Effect of smart sprinkler irrigation utilization on water use efficiency for wheat crops in arid regions

The smart irrigation system (SIS) developed in this research is a valuable tool for scheduling irrigation and quantifying water required by plants. SIS was implemented and tested under sprinkler irrigation system to irrigate wheat crops (YecoraRojo). Results obtained from this system were compared with the control irrigation system (CIS), whose scheduling method was based on data from an automatic weather station. Results indicated significant savings in applied water using the SIS. In addition, use of the SIS conserved 12% of irrigation water compared to CIS and obtained an economical yield. The water use efficiency (WUE) under SIS had generally higher values (1.64 kg/m3) compared to CIS (1.46 kg/m3). Hence, application of SIS technology provides significant advantages on WUE and irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE). Relatively high WUE and IWUE were found for the irrigation treatment (80% of evapotranspiration under SIS). Results showed that the irrigation requirements of wheat increased (100% of ETc under CIS) with increasing evapotranspiration (ETc) but excessive irrigation can decrease WUE and IWUE. These results indicated that extreme irrigation might not produce higher yield or optimal economic benefit, thus, suitable irrigation schedules by using SIS must be established and extendable to other agricultural crops.