Abstract
Water management is a significant aspect of sustainable vegetable farming, especially in water-scarce regions. This, in addition to weed infestations, limits vegetable yields, which negatively affect food security in developing regions, particularly East Africa, where livelihoods chiefly depend on rain-fed agriculture. Vegetable farming, especially tomato cultivation, requires more water. By promoting mulching, a soil water conservation tool, we can control surface evaporation (E), which, together with irrigation, enhances effective water use and vegetable yields. The experiments for this study were conducted at the Tokyo University of Agriculture, Japan, to evaluate the influences of different irrigation conditions and poly-mulching on weed control, tomato yields, and water use efficiency. The study was conducted from May to September 2018 on a 30 m2 plot in an open-ended greenhouse using drip irrigation for tomato cultivation. Three predetermined irrigation conditions of 4, 3, and 2 mm/day were applied on black poly-mulched and bare ridges. Data on soil conditions—soil temperature, as well as meteorological variables, including solar radiation and temperature—were measured using thermocouple sensors and micro-hobo weather stations, respectively, during the tomato cultivation, while yield components—growth, yield, water productivity, and sugar content—were determined after harvest. The results of a two-way ANOVA show that irrigation conditions with poly-mulching reduced the weed biomass significantly, and improved yields and water use efficiency compared to the irrigation conditions on bare ridges. The application of 4, 3, and 2 mm/day irrigation with poly-mulching significantly reduced the weed biomass by 5% compared to the same irrigation conditions on bare ridges. Similarly, 4 and 3 mm/day irrigation conditions with poly-mulching significantly increased the tomato yield by 5% compared to 2 mm/day on bare ridges. The bigger roots were concentrated and widely distributed at the shallow soil depth (0–20 cm) of the ridges with high irrigation amounts, while the small and thin roots were in deeper soil layers (30–45 cm). This study provides scientific knowledge on the application of predetermined irrigation conditions that can be (i) integrated into irrigation scheduling and (ii) adopted for regions facing water scarcity and limited or no in situ meteorological data, to improve water use efficiency for vegetable cultivation.
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Claims 8
Claim · model-written summary
Irrigation with poly-mulching reduced weed biomass relative to bare ridges.
- Taxon
- tomato
Solanum lycopersicume1 - Treatment
- irrigation conditions with poly-mulchinge0
- Interactor
- weede0weed
- Outcome
- weed biomasse0
- Direction
- reducede0
- Comparator
- irrigation conditions on bare ridgese0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“irrigation conditions with poly-mulching reduced the weed biomass significantly, and improved yields and water use efficiency compared to the irrigation conditions on bare ridges”
e1“tomato yields”
Claim · model-written summary
Irrigation with poly-mulching improved yields relative to bare ridges.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicume1
- Treatment
- irrigation conditions with poly-mulchinge0
- Outcome
- yieldse0
- Direction
- improvede0
- Comparator
- irrigation conditions on bare ridgese0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“irrigation conditions with poly-mulching reduced the weed biomass significantly, and improved yields and water use efficiency compared to the irrigation conditions on bare ridges”
e1“tomato yields”
Claim · model-written summary
Irrigation with poly-mulching improved water use efficiency relative to bare ridges.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicume1
- Treatment
- irrigation conditions with poly-mulchinge0
- Outcome
- water use efficiencye0
- Direction
- improvede0
- Comparator
- irrigation conditions on bare ridgese0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“irrigation conditions with poly-mulching reduced the weed biomass significantly, and improved yields and water use efficiency compared to the irrigation conditions on bare ridges”
e1“tomato yields”
Claim · model-written summary
At 4, 3, and 2 mm/day, irrigation with poly-mulching reduced weed biomass by 5% relative to matching bare ridges.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicume1
- Treatment
- 4, 3, and 2 mm/day irrigation with poly-mulchinge0
- Interactor
- weede0weed
- Outcome
- weed biomasse0
- Direction
- reducede0
- Value
- 5%e0
- Comparator
- the same irrigation conditions on bare ridgese0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“The application of 4, 3, and 2 mm/day irrigation with poly-mulching significantly reduced the weed biomass by 5% compared to the same irrigation conditions on bare ridges”
e1“tomato yields”
Claim · model-written summary
Poly-mulched irrigation at 4 and 3 mm/day increased tomato yield by 5% relative to 2 mm/day on bare ridges.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicume0
- Treatment
- 4 and 3 mm/day irrigation conditions with poly-mulchinge0
- Outcome
- tomato yielde0
- Direction
- increasede0
- Value
- 5%e0
- Comparator
- 2 mm/day on bare ridgese0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“4 and 3 mm/day irrigation conditions with poly-mulching significantly increased the tomato yield by 5% compared to 2 mm/day on bare ridges”
Claim · model-written summary
With high irrigation, bigger tomato roots were concentrated in shallow ridge soil at 0–20 cm.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicume1
- Organ / stage
- rootse0
- Treatment
- high irrigation amountse0
- Outcome
- bigger roots were concentrated and widely distributede0
- Value
- 0–20 cme0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“The bigger roots were concentrated and widely distributed at the shallow soil depth (0–20 cm) of the ridges with high irrigation amounts”
e1“using drip irrigation for tomato cultivation”
Claim · model-written summary
Small, thin tomato roots occurred in deeper soil layers at 30–45 cm.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicume1
- Organ / stage
- rootse0
- Outcome
- small and thin rootse0
- Value
- 30–45 cme0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“the small and thin roots were in deeper soil layers (30–45 cm)”
e1“using drip irrigation for tomato cultivation”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors recommend predetermined irrigation conditions for scheduling in water-scarce regions to improve water use efficiency.
Verbatim
e0“application of predetermined irrigation conditions that can be (i) integrated into irrigation scheduling and (ii) adopted for regions facing water scarcity and limited or no in situ meteorological data, to improve water use efficiency for vegetable cultivation”
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