ASSESSMENT OF THE WATER NEEDS OF APRICOT AND OLIVE CROPS UNDER ARID CLIMATIC CONDITIONS: CASE STUDY OF TINIBAOUINE REGION (NORTHEAST OF ALGERIA)

Abstract

The Tinibaouine region, located in north-eastern Algeria on the borders of the Batna-Belezma
Mountains, is characterized by a semi-arid to arid climate with an average annual rainfall not exceeding 465
mm and an average annual temperature of around 22 ° C. This region is characterized by the cultivation of
apricots as essential crop followed by that of olives, whose plots are all irrigated with the Tinibaouine spring
water. These are 450 Ha of trees for apricot and 108 Hectare for olives which constitute the principal revenue
of the citizens of this small village. This paper estimated the crop reference and actual evapotranspiration
(ETO) respectively and the irrigation water requirement of apricot trees and olive trees. The long recorded
climatic data, crop and soil data, effective water allocation and planning, the information about crop water
requirements, irrigation withdrawals were computed with the Cropwat model which is based on the United
Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Penman-Monteith method was used to estimate ETo.
Crop coefficients (Kc) from the phenomenological stages of apricot and olive were applied to adjust and
estimate the actual evapotranspiration ETc through a water balance of the irrigation water requirements (IR).
The results showed that the annual reference evapotranspiration (ETO) was estimated at 3.71mm / day. The
irrigation requirements were estimated at 35800 m3/ hectare for apricot, 6980 m3/ hectare for olive, alsoIrrigation needs estimated onland at 14185, 05 m3/ hectare for olive and apricot.