Seasonal Yield Response Factor for Red Bombay Onion (Allium cepa L.) Variety in Arba Minch, Ethiopia

Background: For better water resources management in the areas of water shortage for crop production, deficit irrigation is very important. The understanding of the yield response factor to water deficit is crucial for efficient irrigation water management. Deficit irrigation for studying yield response factors is always practiced in the way of stressing the demand of the crops. The present study was done for the determination of the seasonal yield response factor of red Bombay onion variety under Arba Minch agro climate condition. Furthermore, it also examined the effect of furrow irrigation systems on the seasonal yield response factor. Methods: The experiment was conducted from August to November 2019. The experiment had six treatments, which were the combination of two furrow irrigation systems and three irrigation levels. Data were collected for soil moisture before and after each irrigation and bulb yield. The seasonal yield response factors were determined through simple linear regressions using SPSS software. Result: When considering the furrow irrigation system as a factor, the seasonal yield response factor for alternate furrow irrigation system was 1.18 while for paired row furrow irrigation system was 1.07. This red Bombay variety of onion clearly shows more sensitive to water stress for alternative furrow irrigation systems than paired row furrow irrigation systems. Therefore, in the area of water shortage paired row furrow irrigation system is better than alternate furrow irrigation system. The seasonal yield response factor as a wall for red Bombay onion variety in Arba Minch agro-ecological condition was 1.12. Therefore, the red Bombay onion variety in Arba Minch agroclimate condition was sensitive to water stress.

Determination of optimum irrigation scheduling for sorghum in Benna-Tsemay Woreda, Southern Ethiopia

Scarcity of water is the most severe constraint for sustainable development of agriculture in arid and semi-arid areas. Hence, novel irrigation water application systems need to be developed so that high crop yield and water productivity per unit of land can be increased. Thus, the field experiment was conducted with the objective of determining the effect of different soil moisture depletion levels on yield and water use efficiency of sorghum crop in Benna-Tsemay woreda at Enchete kebele, Southern Ethiopia. The experiment was conducted for two consecutive years (2019-2020). It was arranged in RCBD with three replications and treatment was rated for five levels of available soil moisture depletion (ASMD), where T1 = 60%, T2 = 80%, T3 = 100%, T4 = 120%, and T5 = 140% of ASMD. Analysis of variance has shown that yield and water use efficiency of sorghum crop was significantly (P < 0.05) affected by irrigation scheduling. As observed in this study, the most economically attractive and environmentally accepted for small scale farmers with tolerable cost of production and higher net benefit was obtained by application of T3 (100% ASMD) under conventional furrow irrigation system. Therefore, for this particular sorghum crop (teshale variety), it could be concluded that increased water saving and water productivity through irrigation at 100% ASMD under conventional furrow irrigation system can solve the problem of water shortage and would ensure the opportunity of further irrigation development in the study area and similar agro-ecology. Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. Tech. 11(2): 95-102, Dec 2021

Reduced Water Use in Barley and Maize Production Through Conservation Agriculture and Drip Irrigation

The Mexican Bajío region is the country's main barley (Hordeum vulgare) producing area. Barley is commonly produced during the dry autumn–winter season using furrow irrigation with ground water, following which rainfed maize (Zea mays) is grown in the spring–summer season using supplementary irrigation. Ground water levels in the region are steadily dropping, and the introduction of water-saving technologies in agriculture is urgently required. Drip irrigation can reduce water use but is costly. Conservation agriculture—the combination of minimal tillage, permanent soil cover and crop diversification—might reduce water use, but studies in irrigated systems are scarce. We compared water use and grain yield in tillage-based conventional agriculture and conservation agriculture, both with furrow irrigation and drip irrigation, in a 3-year (six growing seasons) barley-maize field experiment. Additionally, side-by-side demonstrations of conventional and conservation agriculture were installed simultaneously in farmers' fields and yields, water use and fuel use were recorded. In the field experiment, yields did not differ significantly between production systems, but irrigation water use was on average 17% lower in conservation agriculture than in conventional agriculture, ~36% lower with drip irrigation compared with furrow irrigation in conventional tillage, and 40% lower with drip irrigation and conservation agriculture combined compared with conventional agriculture with furrow irrigation. Water use reductions differed strongly between years, depending on weather. The water saving through conservation agriculture in farmers' fields was similar to the water saving in the controlled experiment with about 17%. Additionally, in farmer's fields conservation agriculture reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 192 kg CO2 ha−1 and improved soil health. The implementation of conservation agriculture would be a cost-effective method to reduce water use in the barley-maize production system in the Mexican Bajío, while simultaneously reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Analysis of Furrow Irrigation Design Parameters On Sugarcane Growth And Yield Parameters Under Wonji Shoa Climatic Condition

Sugarcane is one of the important industrial crops produced all over the tropical areas. Sugarcane production is highly expanding in developing countries like Ethiopia. However, sugarcane is characterized by very high crop requirements. But sugarcane is produced mostly in Ethiopia using furrow irrigation methods in which more losses of irrigation water is most common due to many factors. Even if there are high losses of water in furrow irrigation, in which its performance influenced by many factors, to improve its performance or reduces the losses of irrigation water proper furrow irrigation decision variables combination is very important. In line with this the current study focused on three main furrow irrigation design parameters. The main purpose of the current study was to analyse effect of furrow irrigation design on sugarcane growth and yield parameters under Wonji Shoa Sugar Estate conditions. The field experiment was conducted using Split-split plot design with three factorial experiments replicated three times. All required data on growth and yield of sugarcane parameters were collected and analysed using SAS 9.4 version statistical software. The effect of furrow slope showed statistically significance variation at 5% significance on growth parameters (cane height, cane weight, cane diameter and number of cane internode per stalk), but non significance variation on yield components of sugarcane (moisture percent, dry substance, number of millable cane stalk and sugarcane yield). But the effect of furrow length showed statistically significance variation on almost all growth and yield parameters of sugarcane at 5% significance level except sugarcane yield. Finally, the effect of furrow discharge rate on all growth and yield parameters considered were showed statistically significance variation at 5% significance level except number of millable cane stalk. In general, the highest sugarcane yield was obtained from furrow slope three, furrow length three and furrow discharge rate as compared to the other factors level. Therefore, this result it can be recommended that slightly slope, longer furrow length and less properly applied discharge rate resulted in more yield of sugarcane.