The Effect of Deficit Irrigation on Maize Crop Under Conventional Furrow Irrigation in Adami Tulu Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia

Abstract

The expansion of irrigated agriculture in Ethiopia to feed the ever-increasing population on one hand and the increasing competition for water due to the development of other water use sectors on the other hand, the improvement of water use efficiencies in irrigated agriculture to ensure sustained production and conservation of this limited resource. A field experiment was conducted with objectives of identifying the level of deficit irrigation for achieving optimum crop yield and water productivity of Maize crop in Adami Tulu. The study was conducted using three levels of irrigation (50%ETc, 70%ETc, 85%ETc) and control irrigation 100%ETc arrangements in RCD with three replications. 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 4.52 ton/ha was obtained from the control with 100%ETc which was not significantly (P ≤ 0.05) different to the 85%ETc irrigation level. In terms of irrigation and water use efficiency, 50%ETc deficit irrigation 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 85%ETc with Conventional furrow irrigation, can solve problem of water shortage which improve WUE without significant reduction of yield.85%ETc irrigation level water applied system appears to be a promising alternative for water conservation and labor saving with negligible trade-off in yield.