Using Different Emitter Types on Corn Productivity as Affected by its Uniformity

The influence of discharge uniformity was investigated experimentally for different emitter types and pressure on corn productivity and field water use efficiency ( FWUE ) under trickle irrigation system. Three emitters used in the study were pressure compensating " Em PC ", Turbulent flow " Em TF " and Laminar flow " Em LF " under five different pressures (0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1.00 and 1.25 bar) with lateral lengths 50 m. Parameters of uniformity including uniformity emission, emitter flow rate variation and manufacture’s coefficient were measured. The results indicated that the best parameters of uniformity will give the best crop productivity. The better uniformity was pressure compensating " Em PC " emitter compared with turbulent flow and then laminar flow devices. The Em PC device gave the best yield productivity which reached 3.856 Mg fed -1 with 96.87 % uniformity of emission ( UE, % ) at pressure 1.0 bar and the highest value of FWUE at 1.41 kg m -3 . The maximum yield with Em PC device compared with the other devices increased an increase of 8.92% and 16.68% of Em TF and Em LF devices respectively. It was recommended to use Em PC emitter at pressure of 1.0 bar for lateral lengths of 50 m, which gives the highest uniformity that will impact on corn productivity.