Abstract
Crop production in Ethiopia is largely dominated by rain-fed agriculture, which is suffered by climate change, due to occurrence of erratic rain falls. Therefore, it should be supplemented with irrigation; unless it is difficult to supply food for extremely growing country’s food demands. To alleviate such problems, Jimma irrigation research departments conducted a number of experiments to improve crop productivity as well as water use efficiency with minimum yield penalty at the expense of water saving at different climatic condition of southwestern Ethiopia. Therefore, the objective of this review is to analyze best research findings and technologies that were checked at different locations. Among promising results, deficit irrigation, inducing moisture stress at different growth stages of crops, supplemental irrigation, integrated use of mulching with deficit irrigation, mineral fertilization (Phosphorous and Nitrogen) vis irrigation, and irrigation scheduling are the major one. Accordingly, optimum yield of maize was reported when it was irrigated at alternate furrow method, is preferably good when irrigation amount is not less than 75% ETc, which saved about 50% of water over conventional furrows 100% ETc. Then the saved water used to irrigate additional piece of land. The other irrigation strategy is skipping irrigation in less sensitive stage of crops, the report comes from Haru ( Gimbi area) indicated that skipping irrigation during initial and late season had minimum impacts on maize yields, with 50% water saving as compared to all stage irrigated maize. In addition to reducing the amount of water significantly, the cover crop could play significant role in reducing soil evaporation. For instance, the experiment conducted at Haru showed that alternate furrow mulched with plastic mulch provided highest potato yield over non-mulched. Most of time, the fertilizer recommendation made for rain fed agriculture does not work for irrigated agriculture. The full irrigation (100% ETc) combined with 46 kg/ha phosphorous in soybean provided highest yield. However, increasing the amount of phosphorous fertilizer beyond this level did not increase the yield even if the field receives enough moisture. Finally, the future research direction should focus on water saving together with optimized fertilization through liquid water, and integrated with water harvesting in areas with limited water source either physical or economical. Keywords: Deficit Irrigation, Moisture Stress and Irrigation Scheduling DOI: 10.7176/JRDM/78-01 Publication date: August 31 st 2021
Highlights
The economy of Ethiopia is majorly dependant on agriculture; highly affected by frequent recurrent drought, which reduces agricultural production
Deficit irrigation is water saving irrigation strategy, in which irrigation water is applied at amounts less than full crop water requirement, there by increases water use efficiency
Yield Response of crops to Deficit irrigation Deficit irrigation is water saving irrigation strategy used in many parts of the world in which irrigation water is applied at amounts less than full crop water requirement, there by increases water use efficiency (Morison, 2008)
Summary
The economy of Ethiopia is majorly dependant on agriculture; highly affected by frequent recurrent drought, which reduces agricultural production. From a year total rainfall, about 71% received during only four months, and the rest during eight months, which is less than reference evapotranspiration This tells us, necessity of supplemental irrigation during these dry spells. Connection with this, the amount of river water become declined, in addition, most river not physically avail due to topographic barrier or not diverted, to overcome this problems farmer use diesel pump to bring water to command areas which require fuel cost. Having these all problems in mind, generating efficient irrigation water management technologies and practices provided immense merit in improving crop yield and water productivity. Irrigating crops with 100 %ETc at alternate furrow saves 50% water and this used for further production (Robel et al, 2019)
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