Field experiments were conducted at Tameia district, Fayoum Governorate, Egypt during 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 seasons to study the effect of salinity and drought on sugar beet yield and its components, yield quality and some water relations of the crop. To achieve these objectives, three soil salinity levels, i.e. S1:4.0, S2: 9.8 and S3: 13.5 dS/m were combined with three irrigation regimes, i.e. irrigation at (I1): 35%, (I2):55% and (I3): 75% available soil moisture depletion (ASMD), in a split- plot design with four replications. The main obtained results were as follows:
1-Root length, root diameter, root weight, whole plant weight and fresh root yield/fed. were significantly affected by soil salinity levels and irrigation regime treatments in both seasons.
2-Soil salinity level of 4.0 dS/m and irrigation at 35% ASMD gave the highest root diameter and weight, whole plant weight and fresh root yield/fed. (23.50 and 26.0 t/fed. in 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 seasons, respectively). However, the lowest ones were detected from high salinity level (13.5 dS/m) and irrigation at 75%ASMD in both seasons.
3-Increasing soil salinity level over 4.0 dS/m or increasing ASMD from 35% to 55% or 75% significantly decreased root yield and its components in both seasons, except root length.
4-The highest sucrose percentages, i.e. 20.33 % and 19.47% and sugar beet yield , i.e. 4.77 and 5.06 t/ fed. were obtained from salinity level of 4.0 dS/m and irrigation at 35% ASMD in first and second seasons, respectively.
5-Seasonal consumptive use (ETc) averaged 58.53 and 59.75 cm in 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 seasons, respectively .Increasing soil salinity level from 4.0 to 13.5 dS/m and increasing ASMD from 35% to 75% decreased seasonal ETc from 61.82 and 61.44 cm to 55.55 and 55.70 cm in the two successive seasons .
6-Daily ETc rate started with low values, then increased during Dec., Jan., to reach its maximum values during March, then declined at April and May. The crop coefficient (Kc) during the growing season duration months from Oct., until May was 0.52, 0.71, 0.88, 1.14, 1.28, 1.08, 0.69 and 0.55, respectively, as an average of the two seasons.
7-The highest water use efficiency values, i.e. 8.58 and 9.28 kg fresh roots/m3 water consumed were obtained from soil salinity of 4.0 dS/m and irrigation at 35% ASMD in the two successive seasons