Evaluating the effect of irrigation water management techniques on (taro) madumbe (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott) grown with anaerobic filter (AF) effluent at Newlands, South Africa

Abstract

Abstract This study evaluated the effects of irrigation water management techniques on the growth and yield parameters of madumbe (Colocasia esculenta) irrigated with anaerobic filter (AF) effluent. The irrigation water management treatments considered were alternate wetting and drying (AWD), continuous flooding irrigation (CFI) and wetting without flooding (WWF). It was hypothesized that irrigation techniques with anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) effluent have a significant effect on the growth and yield of madumbe. The effects of the treatments were significant (P < 0.05) on the number of irrigation events, amount of irrigated water and daily water balance. The treatments had no effect on the growth parameters (plant height, leaf number and leaf area index (LAI) (P > 0.05)). The treatments effects were, however, highly significant (P < 0.001) on the yield components (biomass, corm mass, corm number, corm size, harvest index), corm yield and water productivity (WP). AWD treatments had the highest WP. The highest average corm yields of 7.5 and 9.84 t/ha for WWF treatments for 2017 and 2018 seasons were obtained. It is concluded from this study that both AWD and CFI resulted in yield reduction compared with WWF, and as such, is not recommended to improve the productivity of madumbe.