Belaqziz S. auteur aut IRD Khabba S. auteur aut IRD Er-Raki S. auteur aut IRD Jarlan Lionel auteur aut IRD Le Page M. auteur aut IRD Kharrou M. H. auteur aut IRD El Adnani M. auteur aut IRD Chehbouni Abdelghani auteur aut IRD text journalArticle eng text/pdf born digital access Irrigation scheduling has become an important tool that significantly influences growth, development and production of crops, especially in arid and semi-arid regions of the South Mediterranean. In these regions, most of the irrigation scheduling of the gravity irrigation networks are not optimized in terms of timing and water quantity. In this paper, we present a way of characterizing the irrigation distribution by the extensively used irrigation systems through a new irrigation index: the "irrigation priority index" (IPI). This normalized indicator takes into account the water stress coefficient and the time of irrigation with regard to the duration of an irrigation round. The IPI ranges between -1 and 1 and decreases with irrigation priority. The IPI was used to evaluate the actual irrigation scheduling in an irrigated perimeter of 2800 ha of Tensift Al Haouz plain close to Marrakech in Morocco during the 2002-2003 winter wheat season. The obtained results showed that about 32% of the R3 zone plots receive late irrigation, when the stress was maximum (IPI less than -0.3). The sensitivity of grain yield to the IPI values was evaluated on a data set of wheat yields acquired on the 2008-2009 season. The spatial yield was simply calculated using a linear relationship between wheat yields and the spatial accumulated NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) of the last 10 days of March (R-2 = 0.84). The result showed a clear relationship between grain yield and [PI. Indeed, with significantly positive IPI10.37, 0.63], production ranged from 3.8 to 4.7 t/ha, whereas, it was less than 2.6 t/ha when the IPI values are ranged from -0.52 to -0.16. specialized Gravity irrigation network Irrigation priority index Remote sensing Yield Wheat 062 126 076 119 1-9 2013 0378-3774 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010060826 10.1016/j.agwat.2012.12.011 0378-3774 [F B010060826] https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010060826 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/intranet/publi/2013/05/010060826.pdf Accès réservé (Intranet de l'IRD) IRD - Base Horizon / Pleins textes 2013-05-31 2017-08-23 fdi:010060826 fre