Water requirement and efficiency of water use of irrigated sugarcane in semi-arid Brazil

The objective of this work was to accomplish an analysis of the water use efficiency in a production system of irrigated sugarcane located in the Lower-Middle Sao Francisco river basin, Brazil. Indicators based on the crop yield and the water application performance in the production system were used. These indicators were calculated through accumulated dry biomass, industrial yield data and through the values of reference evapotranspiration, crop evapotranspiration and the water volume that entered in the system by rain and irrigation (P+I). It was verified that, the highest water use efficiency of crop occured between 7th and 8th month, due to increase in the stalk biomass partition and radiation supply, and due to reduction of ETc in response tumbling of the plants. The used indicators demonstrated that the water demand of crop was adequately in relation to maximum evapotranspiration of crop. The irrigated sugarcane presented a production efficiency of 9.49 kg of stalks, 1.22 kg of sugar and 875.23 mL of alcohol per m(3) of ETc and of 5.36 kg of stalks, 0.69 kg of sugar and 494.14 mL of alcohol per m(3) of P+I.