Abstract
A new soil water table management system called the Farm Oriented Enhancing Aquatic System (FOEAS) has recently received widespread attention in Japan. The system incorporates buried controllable porous tube irrigation and mole drainage. To evaluate the drainage and irrigation functions of FOEAS, we performed two-dimensional measurement of soil water content in field plots with two treatments: (1) FOEAS set to maintain a water table depth of 30 cm (FOEAS treatment), and (2) a control in which FOEAS (including drainage) was installed but irrigation functions were not activated (control). Measurements were conducted continuously for 2 years under soybean cultivation, and the fluctuations in soil water content were analyzed. Soil water contents of FOEAS treatment and control were same in 2011, and that of FOEAS treatment was higher than that of control in 2012. Both treatments performed well with respect to drainage ability even though above-average precipitation was received in both years. For the FOEAS treatment, irrigation was applied successfully and the water table was maintained at 30 cm. However, this did not result in a significantly higher soybean yield.
