DOI: https://doi.org/10.5513/JCEA01/26.4.4495

2025, 26 (4)   p. 915-926

Saeid SHIUKHY-SOQANLOO, Bahareh SHAMGANI MASHHADI

Abstract

Water resource depletion and recurrent drought events pose significant challenges to sustainable agricultural production, particularly in regions such as northern Iran. The study was carried out as a split-plot experiment arranged in a randomised complete block design with three replications over the 2022 and 2023 growing seasons in the Caspian Sea region, Sari, Iran. The experimental treatments consisted of three drought stress levels (non-stress (FC100), moderate (FC75), and severe (FC50))-as the main plot, and two irrigation source-urban wastewater (UWW) and well water (WW)-as the subplot. The results indicated that the highest plant height (119.5 cm), number of pods per plant (64), 100-seed weight (19.1 g), and grain yield (1109 kg/ha) were obtained under irrigation with UWW combined with FC100 conditions. In contrast, the lowest values for these traits, including plant height (93.8 cm), number of pods per plant (34.4), 100-seed weight (16.8 g), and grain yield (311 kg/ha), were recorded under WW irrigation and severe drought stress (FC50). Moreover, the highest water productivity (0.65 kg/m3) was achieved under UWW and FC100 conditions, while the lowest value (0.25 kg/m3) was observed under WW irrigation combined with FC50. Based on the results, the highest value of Fv/Fm (0.79), qP (0.99), and qN (0.06) was observed under FC100 conditions, whereas the lowest values for these parameters, 0.33, 0.83, and 0.03, respectively, were observed under severe stress (FC50). It can be concluded that the use of urban wastewater for irrigation represents a practical and feasible strategy to mitigate the adverse effects of drought stress during the soybean growing season.

Keywords

Caspian Sea, field capacity, pod number, non-conventional waters, water scarcity

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