Mole Drainage in Egyptian Salty Clay Soil
Abstract: Drainage system is one of the most important methods to manage soil
environment and water table situation. Agricultural salt affected heavy textured soils of poor productivity are commonly found throughout the northern periphery of the Nile Delta especially, the vicinity of northern lakes. Clay-salt affected soils are known to be difficult to manage. Mole drainage, on the specific soil type and done properly can help reduce waterlogging and salinity problems. This article aims to help for know some knowledge on effectiveness mole drains. Different experiments were done about mole drainage in Egyptian salty clay soil. The field trials area was situated at El-Serw agricultural Research Station, Agricultural Research Centre, in the Northeastern Delta. The region represents large areas in the north Delta and many parts in mid Delta and the Nile Valley. It is characterized by salt-affected clay soils with a permanent highly saline shallow groundwater table. It has approximate altitude of 0 m above Mean Sea Level. A characteristic feature of the soil is many shallow and deep cracks and hard clods are developed when drying. (i) Open drains in conjunction with moling: The study was carried out on open field drains involving two spacing treatments 20 and 40. Later, moling was executed perpendicular to the field drains. The objective of this article is to follow the extent of soil desalinization obtained with the above drainage practices, along 5 cropping seasons. (ii). An area of 5 feddans (1 feddan = 4200 m2) was chosen. The field is characterized by high clay content (average 63 % up to 90cm depth). The subsoil up to 3.0 m is also clay. The hydraulic conductivity (K) is considered low permeable (<10 cm/ day). The average initial state of ground water salinity is 39 dS/m at 40 cm depth. An experimental field was designed with different treatments of mole drain spacing 0, 1.5, 2.0 and 3.0m combined without or with gypsum addition. Rice was cultivated in each summer of years 2000 to 2004. All agricultural practices are similar to that in neighbour fields. Irrigation water salinity (EC)ranges from 1.5 to 2.0 dS /m. Generally, results indicate that drainage treatments have an attractive effect on lowering the water table, for the most part under narrow spacing between drains combined with mole lines and hydraulic connection. Increasing downward water movement after irrigation gives the chance for the effective root zone to dry, shrink and form water pathways
Publication year 2012
Availability location Drainage Research Institute, National Center for Water Researches
Availability number
Organization Name
City Cairo
serial title 11th ICID International Drainage Workshop on Agricultural Drainage Needs and Future Priorities, Cairo, Egypt September 23 – 27, 2012
Author(s) from ARC
External authors (outside ARC)
    مديحة حسن الحكيم
    على سيد على عبدالموجود كلية الزراعة - جامعة الأزهر فرع أسيوط
    محمد بدر الشويخ
    محمد محمد إسماعيل (المؤلف السادس)
Agris Categories Agricultural research
AGROVOC
TERMS		 Clay soils. Drainage systems.
Proposed Agrovoc Mole drains;Shallow Watertable;Saline water table;
Publication Type Conference/Workshop
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