Effect of Irrigation Methods and Irrigation Levels on Yield and Water Productivity of Onion at Awash Melkasa, Ethiopia

Abstract

Water is scarce resource in Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia and is major limiting factor for crop production. The field experiment was conducted in 2018 at Melkasa Agricultural Research Center during the off-season to identify irrigation method and irrigation application level that maximizes productivity of onion per unit of water consumed and enhanced onion crop production. The experiment was carried out using split plot design in RCBD having three replications. The experiment consisted of two irrigation methods viz., furrow and drip irrigation as main plot and three levels of manageable allowable depletion viz., 120%, 100% and 80% as sub-plot. The ANOVA revealed that their interaction had a significant (p<0.01) effect on bulb diameter, total bulb yield, marketable bulb yield and water productivity. The maximum total bulb yield (41.76 t/ha), marketable bulb yield (38.39 t/ha), bulb diameter (6.02 cm) and water productivity (13.05 kg/m 3 ) were observed from drip irrigation method at 80% management allowed depletion application, while significantly lower of 34.48 t/kg, 31.6 t/ha, 5.11 cm, and 6.84 kg/m 3 respectively were recorded from furrow irrigation method at 120% management allowed depletion application. Among all tested treatments drip irrigation method with 80% MAD was the best practice because of its high yield, water productivity.

Modelling land suitability and development potential options for irrigable and rainfed agricultural scenarios in Ethiopia

“…Irrigation programs, both large‐scale and small‐scale, are a crucial method for ensuring food security by enhancing resilience to climate change, containment degradation and eventually gains in household incomes (Amede, 2015; Assefa et al, 2020; Tesfaye et al, 2021). Future irrigation will face a significant problem in producing more food with less water resources because Ethiopia frequently has low water productivity (Ambomsa et al, 2020; Derib et al, 2011).…”

“…Irrigation programs, both large-scale and small-scale, are a crucial method for ensuring food security by enhancing resilience to climate change, containment degradation and eventually gains in household incomes (Amede, 2015;Assefa et al, 2020;Tesfaye et al, 2021). Future irrigation will face a significant problem in producing more food with less water resources because Ethiopia frequently has low water productivity (Ambomsa et al, 2020;Derib et al, 2011). However, according to Lebdi (2016), agricultural production in Africa that uses irrigation systems is still expanding gradually and has not yet contributed significantly to addressing the supply-demand mismatch in food production.…”

Geospatial analyses to identify suitable land and development potential options for irrigation and rainfed agriculture scenarios, Ethiopia

“…Both large-scale and smallholders' irrigation programs are key strategies to achieving food security by resilience to climate change adaption (Amede, 2015;Assefa et al, 2020;Tesfaye et al, 2021) and mitigation and then improving household income and livelihoods of the society. Growing more food with less water by increasing agricultural productivity is the main challenge the future irrigation, which is often characterized by low water productivity in Ethiopia (Ambomsa et al, 2020;Derib et al, 2011).…”