Cotton Water Use Efficiency under Climate Change in Côte D'ivoire

The objective of the study was to identify water use efficiency (WUE) on cotton subjected to complementary irrigation in northern Côte d'Ivoire. Therefore, a weighted rain water loss coefficient, due to run off and deep percolation, was used. A four treatments trial has been set up. These were T0 (Untreated controls), T1 (Reference control), T2 (Innovation, supplemental irrigation and agro-pharmaceuticals), T3 (Irrigation without agro-pharmaceuticals). Thus, at cotton bolls weight level, WUE, analysis showed high significant difference between treatments (p<0.01). The results were respectively 0.361±0.012; 0.227±0.012; 0.031±0.012 and 0.025±0.012 kg/m3 for T2, T1, T3 and T0. Innovation WUE was like reference control one but 14.4 times higher than untreated control value. Similarly, balls’ average weight comparison showed a high significant difference between treatments. Results were 5.4±0.0614; 4.0±0.0614; 2.9±0.0614 and 2.6±0.0614 g/boll, respectively for T0, T1, T3 and T0. Innovation was 35% higher than reference control (p<0.01), while strait irrigated plots averaged 11.5% higher than untreated control (p<0.01). Thus, it appeared that water supplementation has improved bolls average weight.