Possibility of Sugar Beet Production in Toshka Region. II- Effect of Water Stress on Some Sugar Beet Varieties

Abstract

In Egypt, the yearly national production of sugar, 2.28 million tons, fails to cover the consumption amounted to3.25 million tons (S. C. C., 2020). As an attempt to minimize this gap, it was necessary to expand the area planted with sugar beet in the newly reclaimed lands. This work was conducted to evaluate the performance of three beet varieties under water stress to find out the best variety and its proper water requirement to get the maximum root and sugar yields per unit area in Toshka zone. Maximizing sugar production is a national target through expansion in sugar beet cultivation in the newly reclaimed soils, the specific problems of newly reclaimed soils management in particular their low water holding capacity require using an efficient irrigation system such as controlled irrigation. This technique makes it possible to relate, under water shortage condsitions, the drought stress undergone by the sugar beet plants to possible decreases in the yield or quality. The performance of beet plants under controlled irrigation with respect to yield and its components was studied by many authors among them, Tognetti et al. (2002), TWO field experiments were carried out during 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 seasons at the agricultural experimental station farm of Water Studies & Research Complex (WSRC), National Water Research Center, located in Abu-Simbel, Toshka, at the most southern part of Egypt, about 1300 south from Cairo and 280 Km from Aswan (latitude of 22 o.49N, longitude of 28 o.58E) Aswan Governorate, Egypt. These trials aimed to find out the effect of water stress rates (60%, 80% and 100% of irrigation water requirements (IWR). on yield, yield components and quality of sugar beet varieties namely Oscar poly, Farida, and Universal. Randomized complete block design, in Strip Plots arrangement, with three replications was used.