The Effect of Different Irrigation Levels with Urban Treated Wastewater on Yield and Water Use Efficiency of Corn in Pakdasht Region

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of irrigation with urban treated wastewater on yield, yield components and water use efficiency of maize (Single cultivar 704) at the research field of Aburaihan Campus, University of Tehran in Pakdasht during the year of 2017. The experiment was carried out as split plots and based on the randomized completely block design with main factor (type of irrigation water) and sub factor (three levels of water requirement) with three replications. Type of Irrigation treatments included well water and treated wastewater that were used in three levels of water requirement including 100 (D1), 75 (D2) and 55 (D3) percent of maize water requirement. The results showed that the type of applied water caused a significant difference in dry matter, so that the highest yield (2090.18 kg/ha) was obtained in wastewater treatment and the lowest yield (17231/15 kg/ha) was obtained in well water treatment. In terms of different amounts of water, the highest water use efficiency based on dry matter (3.52 kg/m3) was obtained by D1 treatment (100%) and the lowest ones (3.46 and 3.44 kg/m3) were obtained by D2 (75%) and D3 (55%) treatments, respectively. Analysis of variance showed that irrigation with urban treated wastewater had a significant effect on dry matter yield, ear length and water use efficiency based on dry matter. Therefore, the refined wastewater at level of 75% water requirement can be suggested as a suitable irrigation practice for corn in Pakdasht area.