Abstract
Water scarcity, erratic rainfall distribution and better management of water are the most sever constraint for the development of agriculture. To cope with scarce supplies, deficit irrigation is an important tool to achieve the goal of reducing irrigation water use and increase water use efficiency (WUE) under scarce water resources. This research was carried out at Southern Agricultural Research Institute of Areka Agricultural Research Center of Hubo Woreda in farmers’ fields during 2016/2017–2017/2018 to identify the level of deficit irrigation which allow achieving optimum Tomato yield. The experimental design was arranged in RCBD with four treatments with three replications. The irrigation treatments were 100 % ETc, 85 % ETc, 75 % ETc and 50 % ETc. The result showed that a maximum fruit yield of 43.4 ton/ha was obtained under full irrigation. A deficit irrigation strategy applied at 85%, 70% of crop water requirement gives relatively better fruit yield i.e. 34.2 ton/ha and 32.1 ton/ha. For Tomato in water scarce area applying 85% and 70% of crop water requirement is recommended with a minimum reduction of yield.
Highlights
In the semi-arid areas of Ethiopia, water is the most limiting factor for crop production
Most of the farmers in Humbo Woreda depend on rain-fed agriculture
The proper management of irrigation water has received inadequate attention, while the cost incurred for constructing the small-scale irrigation schemes is much more
Summary
In the semi-arid areas of Ethiopia, water is the most limiting factor for crop production. In these areas where the amount and distribution of rainfall is not sufficient to sustain crop growth and development, an alternative approach is to make use of the rivers and underground water for irrigation. Satisfying crop water requirements, it maximizes production from the land unit, does not necessarily maximize the return per unit volume of water (Oweis et al, 2000). To quantify the level of deficit irrigation it is first necessary to define the full crop ET requirements. Since Penmann (1948) developed the combination approach to calculate ETo, research on crop water requirements has produced several reliable methods for its calculation. Http://www.granthaalayah.com ©International Journal of Research - GRANTHAALAYAH [57]
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