The general purpose of research is to improve the efficiency of onions drip irrigation due to justification of agromeliorative conditions and agricultural methods of cultivation fully taking into account their impact on water consumption and water resources efficiency in yield development. In accordance with the purpose of research the program includes the solution of three complex tasks: justification of soil layer thickness with controlled water regime on account of vegetation drip irrigation, justification of water-saving method of planting onions at drip irrigation and assessment the possibility of using the bed technology in onions cultivation to meet the requirements of resource-saving agricultural technologies. As a methodological basis of research the method of field experiment has been accepted. According to the results of the experiment it’s been revealed that the conditions of plants water nutrition and elements of onions cultivation have a significant effect on water consumption, productivity and water use efficiency under drip irrigation. Water for onion cultivation is consumed most effectively (47.6 cubic meter per ton) in furrows with 6 or 8 line sowing and the implementation of drip irrigation schedule based on the maintenance of a specified threshold (80–70 % IR) of preirrigation soil moisture in the layer to 0.4 m. Experiments have also shown that onion sowing in the areas of these variants are characterized by the highest consumptive water use (5370–5580 cubic meter per hectare), and the rational use of water resources is ensured by the formation of the highest yields, which reached 114.7–115.3 t/ha. Usage of determined regularities allows to create high-efficiency projects of onions cultivation with drip irrigation to yield over 110 t/ha of commercial products by reasonable utilization of water resources in yield formation.
Keywords: onion, drip irrigation, water consumption, water-saving, efficiency, cultivation techniques.
