Study of the technical performance of localized irrigation and its environmental and agroeconomic impact in the first areas of collective reconversion at the irrigated perimeter of the Tadla - Beni Moussa perimeter of the west – Morocco

¹ PhD student FST/ Sultan Moulay Slimane University, Beni Mellal, Morocco
² Professor at FST/ Sultan Moulay Slimane University, Beni Mellal, Morocco
³ Professor at FST/ Sultan Moulay Slimane University, Beni Mellal, Morocco

^* Corresponding author: mouradi_abdellah@yahoo.fr

Abstract

The evaluation of the performance of the localized irrigation system involved a selected sample of farmers to reflect the diversity of the study area. The hydraulic diagnosis revealed the absence of apparent malfunctioning anomalies of the installations studied (Coefficient of Distribution Uniformity ≥ 90% with average application efficiencies and overall of 90.54 and 86.83% respectively). In terms of the combined use of surface and underground irrigation water this new technique has saved about 30% compared to conventional irrigation. The agro-economic evaluation revealed that the crops practiced have high value-added and optimize the value of irrigation water. The environmental impact has resulted in an average drawdown of the static level of groundwater of 2.59 m due mainly to the new irrigation method introduced, which limited the percolation of water to the aquifer. The drip-to-drip transition resulted in an increase in salinity relative compared to the reference situation (+ 0.59 %, or 0.01 mS / cm) but to different degrees depending on the prospecting soil horizon. The practice of fertilization remains the major and probable cause of soil salinization of aquifers. The effect of soluble salts on the soil was investigated through the risks associated with sodium, which showed that the soil permeability problem does not arise at this time (SAR ≤ 15). The residual sodium carbonate remains less than 1.25 meq / l thus not causing soil dispersion.