October 2017 Vol. 5 No.10

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Jaghargh MR
Fatemi M

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Original Research Article

Optimization of Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Rainfed Wheat Planting Period: A Case Study in Mashhad- Chenaran Plain, Iran

¹Majid Rajabi Jaghargh, ²*Abolghasem Akbari and ³Seyed Mehdi Fatemi

¹Department of Water Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran
²Department of Water and Soil Management, Agricultural Organization of Khoraran Razavi, Mashhad, Iran
³Department of Water Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran

*Corresponding Author’s Email: akbariinbox@yahoo.com
Mobile: +989159110751
Office: +985137016234
 
Accepted October 20, 2017

Abstract

Climatology and crop climatic requirements analysis is one of the most important factors for crop efficiency. Considering the limited potential of rainfed farming in the Khorasan Razavi, lead us to optimized the rainfed wheat planting period. A comprehensive study based on long term dailyrainfall data was conducted. The main objective of this study is to determine the optimal time period of rainfed wheat cropping over the extent of Mashhad-Chenaran plain. The first rainfall event within the successive period of one or two rainy days with rainfall depth of equal and greater than 5 mm were determined for each water year in all the investigated rainfall stations. Then, the date of selected rainfall events was encoded based on the Julian calendar to generate a time series. Among different tested statistical distributions, Normal distribution was best fitted with maximum likelihood and considered as most appropriate distribution. From the best fitted distribution, the Julian-day of commencing rainfall with the probability 75% and 50% were identified. Then, areal distribution of the rainfall for the two investigated probability were determined using GIS tools. It was found that 21 Nov to 15 Dec and 11 Nov to 5 Dec are the most suitable time period for planting rainfed wheat in the investigated study area with the probability of 75% and 50% respectively.

Keywords: Wheat Planting, Mashhad- Chenaran Plain, Rainfed farming