Abstract
Water availability is becoming a critical issue in Ethiopia in arid and semi-arid areas mainly in Rift Valley. Field experiment was carried out at Melkassa Agricultural Research Center, Ethiopia during growing season 2017/8 under furrow irrigation system and eight irrigation treatments replicated three times in a randomized complete block design. Hence, the objective of this study was to establish critical moisture stress threshold level for improving production and water productivity of irrigated onion under limited water resource condition. In the study, irrigation treatments consisted full supply of irrigation 100% ET C (control) and seven stress levels were imposed on onion nafis variety through growth stages. Obtained results revealed that, the highest seasonal water requirement value of 422.1 mm was by the 100% ET C while, the lowest value of 198.8 mm was by 40% ET C . Analysis of the data obtained showed significant (p<0.05) effects of soil moisture stress treatments on onion growth parameters. Analysis of the data obtained showed significant (p<0.05) effects of soil moisture stress treatments on onion bulb yield and yield components. The study revealed, yield response factor (Ky) for the onion was showed there is yield reduction as crop stressed. Highest Marginal rate of return was obtained from 70% ETc of 24914.3% and decrease to 90% ETc of 2155.4%.The study has concluded that moisture stress through growth stage significantly influenced onion bulb yield. Therefore, the critical stress level of the onion from this study could be irrigated at 75% ET C to increase WP without a significant yield reduction and economically visible. The study suggests that moisture stress strategy should be adopted for optimum yield and maximum water productivity without a significant yield reduction. Keywords: Deficit irrigation, furrow Irrigation, Moisture stress, Onion, Water productivity DOI: 10.7176/JNSR/13-3-02 Publication date: February 28 th 2022
Highlights
IntroductionWater is an essential natural gift to sustain life. Agriculture is the major consumer of freshwater (Gontia and Tiwari, 2010)
Onion (Allium cepa L.) is one of the most important cultivated vegetable crops commercially grown., it is widely cultivated as a source of income by many farmers in many parts of the country
According to the USDA soil textural classification, the particle size distribution of the experimental site revealed that the soil textural class is loam soil, which is suitable for onion
Summary
Water is an essential natural gift to sustain life. Agriculture is the major consumer of freshwater (Gontia and Tiwari, 2010). Irrigated agriculture makes a major contribution to food security, producing nearly 40% of food and agricultural commodities in the world with only 16% of cultivated land (Bos et al, 2008). Irrigated areas have almost doubled in recent decades and contributed much to the growth in agricultural productivity over the last 50 years. Irrigated agriculture uses more than 70% of the water withdrawn from the earth’s rivers; in developing countries, the proportion exceeds 80% (FAO, 2015). Ethiopia has enormous potential to produce the crop throughout the year both for domestic use and export market. Onion (Allium cepa L.) is one of the most important cultivated vegetable crops commercially grown., it is widely cultivated as a source of income by many farmers in many parts of the country. Onion production contributes to the commercialization of the rural economy and creates many off-farm jobs (Olani and Fikre, 2010). During the 2013/2014 cropping season, the total area under onion production was estimated to be 24, 375.7 ha with an average yield of about 9.02 tons per hectare and estimated total production of greater than 2 million tons (CSA, 2014)
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