Response of Onion (&amp;lt;i&amp;gt;Allium Cepa&amp;lt;/i&amp;gt; L,) to Different Irrigation Levels under Conventional Furrow Irrigation with and without Mulch at Melkassa, Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia

Gebeyehu Ashemi

doi:10.11648/j.jps.20210904.20

Abstract

Water is a scarce resource in Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia and is a major limiting factor for crop production. Onion is one of the major economically important vegetable crops grown under irrigation in central rift valley. The field experiment was conducted at Melkasa agricultural research center during the dry season to identify conventional furrow irrigation and irrigation application level with and without mulch that maximizes productivity of onion per unit of water consumed and enhanced onion crop production. The experiment was carried out using RCB design having six treatments with three replications. The FAO’s recommended allowable Manageable depletion level of onion is 100%. In this study 75%, 100% recommended and 125% were tested. The analysis of variance for the result of the study indicated highly significant (P ≤ 0.05) differences for yield, yield components and WUE’s. The highest yield of 320.7 ton/ha was obtained from the 75% MAD with mulch which was not significantly (P≤0.05) different to the 100% MAD irrigation level. In terms of irrigation and water use efficiency, 75% MAD irrigation level application gave the highest IWUE which was significantly different from all other treatment combinations. Yield and water use efficiency based comparison had shown that there was significant difference between the yield, CWUE, and IWUE obtained in the treatment. Therefore, it can be concluded that increased water saving and associated water productivity through the use of 75% MAD with Conventional furrow irrigation and mulch, can solve problem of water shortage which improve WUE without significant reduction of yield. 75% MAD irrigation level water applied system and mulch appears to be a promising alternative for water conservation and labor saving with negligible trade-off in yield.

Highlights

Water is man kind’s most vital and versatile natural resource
The importance of this study is to identify optimal irrigation application level with and without mulch that will improve yield and water productivity of onion at Awash Melkassa, Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia
Soil Physical Properties The result of the soil analysis from the experimental site showed that the composition of sand, silt and clay percentages were in the range of 36.0 – 28.5%, 45.0 – 35.0% and 29.0 – 24.0%, respectively

Summary

Introduction

Water is man kind’s most vital and versatile natural resource. It is considered as an essential resource for irrigation. The competition for existing freshwater supplies will require a paradigmatic shift from maximizing productivity per unit of land area to maximizing productivity per unit of water consumed. This shift will, in turn, demand broad systems approaches that physically and biologically optimize irrigation water relative to water delivery and application schemes, rainfall, critical growth stages, soil fertility, location, and weather [6]. The country is well known for its vast water resources potential its erratic distribution both in space and time coupled with limited capacity is the most challenging problem that limited the contribution of the resources to the socio-economic development of the country [13]

Methods

Results

Conclusion