions at various depths in SWRT membrane treatments plus straw surface mulch were greater than when SWRT membranes were installed without straw mulching of the soil surface.
Key Words: dry climate, straw surface mulch, sandy soil, subsurface water retention technology, watersaving membranes.
Introduction. The development of non-traditional new technologies to conserve water is becoming important for attaining a sustainable economic growth, especially in agricultural countries (Shahid et al 2012). Improving the efficiency of irrigation water by different methods is one of the economically viable alternatives in overcoming the water scarcity. Sandy soils will be very productive when water is wisely managed both above and within the soil. Consequently, subsurface water retention technology (SWRT) is a promising solution to overcome the fight against hunger especially in the developing countries (Ismail & Ozawa 2007). This is not only crucial for the sustainable agricultural yield but also to meet the challenges of current environmental issues and justice, financial problems and physical barriers in the developing countries...