Water Conservation by Controlling The Methods of Modern Irrigation of Palm Trees in Al-Hassa Oasis, Saudi Arabia

The future increase in water demands with the
required quantities and qualities is a serious challenge
in the Kingdom. Therefore, improving the irrigation
network is an essential goal for water conservation
under the local conditions nowadays.
The Hassa Irrigation and Drainage Authority
(HIDA) is one of the largest agricultural projects in
the Kingdom. It covers about 8000 ha. This project
started about thirty years ago. Since that time the
water was distributed to the farmers by siphoning the
water from the field canal to the farm with the flood
irrigation as the most method adopted. The
consequence of that was unwise use of water.
The objectives of this research work are: to
evaluate the bubbler irrigation and the traditional
trickle irrigation system to be an alternative to the flood
irrigation especially under palm trees, and to evaluate the
moisture distributions under systems currently used.
To achieve these objectives a number of filed studies
were conducted in typical farms in Al-Hassa Irrigation
and Drainage Scheme, to evaluate irrigation efficiency
and to determine the effect of irrigation systems and
watering regimes on date palm production.
Data indicated that reproductive growth of date palms
were significantly affected by irrigation systems (furrow,
bubbler and drip irrigation). Drip irrigation significantly
increased yield, while no response was obtained under the
three irrigation regimes during the study. Moreover, the
data indicated that date palm water requirement in a
loamy sand soil in Al-Hassa, Saudi Arabia is 1013.4,
1170.0 and 1407.0 m3/palm/year for drip, bubbler and
furrow irrigation systems respectively