The Enhancement of Sugar Beet Productivity through Condensed Molasses and Precision Irrigation in Reclaimed Soils

Mansour, Hani; Nofal, Osama; Gaballah, Maybelle; Hassan, Sherif; Qian, Li

doi:10.21608/ejss.2025.431264.2410

The Enhancement of Sugar Beet Productivity through Condensed Molasses and Precision Irrigation in Reclaimed Soils

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Water Relations and Field Irrigation Department, Agricultural & Biological Research Institute, National Research Centre

² Plant Nutrition Department, Agricultural & Biological Research Institute, National Research Centre

³ Institute of Automation, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences), No. 19 Keyuan Rd., Jinan China

10.21608/ejss.2025.431264.2410

Abstract

The study aimed at determining the influence of the foliar application of Condensed Molasses Solution (CMS) and two modern irrigation systems on the growth, yield and quality of sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) in the winter of 2019/2020 and 2020/ 2021 winter seasons at the Experimental Station of the National Research Centre, Nubaria, Egypt. CMS was used as a foliar spray at 0.0, 5.0, 10.0 and 15.0 g L-1 at 45 and 60 days after the sowing. Drip and sprinkler irrigation systems were compared in terms of their efficiency to help in improving crop performance. The findings revealed that there was a gradual improvement in all the measured parameters with rise in CMS concentrations such as sugar yield, total soluble solids (TSS), sucrose content, purity of juice, and percentage protein.
The real-time field data (soil moisture, weather patterns, and crop growth parameters), which allowed to create the smart irrigation scheduling model. Scheduling irrigation systems were associated with an improved productivity of irrigation water and decreased crop stress levels because it modifies irrigation schedules according to predictive analytics.
The best sugar yield (6.58 ton fed-1), TSS (20.6%), sucrose (19.6%), juice purity (90.3%), and protein level (7.19) were found in 15 g L-1 CMS under drip irrigation. Further, drip irrigation was always superior over sprinkler afternoon in enhancing sugar quality characteristics, although sprinkler irrigation had a bit greater biomass and protein accessibility. The results show that CMS and drip irrigation can be successfully used in combination to increase productivity and quality of technological sugar beet, which offers a viable method of management of the crop.

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