Assessment of sugar beet agricultural practices for sustainable production under semi-arid environments

Two experiments were conducted over two growing seasons (2021/2022 and 2022/2023) in the South of Alamein Region (Moghra), Matrouh Governorate, Egypt, to evaluate the effects of soil covering, planting methods and sugar beet varieties on growth, yield, quality traits and water use efficiency (WUE). Treatments included two soil coverings (black polyethylene mulch vs. no mulch), two planting methods (manual vs. small planter) and four sugar beet varieties (two monogerm: Slama and Gustav, and two multigerm: Faten and Halawa). Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to identify key traits contributing to performance differences. Black polyethylene mulch significantly improved germination, growth, sucrose content, extractable sugar percentage, root yield, sugar yield and WUE compared to no mulch. Similarly, planting with small machinery outperformed manual planting. Among the varieties, Gustav and Halawa showed superior performance across seasons. PCA revealed that the first three components explained 92.15% of the total variation. PCA1 (55.3% variation) identified root yield and WUE for sugar yield as critical traits, while PCA2 (88.56% variation) highlighted leaf area index and sugar yield. These findings suggest that black polyethylene mulch, mechanized planting and high-performing varieties like Gustav and Halawa enhance sugar beet productivity and resource efficiency. Future research should explore eco-friendly alternatives to plastic mulch and evaluate the long-term impacts of mechanized planting and mulching in semi-arid agriculture.