EVALUATION OF WATER SAVING AND CROP PRODUCTIVITY POTENTIAL OF DIFFERENT FURROW IRRIGATION APPLICATION METHODS UNDERTOMATO CROP

Abstract

Irrigation development is increasingly implemented in Ethiopia more than ever. Expansion of irrigated area combined with efficient management of water will enhance the attainment of food security and poverty alleviation goals of the country. So improved irrigation technologies needs to be developed so that water saving and water productivity per unit of land and water can be increased. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted with the objectives of investigating the effect of alternate, fixed and conventional furrow irrigation system on yield and water productivity of Tomato crop and to identify the level of deficit irrigation for achieving optimum crop yield in Kara Adishu. The study was conducted using three levels of irrigation (50%ETc, 75%ETc and control irrigation 100%ETc) and three irrigation furrow system in 3*3 factorial arrangements in split plot design with three replications. The analysis of variance for the result of the study indicated highly significant (P<0.05) different for yield, yield components and WUEs. The highest yield of 42.31 ton/ha was obtained from the control with CFI which was not significantly (p<0.05) different from the75%ETc with CFI system. In terms of irrigation and water use efficiency, 50%ETc deficit irrigation application with CFI system 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 AFI and CFI while the applied water in AFI was reduced by 50%. Therefore, it can be concluded that increased water saving and associated water productivity through the use of 75% with CFI, can solve problem of water shortage which improve WUE without significant reduction of yield AFI system appears to be a promising alternative for water conservation and labor saving with negligible trade off in yield.