## 3 Results
### Impact of Less Water Applied than Regular Farmer Practice  
The imposition of deliberate moderate summer water deficits over three growing seasons resulted in negligible yield reductions (less than 5.7%), ranging from 0.47 Mg ha\({}^{-1}\) at site B in the 2021 season (D2) to 1.44 Mg ha\({}^{-1}\) at site A in the 2019 season (D1) (Figure 11). These differences were not significant statistically. The seasonal DM yields of site B and A in the corresponding seasons for the farmer irrigation practice were 26.2 and 27.7 Mg ha\({}^{-1}\), respectively. The average seasonal alfalfa DM yield of sites A-D for the plots under farmer irrigation practice was 26.8, 25.1, and 24.2 Mg ha\({}^{-1}\) in the 2019, 2020, and 2021 seasons, respectively.  
The modest yield reductions observed could be a consequence of reduced water distribution uniformity caused by deficit irrigation scenarios. Large-scale farming systems (furrow and borders with a longer length than 370 m) along with the use of surface irrigation methods could be the primary reasons for lower water distribution uniformity values over time and space while implementing water deficits practice. Farmers generally apply more water to achieve higher water distribution uniformity under check flood irrigation; however, even a moderate deficit irrigation strategy may reduce distribution uniformity, affecting alfalfa yields during the course of water deficit practice. A similar trend was found across all four experimental sites over the study seasons.  
The results demonstrated that 4 to 10% (0.038-0.124 (ha\(\cdot\)m) ha\({}^{-1}\)) of the seasonal irrigation water delivered to the alfalfa sites can be conserved by adopting moderate summer deficit irrigation strategies (Figure 12). 0.124 (ha\(\cdot\)m) ha\({}^{-1}\) is nearly 40% of the average water applied in irrigation farmer practices over the summer period. The average seasonal water applied at the sites A-D for the plots under farmer irrigation practice was 1.196, 1.168, and 1.150 (ha\(\cdot\)m) ha\({}^{-1}\) in the 2019, 2020, and 2021 seasons, respectively.  
The findings suggested that implementing the MDI strategies could serve as an effective water conservation tool and provide a reliable source of available water as well as sustain the economic viability of alfalfa production. Following this deficit irrigation strategy, one may lose up to 1.44 Mg ha\({}^{-1}\) DM yields due to conserving up to 0.124 (ha\(\cdot\)m) ha\({}^{-1}\) water. It needs to be noted that insignificant soil water depletion, non-crucial salt accumulation, and minor impacts on plant stands and hay quality could be expected due to adapting this moderate deficit irrigation practice in the region [1].  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c} \hline
**Cutting No.** & **1** & **2** & **3** & **4** & **5** & **6** & **7** & **8** \\ \hline \multicolumn{10}{c}{Water productivity (kg ha\({}^{-1}\) mm\({}^{-1}\))} \\ \hline Site B & 18.1 & 21.8 & 27.1 & 21.5 & 17.0 & 17.8 & 17.4 & 9.4 \\ Site C & 13.6 & 24.4 & 22.1 & 19.4 & 14.4 & 14.3 & 12.7 & 10.5 \\ Site D & 19.6 & 24.5 & 25.0 & 24.3 & 13.2 & 12.6 & 11.4 & 10.2 \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 3: Water productivity per each harvest cycle at sites B, C, and D over the 2019 season.  
Figure 11: Mean seasonal DM yield values for the moderate summer deficit irrigation strategies (D1: elimination of three irrigation events and D2: elimination of two irrigation events) and farmer irrigation practice (F) at site A through D over three crop seasons. Vertical bars indicate standard deviations. [PERSON]’s least significant difference (LSD) test was conducted between the DM yield values which the LSD values are demonstrated as the vertical bar. There is significant DM yield difference (\(p<0.05\)) between the sites and irrigation strategies that have a DM yield value difference greater than 3.71, 3.83, and 3.48 Mg ha\({}^{-1}\) yr\({}^{-1}\), in the 2019, 2020, 2021 seasons, respectively.