Résumé
In the Senegal River delta, the expansion of irrigated land to meet the growing food demands, combined with the effects of climate change will lead to an increasing in the demand for agriculture water. Hence, it is essential to assess the agricultural water requirements of main crops in order to optimize the management of water resources and contribute to sustainable development in the delta. This study aims to evaluate the irrigation water requirements of the main crops of the Senegal river Delta. The determination of irrigation water requirements is based on the Penman–Monteith method, crop coefficient of the main crops, and irrigation efficiency. Data from NASA’s Prediction of Worldwide Energy Resources was used to calculate reference evapotranspiration. The spatial analysis of the crop water requirements was carried out using the inverse distance weighting method. The results showed that irrigation water requirements vary according to season, sowing date, and variety. In the hot dry season, the 115- and 125-day cycle Sahel varieties have irrigation water requirements ranging from 12,823 to 16,634 m
3
/ha. For the 150-day cycle varieties sown in the warm season, water requirements vary from 15,191 to 19,996 m
3
/ha. During the cold season, onions have irrigation water requirements that vary from 10,891 to 13,166 m
3
/ha. For tomato, they range from 8460 to 10,418 m
3
/ha. Irrigation water requirements increase gradually from the northwest to the northeast of the delta for all seasons and crops. This study could contribute to the development of strategies for optimizing irrigation water management based on sowing dates and crops.