Abstract
The benefits of water-saving techniques such as alternate furrow and deficit irrigations need to be explored to ensure food security for the ever-increasing population within the context of declining availability of irrigation water. In this regard, field experiments were conducted for 2 consecutive dry seasons in the semiarid region of southwestern Ethiopia and investigated the influence of alternate furrow irrigation method with different irrigation levels on the yield, yield components, water use efficiency, and profitability of potato production. The experiment comprised of 3 irrigation methods: (i) conventional furrow irrigation (CFI), (ii) alternate furrow irrigation (AFI), and (iii) fixed furrow irrigation (FFI) combined factorially with 3 irrigation regimes: (i) 100%, (ii) 75%, and (iii) 50% of the potato water requirement (ETC). The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design replicated thrice. Results revealed that seasonal irrigation water applied in alternate furrows was nearly half (170 mm) of the amount supplied in every furrow (331 mm). Despite the half reduction in the total amount of water, tuber (35.68 t ha−1) and total biomass (44.37 t ha−1) yields of potato in AFI did not significantly differ from CFI (34.84 and 45.35 t ha−1, respectively). Thus, AFI improved WUE by 49% compared to CFI. Irrigating potato using 75% of ETC produced tuber yield of 35.01 t ha−1, which was equivalent with 100% of ETC (35.18 t ha−1). Irrigating alternate furrows using 25% less ETC provided the highest net return of US$74.72 for every unit investment on labor for irrigating potato. In conclusion, irrigating alternate furrows using up to 25% less ETC saved water, provided comparable yield, and enhanced WUE and economic benefit. Therefore, farmers and experts are recommended to make change to AFI with 25% deficit irrigation in the study area and other regions with limited water for potato production to improve economic, environmental, and social performance of their irrigated systems.
Highlights
Ethiopian farming is mainly dependent on rain-fed smallholder agricultural system
Yield and Yield Attributes. e irrigation methods significantly influenced the entire variables measured for potato except for plant height. e level of irrigation water applied during the cropping season significantly affected the measured parameters except for the number of tubers per plant and plant height (Table 2). e interaction effect of irrigation methods by level of irrigation water, was not significant for the variables measured except for the weight of tuber per plant and plant height (Table 2). e results further showed that season was the large source of variation for the variables measured
Results of our field study demonstrated that potato yield, yield attributes, and water use efficiency (WUE) were significantly influenced by irrigation method and level
Summary
In the absence of sufficient rainfall, there is always low agricultural production, thereby creating food shortage and food insecurity [1]. In this regard, the contribution of irrigated agriculture is substantial. Despite the alarmingly increasing population and the great desire to boost production, scarcity of irrigation water has become the main constraint for crop production in arid and semiarid areas, where evapotranspiration is very high, but the seasonal rainfall is low, erratic, and unreliable for crop production [5, 6]. It is critical to improve water management and utilization at the field scale through adoption of more efficient and effective irrigation methods [1, 4, 5, 7]
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