Effect of drip and furrow irrigation at different irrigation levels on water use efficiency and economics of maize (Zea Mays L.) at Werer, Middle Awash, Ethiopia

Abstract

Water is a vital resource to sustain civilizations and pecuniary development and most importantly agriculture. Agriculture is the main contributor to the Ethiopian economy. The field experiment was conducted at Werer Agricultural Research center to evaluate the effects of drip and furrow irrigation under different irrigation levels on maize water use efficiency. The experiment was laid out in an RCBD split-plot arrangement where drip and furrow irrigations were assigned as the main plot and irrigation levels (100, 85, 70, and 55% of ETc) were assigned in the subplot arrangement with three blocks. The highest seasonal water requirement of maize was 701.7 mm at 100% ETc under conventional furrow irrigation which is considered as control while the lowest was 321.6 mm at 55% ETc under alternative furrow irrigation. The interaction effects of irrigation systems and irrigation levels have shown a highly significant (p<0.01) effect on water use efficiency. The highest (2.38 kg/m 3 ) and the lowest (0.60kg/m 3 ) water use efficiency were recorded from the plots treated with drip irrigation at 100% ETc and conventional furrow irrigation at 100% ETc treatments, respectively. In terms of water use efficiency and economic prominence, irrigating with a drip irrigation system with 100% ETc can be recommended for the production of maize in the study area.

Response of Winter Wheat Production to Climate Change in Ziway Lake Basin

“…Irrigation water productivity (IWP) is the yield produced per unit of irrigation water use [70]. It is a comprehensive indicator that reveals the level of irrigation and crop management [33,68]. IWP is estimated as:…”

“…Field experiments help to examine crops' response in terms of yield and crop water productivity in real-world settings [32,33]. However, they are time-consuming, expensive, and difficult to maintain over extended periods of time such as for climate change studies.…”

“…Instead, process-based crop models can be considered. Crop models simulate the effects of irrigation management techniques under longterm interannual climatic variability that includes a future climate change [3,32,33,[35][36][37][38]. Process-based simulation models that incorporate current and future climatic conditions, such as CO 2 concentration, temperature, and rainfall variations generated by global climate models (GCMs), have been widely used for crop production and assessments [35,36].…”

Interactive effect of nitrogen and irrigation on evapotranspiration, growth, yield and water productivity of subsurface drip‐irrigated spring maize: Field and simulation studies

“…Therefore, now, the major focus is to maximize water productivity through microirrigation (Ali & Talukder, 2008; Dar et al, 2017; Fumagalli et al, 2014; Kumari et al, 2014). In maize, surface drip irrigation is considered a viable option for efficient irrigation management, saving 20% of irrigation water (Kaur, 2013) compared to the conventional practice of flooding without any yield penalty. However, the adoption of surface drip irrigation remains a challenge as laterals interfere with cultivation practices.…”

“…The CERES‐Maize model in the framework of the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) (Jones et al, 2003) has been used to optimize irrigation and nitrogen management in maize (Jiang et al, 2016; Kaur & Arora, 2018; Panda et al, 2004). Most of these studies on modelling the combined effect of irrigation and nitrogen management on the water balance components and water productivity of spring maize in Punjab were conducted under conventional furrow irrigation (Kaur & Arora, 2019) systems and surface drip irrigation (Kaur, 2013). However, under SDI systems, information on modelling the combined effects of the amount and frequency of nitrogen and irrigation on the water productivity and water balance components of spring maize is limited.…”