Aninvestigation was carried out on alluvium soil type in the river valley of
Southern Morava, Southern Serbia during the seasons of 2008 and 2009, aiming to
determine the response of potato to soil water deficit, using yield response
factor. The values of yield response factor were derived from the linear
relationship between relative seasonal evapotranspiration deficits and relative
yield loss. Values of seasonal crop response factor of 1.14 indicate that
potato is moderately sensitive to soil water stress in the climatic conditions
of the Southern Serbia. Seasonal evapotranspiration was 495.0 mm and 291.2 mm
in irrigated and rain-fed conditions respectively. A linear relationship was
found between seasonal evapotranspiration and tuber yield. Potato yield in the
variant with irrigation was 48.31 t ha-1 or 88.3% higher than in the variant
without irrigation.
Production
of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) takes a very important place in world
agriculture, with a production potential of about 368 million t harvested and
19.3 million ha planted area with an average yield of 19.1 t ha-1. Potato
production ranks fourth in the world after rice, wheat and maize. In Serbia
potato is grown at about 77,000 ha with an average yield of 10.2 t ha-1, and
total production of 786,000 tones. In southern Serbia potato crop land is
55,000 ha with an average yield of 9.2 t ha-1, and total production of 55,000
tones. The yield of potato in Serbia is fourth times lower than this achieved
in the leading potato growing countries. The low yields are the consequence of
inadequate management practices, insufficient amount and unfavorable
arrangement of precipitation in the growing season and inappropriate irrigation
scheduling applied. In Serbia potato is cultivated under both irrigated and
non-irrigated conditions. Portable sprinkler irrigation systems are commonly
used. Due to the unpredicted amount and distribution of precipitation in the
growing season, irrigation in Serbia is mainly supplemental. It is used
primarily to supplement infrequent or irregular precipitation during drought
periods.
Several authors and research
groups reported results of experiments aimed at determining optimum soil
moisture under different environmental and technical conditions. Bošnjak and
Pejić, Milić et al., Pejić et al. found that the lower limit of optimum soil
moisture for potatoes is 70% of field water capacity when this crop is grown in
a soil with medium texture. Wright and Stark, King and Stark, Costa et al. indicated that maximum yield of high quality
potato tubers could only be achieved if the soil’s available water in the
maximum active root zone would not drop below the 50% limit.
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