To assess the effect of different water application schedules on the growth and yield of lettuce (Lactuca sativa var. crispa), a field experiment was carried out at Golinga Irrigation Site. Four treatments were laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design in four replications. The treatments were; TRT1 (adlib application by farmers), TRT2 (100% of the daily ETc applied only in the morning at each growth stage), TRT3 (100% of the daily ETc applied only in the evening at each growth stage) and TRT4 (100% ETc split: 50% of the daily ETc applied in the morning and the other 50% applied in the evening at each growth stage). The daily crop water requirement (ETc) of the crop was calculated for the four stages of growth using the CROPWAT software bearing in mind the area of each bed (16m 2). The data was analyzed using the Genstat Software. The results revealed that plants grown in the TRT4 grew healthier and recorded the highest plant height (23.3cm), number of leaves (9), leaf spread (25.03cm), leaf area index (5.25), and fresh matter weight of leaf (43.0g), yield (28.3t/ha) and water productivity (7.2kg/m). Plants grown in TRT3 recorded the least values for plant height (19.8cm), number of leaves (7), leaf spread (20.9cm), leaf area index (4.1), fresh matter weight of leaf (30.7g), yield (13.9t/ha) and water productivity (3.5kg/m 3). It is recommended that interested lettuce farmers could adopt TRT4 water application schedule since it gave the highest values in all the parameters used for data collection.
In the face of the negative impacts of climate change and the accelerated growth of the global population, precision irrigation is important to conserve water resources, improve rice productivity and promote overall efficient rice cultivation, as rice is a rather water-intensive crop than other crops. For several decades, various water conserving technologies have been studied in order to significantly increase water use efficiency (WUE). The objective of this paper is to review the main technologies and approaches for assessing the water requirements of rice crop in order to contribute to water saving in irrigated rice production, after clarifying the performance indicators of the irrigated systems. Several scientific articles from previous studies were consulted and analyzed. These studies showed that irrigation water conservation includes a wide range of practices, staring from the crop irrigation water requirements assessment to the implementation of the water saving practices on the field. In addition, irrigation water conservation technologies could be categorized into three groups, namely water-conserving irrigation systems, water-saving irrigation methods, and water-conserving agronomic practices. The influence of the individual and combined irrigation water use efficiency tools was highlighted. This paper will enable researchers to acquire knowledge on water-saving methods for estimating the rice crop water requirements and thus allow them to effectively contribute to improve the performance of irrigated rice cultivation systems using various water conservation technologies.
Assessing the suitability of soils for agricultural production is critical in promoting sustainable agriculture. Knowledge gained from soil suitability analysis provides the sound basis for making informed decisions about soil management and crop selection in a given area. In view of this, this study was carried out to assess the physical suitability of soils in the Libga Irrigation Scheme for the sustainable cultivation of jute mallow (Corchorus olitorius), tomato (Solanum lycoperscum L.) and cabbage (Brassica oleracea var capitata). Soil samples were collected at 0–30 cm and 30–60 cm depths from 50 geo-referenced points located at the nodes of a 100 m × 100 m regular grid. Particle size distribution, bulk density, total porosity, field capacity, permanent wilting point, available water capacity, saturated hydraulic conductivity, electrical conductivity and pH were determined following standard laboratory protocols at the AGSSIP Laboratory of the University for Development Studies, Nyankpala campus, Ghana. Weighting of soil properties was achieved through the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Soil suitability maps for the selected crops were produced using weighted overlay analysis in ArcGIS (10.5). The results showed that generally about 44.3 ha (76.4 %), 44.7 ha (82.2 %) and 55.7 ha (96.0 %) of the irrigation field are moderately suitable for jute mallow, tomato and cabbage production respectively. The major limiting factors for the crops were high BD and acidity levels. The AHP proved to be a very useful tool for the incorporation of farmers’ views into decision making about the suitability of soils for crop production.
The need for quality water in Africa for agriculture cannot be underemphasized amidst the current global water crises. The focus of this study sought to evaluate the quality of groundwater for irrigation purposes while unearthing the emerging challenges in the study area. In total, 202 groundwater samples were collected, and several parameters were tested. The study employed QGIS and multi-criteria decision analysis to examine zones of suitable groundwater quality for agriculture. Findings from the study indicate that the primary water types were Na–HCO3 and Ca–HCO3. The overall accuracy (OV) of the land use land cover (LULC) map using the Random Forest (RF) algorithm was 94.5%. The analysis revealed that SpH influences GpH at p = 0.02891 (p < 0.05) and SOM and SOC influence GNO3 at p = 0.044 (p < 0.05). The overlay analysis spatially classified the groundwater in the study area into three categories of suitability with ariel coverage showing areas of good quality (1,534.34 km2), moderate quality (1,933.35 km2), and poor quality (1,815.21 km2). The results from this study uncovered that 72.33% of the samples were within the desirable limits and can be concluded that the quality of groundwater in the area is acceptable for irrigation.
Presented in this paper is a feasibility study of groundwater for agricultural use (irrigation) in Northern Ghana. The study was conducted using Geo-electrical data, Boreholes drill logs, results of water quality, and results of the pumping test. The geo-electrical results were to unearth the lithology of the study area; it was found to be underlain with varying geology of both Precambrian and Paleozoic sedimentary formation. These formations consist of phyllite, schist, granite, meta-sediments, and meta-volcanics making up the Precambrian and sandstone, shale, siltstone, mudstones, granitiods also, of the Paleozoic sedimentary. Areas of low resistivity were targeted for drilling per the geophysical results of the profile, values between 24 and 100 ohm.m were zones of probable groundwater occurrence in the study. The groundwater storage capacity and the extractable storage capacity were estimated to be approximately 710,000 km3 and 290,000 km3. The pumping test results acquired from 81 boreholes from the study were used to analyze the sustainability and otherwise. However, groundwater depth was studied using the Static water level (SWL), areas of SWL around 22 m and 25 m are likely to have a shallow depth whereas areas of 17 m would have deeper groundwater depth.
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