Precision irrigation of five years date palm trees (Majdool variety) by applying Hydrus-2D software: Jericho area/West Bank (occupied Palestinian territories)

In the West Bank, the agricultural sector accounts for the majority of water demand in the region. Where irrigated agriculture covers only 12% of the cultivated area of the West Bank it consumes around 65% of the total water resources. Most of the irrigated area of the Jordan Valley is under Majdool date palm trees, with a total number of about 250,000 trees, half of whom are younger than 5 y. Despite using drip irrigation, which is considered efficient and reduces water loss, improvement of the irrigation schedule can still be realized by a tailored management of the water demand of plants. In the Jordan Valley, the most important irrigated agricultural area in the West Bank, over-irrigation of the crops and trees is a common practice that causes the degradation of the groundwater aqui-fer systems. This study aims to use precise irrigation management to balance water demand with irrigation volumes to avoid water spillage. The Hydrus-2D package was used to develop an irrigation schedule for a 5 y date palm old. Model simulations show that farmers can schedule irrigation with less than the recommended volume of 20 m³/tree·y. By applying around 46% of the currently recommended volume, similar production levels could be obtained in terms of yield and biomass. We conclude that using precision irrigation scheduling, the water demand per tree reduces to a recommended rate of about 12.5 m³/tree·y increasing crop water productivity up to 2.63 kg/m³ as opposed to 1.66 kg/m³ with the traditional irrigation schedule. Additionally, less water drains beneath the root zone.