Evaluation of Factors Driving Post-Harvest Losses among Arable Crop Farmers in Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria

Nigusie Abebe

doi:10.7176/jnsr/13-6-01

Abstract

The development of crop coefficients (KC), the ratio of crop evapotranspiration (ETc) to reference evapotranspiration (ETo) is important for estimating irrigation water requirements in relation to specific crop phenological development. This research was conducted to determine growth-stage-specific Kc and crop water use for onion at Werer Agricultural Research Center, Middle Awash Valley Ethiopia during the main season (July–October) and during cool cropping seasons (March–June) from 2012-2015. Three non weighing lysimeters of 1.6 m x 1.6 m in surface area and 2 m deep were used to measure crop water use and local weather data were used to determine the reference evapotranspiration (ETo). The results showed that the obtained Kc values for main cropping season planted onion during initial, crop development, mid season and late-season stages were 0.57, 0.78, 1.03 and 0.77 respectively. Meanwhile, the corresponding Kc values for cool cropping season planted onion were 0.49, 0.90, 1.01, and 0.79 in the respective growth stages. The seasonal crop evapotranspiration was 525.83mm and 465.57mm during main and cool cropping season respectively. The measured Kc values were significantly different from the FAO-56 reported values. Therefore, local calibration of crop coefficients is an essential for efficient irrigation water management and precise water applications. Keywords: onion, crop coefficient, growth stages, water balance, evapotranspiration, lysimeter DOI: 10.7176/JNSR/13-6-01 Publication date: March 31 st 2021

Highlights

Proper irrigation scheduling and efficient irrigation water management are crucial for the sustainability of irrigated agriculture
This is important in the Middle Awash Valley, where continuous droughts, raising of salinity as a result of poor irrigation water management and increasing competition among irrigation water users have limited the availability of water supplies
The results showed that the seasonal crop evapotranspiration (ETc) of onion were 525.83mm and 465.57mm during main and cool cropping season respectively

Summary

Introduction

Proper irrigation scheduling and efficient irrigation water management are crucial for the sustainability of irrigated agriculture This is important in the Middle Awash Valley, where continuous droughts, raising of salinity as a result of poor irrigation water management and increasing competition among irrigation water users have limited the availability of water supplies. The crop coefficient (Kc) values for the same crop may vary from place to place based on factors such as irrigation regime, management practices, local climate, soil types, and other environmental factors (Allen et al, 1998; Abedinpour, 2015; Liu and Luo, 2010; Djaman and Irmak, 2013), and it is important to develop local Kc for accurate estimation of water use, under a specific climatic condition

Methods

Results

Conclusion