GRAIN SORGHUM PRODUCTIVITY IN SANDY CALCAREOUS SOIL UNDER MODERN IRRIGATION SYSTEMS USING DIFFERENT LEVELS OF FARMYARD MANURE AND MINERAL NITROGEN FERTILIZER

This work was carried out at El-Wadi El-Assiuty farm, faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University,Egypte in 2003 and 2004 seasons to study the response of two grain sorghum genotypes (Dorado and Shandawil 6) to new systems of irrigation ( drip and sprinkler) and farmyard-mineral fertilizer in sandy calcareous soil. Each season contain two experiments. One experiment subjected to Drip irrigation and the other to Sprinkler one. Each experiment contained two variables in split plot design with three replications. The grain sorghum genotypes were assigned to main plots. The sub-plots were allocated to the farmyard-mineral fertilizer ( 0.0 ton farmayard manure + 190 kg N, 1.5 ton farmyard manure + 160 kg N, 3.0 ton farmyard manure + 130kgN, 4.5 ton farmyard manure + 100kgN, 6.0 ton farmyard manure+70kg N and 7.5 ton farmyard manure +40kg N/ha). The obtained results indicated that drip irrigation system surpassed sprinkler one in plant height (cm), panicle length and width (cm), panicle weight (g), grain yield per plant (g),1000-grain weight (g) as well as grain yield in kg/ha and water use efficiency (kg/m³). Otherwise, grain protein content was significantly decreased with drip irrigation system. Shandawil 6 genotype gained the highest values of all tested traits except grain protein content when compared with dorado one. F6 treatment of farmyard manure exhibited a highly significant effect in all studied traits in the two growing seasons. The second order interaction of farmyard manure x irrigation system x genotypes had a significant effect on  plant height, 100-grain weight, grain yield/plant and grain yield /ha The highest values of previous traits were gained when Shandawil 6 genotype was sowed under drip irrigation system and fertilized with f6 fertilizer treatment in both seasons.