FUTURE OF MAGNETIC AGRICULTURE IN ARID AND SEMI ARID REGIONS (CASE STUDY)

A great challenge for the agricultural sector is to produce more food from less water, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions which suffer from water scarcity. Utilization of magnetic water technology is considered as a promising technique to improve water use efficiency and crop productivity. Two field trials using wheat (Var. sakha-93), faba bean (var., nubaria-1 ), chick-pea (var. giza-3) , lentil (var. Giza-9), canola (var. sero-6) and flax (var. sakha-1) were conducted at Research and Production Station, National Research Centre, Alemam Malek village, Al Nubaria district, Al Behaira Governorate, Egypt in 2009/10 and 2010/11 winter seasons to study and evaluate the effects of magnetizing irrigation water on growth, yield and yield components of mentioned winter crops. The results showed significant positive effect of magnetic treatment on all studied parameters. The percent of increase in economic yield (ton ha-1 ) in response to magnetized water application reached to 13.71% at wheat, 8.25% at faba bean, 21.8% at chick pea, 29.53% at lentil, 36.02% at canola, 22.37% at flax and 19.05% at sugar beet crop as compared with normal water application. Similar trend was obtained for water use efficiency was. It appears that utilization of magnetized water can led to improve yield and water productivity of tested crops under newly reclaimed sand soil. So, using magnetic water treatment could be a promising technique for agricultural improvements but we need extensive research in this field.