Author : Varela, Benjamin Dy

Summary : In recent years, surface and even subsurface water resources supply have become insufficient for the irrigation of our farmlands, leaving a lot of them uncultivated especially during the dry season. In the other regions of the world, this problem was successfully addressed by the practice of deficit irrigation which conserved water, increased the opportunity cost of water and most importantly, enhanced the sustainability of crop production. Deficit irrigation is the parctice of reducing the volume of irrigation water applied to plants in order to increase the area of land under irrigation. A field experiment was conducted to quantify the effects of the level and timing of deficit irrigation on the increase of plant height, dry matter production, yield and yield components and water-use efficiency of soybean plants; to know how the length of the growing season of soybean plants was affected by deficit irrigation; to determine which of the yeidl components was responsible for the increase/decrease in grain yield; and to determine the economic feasibility of practicing deficit irrigation for soybean production in Northern Samar.