[01] Hassan Elhaj Hamed Alsayim, Department of Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Nile Valley University, Darmali, Sudan.

The study was conducted during winter season 2019/2020, under desert high terrace soil in the eastern bank of the Atbara River. The growing adoption of modern irrigation systems, especially center pivot irrigation systems, requires the necessity of knowing the efficient use during operation, and thus identifying the characteristics of water distribution under these systems. The experimental units consist of four center pivot sprinkler irrigation systems. The climate is semi-desert with warm winters. The result for evapotranspiration using Penman-Monteith ranged from 5.69 to 6.26 mm/day for November and December, then alfalfa crop (Medicago sativa) consumptive use was 6.14 to 6.89 mm/day, respectively. The results for sprinkler (nozzles) configuration represented 27.4, 35.8, 50.3 and 38.0% of the total sprinklers were installed without spray nozzles for the systems 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively. The uniformity coefficients (CU) were 87.1, 80.0, 84.1, and 83.4% at a rotational speed of 50% for the irrigation systems 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively. Distribution uniformity (DU) values were ranged from 68.7 to 75.3%. Application efficiency (AE) ranged from 93.2 to 98.3% and the potential efficiency of low quarter (PELQ) values ranged from 64.8 to 72.2%. The results showed that, hydraulic performance of CU, DU and PELQ for the centre pivot systems were affected by the different management practices gave an indication of non-compliance with the design specifications regarding the arrangement and distribution of sprinklers which leads to an unacceptable irrigation scheduling.

Centre Pivot System, Irrigation, Technical Performance Evaluation

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