Deficit Irrigation and Straw Mulch Levels Management on Yield and Water Productivity of Onion (Allium Cepa L.) in Haramaya, Ethiopia

Abdi Musa Sali¹

Section:Research Paper, Product Type: Journal-Paper
Vol.7 , Issue.12 , pp.12-17, Dec-2021

Online published on Dec 31, 2021

Copyright © Abdi Musa Sali . This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
 

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Abstract :
Ensuring water productivity of irrigated crops through irrigation water management is a vital alternative in water limited areas, such as, East Harerghe. Consequently a field experiment was conducted at Haramaya district to evaluate the effects of deficit irrigation and straw mulching levels on yield and water productivity of onion (Allium cepa L). The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design in factorial arrangement of three levels of irrigation (100, 85 and 70% of ETc) and three levels of straw mulch (0, 3 and 6 vetivar grass straw per ha) in three replications. Crop water requirement was estimated using actual daily climatic temperature data. The analysis of variance revealed that statistically, there was significant (p<0.05) difference in growth parameters; and yield parameters were highly significant (p<0.01) influenced by the interaction effects of deficit irrigation and straw mulch levels. The highest marketable yield (35.13 t/ha) was obtained from an experimental plot treated with combined application of 100% of ETc and 6 t/ha straw mulch, while the lowest (24.07 t/ha) was obtained from plots treated with 70% ETc irrigation level and no mulch treatment. Water productivity was also highly significant (p<0.01) influenced by the interaction effects of deficit irrigation and straw mulching levels; the highest water productivity (10.4 kg/m3) and the lowest (6.1 kg/m3) were recorded from the plots treated with 85% ETc and 6 t/ha straw mulch, and 100% ETc and no mulch treatments, respectively. Partial budget analysis revealed that the most economically attractive combination for small scale farmers with lower cost of production and higher net benefits was from the application of 85% ETc and 6 t/ha straw mulch. Therefore, in terms of marketable bulb yield and water profitable productivity, irrigating with 85% ETc with 6 t/ha straw mulch would be recommended for oni1on production.

Key-Words / Index Term :
Soil, crop water, marketable yield, straw mulching

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