ON- FIELD WATER MANAGEMENT OF GOLDA SMALL SCALE IRRIGATION SCHEME: THE CASE OF ASSOSA, NORTH-WEST OF ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Miss management of available water for irrigation, both at system and farm level has led to a range of problems and further aggravated water availability and has reduced the benefits of irrigation investments. To solve irrigation water management problem; appropriate irrigation scheduling practices could lead to increased yields and greater profit for farmers, significant water savings, reduced environmental impacts of irrigation and improved sustainability of irrigated agriculture. This study was conducted for evaluating on-field water management of Golda small scale irrigation scheme which is found at Assosa, North- west of Ethiopia. In this study both secondary and primary data sources were used. Soil samples were collected for the determination of soil moisture, field capacity, and permanent wilting point, soil pH, organic matter content, total nitrogen and available phosphorous. Infiltration rate of the soil, crop water requirement, irrigation requirement and irrigation scheduling were determined. Application efficiency, storage efficiency and distribution uniformity of the system was evaluated. The organic matter content and available phosphorous of the soil were lowbut total nitrogen was high. Farmers were applying the same irrigation interval in each growth stage of the irrigated crop but crops are required different amount of water at different irrigation interval within each growth stage. The Application efficiency, storage efficiency and distribution uniformity were determined and the values were 51.6%, 91.6% and 80.76% respectively. Generally, irrigation users did not have sense of ownership for the scheme; poor irrigation water management was a problem as I have observed.