Use the "back" button of your browser to return to the list of abstracts.
OPTIMIZING IRRIGATION WATER LEVELS TO IMPROVE YIELD AND WATER USE EFFICIENCY OF VEGETABLES: CASE STUDY OF TOMATO [Abstract ID: 0608-08]
The irrigation water requirement needs to be optimized in order to improve the productivity of irrigated agriculture. Hence, adapting the knowledge of irrigation scheduling for a specific crop and location is important. A field experiment was conducted in the Raya Alamata district of Tigray, Ethiopia to investigate the impact of different irrigation water levels on the yield and irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) of the tomato. Eight treatments (50%, 35%, 25% above estimated crop water requirement (CWR), estimated CWR, 25%, 35%, 50% below the estimated CWR), and farmers’ practices were arranged in randomized complete block design (RCBD) under three replications. Tomato water requirement was estimated using CROPWAT 8 software and it was estimated to be 500 mm in depth. Results showed significant differences in marketable yield (MY), total yield (TY) and irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) of the tomato according to levels of irrigation. The application of the estimated CWR of the tomato gave higher MY (36.37 ton/ha) and TY (38.58 ton/ha). Unmarketable fruit yield (UY) of the tomato was unaffected by the level of irrigation. Farmers’ practice gave considerable MY (36.32 ton/ha). But the depth of water applied by farmers throughout the growing season was 561mm, which was 12.2% above the estimated CWR. The IWUE ranged from 0.357 kg/m3 to 0.876 kg/m3 for the different irrigation water levels. This shows increasing IWUE with decreasing amounts of water application. In conclusion, deficit irrigation practice could be successful in saving irrigation water up to 35% of tomato CWR without significant reduction in the fruit yield of the tomato in regions where water is a limiting factor for vegetable production.