Abstract
Scarcity of water is the most severe constraint for sustainable development of agriculture in arid and semi-arid areas. Hence, novel irrigation water application systems need to be developed so that high crop yield and water productivity per unit of land can be increased. Thus, the field experiment was conducted with the objective of determining the effect of different soil moisture depletion levels on yield and water use efficiency of sorghum crop in Benna-Tsemay woreda at Enchete kebele, Southern Ethiopia. The experiment was conducted for two consecutive years (2019-2020). It was arranged in RCBD with three replications and treatment was rated for five levels of available soil moisture depletion (ASMD), where T1 = 60%, T2 = 80%, T3 = 100%, T4 = 120%, and T5 = 140% of ASMD. Analysis of variance has shown that yield and water use efficiency of sorghum crop was significantly (P < 0.05) affected by irrigation scheduling. As observed in this study, the most economically attractive and environmentally accepted for small scale farmers with tolerable cost of production and higher net benefit was obtained by application of T3 (100% ASMD) under conventional furrow irrigation system. Therefore, for this particular sorghum crop (teshale variety), it could be concluded that increased water saving and water productivity through irrigation at 100% ASMD under conventional furrow irrigation system can solve the problem of water shortage and would ensure the opportunity of further irrigation development in the study area and similar agro-ecology. Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. Tech. 11(2): 95-102, Dec 2021
Highlights
In low land areas of Ethiopia, irrigated agriculture is becoming main concern and strongly recognized to ensure the food security, which is taken as a means to increase food production and self-sufficiency of the rapidly increasing population of the country
The most economically attractive and environmentally accepted for small scale farmers with tolerable cost of production and higher net benefit was obtained by application of T3 (100% available soil moisture depletion (ASMD)) under conventional furrow irrigation system
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of different soil moisture depletion levels on yield and water use efficiency of sorghum crop
Summary
In low land areas of Ethiopia, irrigated agriculture is becoming main concern and strongly recognized to ensure the food security, which is taken as a means to increase food production and self-sufficiency of the rapidly increasing population of the country. Ethiopia has planned to irrigate over 5 million hectares of the land with existing water resources (Awulachew et al, 2010) This expansion of irrigated agriculture to feed the ever-increasing population on one hand and the increasing competition for water due to the development of other water use sectors on the other hand necessitated the improvement of water use efficiencies in irrigated agriculture to ensure sustained production and conservation of this limited resource (Mekonen, 2011). As argued by the Geerts and Raes (2009), and FAO (2010), increasing crop water productivity can be an important pathway for poverty reduction. This would enable growing more food and gaining more benefits with less water enhancing the household income
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