Productivity of olive oil (Coratina variety) in response to irrigation treatments in sandy soil

Abstract

A 2-year field experiment was conducted on drip-irrigated olive oil orchards (Coratina var.) on a private farm in the newly reclaimed sandy soil of the West Nile Delta region, Egypt, during the 2020 and 2021 seasons to evaluate the effect of five irrigation treatments (120%, 100%, 80% and 60% reference crop evapotranspiration [ETo] and farmer practice) on applied irrigation water (AIW), water consumptive use, olive fruit and oil yields and some fruit quality parameters, water use efficiency, water productivity, electric energy consumed, farm income and benefit–cost ratio and to develop local crop coefficients (K_c) and yield response factors (K_y). The results indicated that the 2-year average AIW values were 9953 (17.9 m³/tree/year), 8484 (15.3 m³/tree/year), 6971 (12.5 m³/tree/year), 5480 (9.9 m³/tree/year) and 17,488 m³/ha (31.5 m³/tree/year) for the tested irrigation treatments. Olive fruit and oil yields and quality parameters were significantly affected by the tested treatments. The highest fruit and oil yields were recorded for the 120% ETo treatment. A seasonal K_c of 0.75 and a seasonal K_y of 0.83 were obtained. It can be concluded that producing oil from olive trees (Coratina var.) in sandy soils can be achieved by applying amounts of water equal to 80% or 60% ETo.