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Determination of Crop Coefficient (Kc) for Wheat in the GeziraIhsan Mustafa Ibrahim Abbas1, Ali M. Adeeb21Agricultural Research Corporation, Water and Land Research Center, Sudan
AbstractProper management of irrigation water is essential in order to obtain maximum yield of wheat. Amount of water added to a field per irrigation depends upon climate, crop, soil and management options. Significant climatic elements are temperature, radiation, relative humidity and wind speed. The objective of this study is to update the Crop coefficient (Kc) for the newly released type of wheat (Emam) using newly developed methods of calculation of the reference evapotranspiration (ETo). A field experiment was conducted at the Gezira Research Station farm in Wad-Medani, Sudan. The plots were irrigated normally at 10 days interval. Results showed that the mean monthly ET0 values during the growing season ranged between 5.5 and 7.3 mm day-1. The trend of the mean monthly air temperature and the mean ET0 values were similar. This indicated that temperature is the one of the most important factor that affect ET0. The results showed a polynomial trend of both ETc and Kc. As observed the peak of ETc equal 8.3 mm day-1 at 55 days after sowing coinciding with the maximum Kc of 1.42. A significant relationship was observed between Kc and days after sowing since the P-value was less than 0.1 at 90% confidence level. The calculated Kc values were found to be 0.55, 1.02, 1.13 and 0.73 for initial, developmental, mid-season and late-season stage, respectively. The two growth parameters measured showed that the height of the plant increased linearly during the growing season and the mean measured height at harvesting was about 62 cm, whereas the mean measured root depth didn't exceed 20 cm. Keywords: Crop coefficient, Gezira, irrigation, Sudan, wheat Contact Address: Ihsan Mustafa Ibrahim Abbas, Agricultural Research Corporation, Water and Land Research Center, Albohoth 9-2, Wad Medani, Sudan, e-mail: ihsanagoor 
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