Participatory demonstration of irrigation scheduling on bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) production and water productivity in meskan woreda/gochjib irrigation scheme, southern Ethiopia
Abstract
Water is becoming scarce resource due to human induced and natural climatic variability. Improving water productivity in agricultural use is one of the important strategies to address present and future water scarcity. This on farm participatory demonstration study was to assess irrigation scheduling effect on wheat production and water productivity on six clustered based model farmers’ field in Meskan woreda PASSIDP-II funded Gochejib irrigation scheme in 2022 main irrigation season. The comparative treatments were Full Irrigation application (100% ETc) (in 10 days irrigation interval) and Farmer Practices (in 15 days interval) as control. Plot size was 20 m by 20 m on each farmer’s field. One year demonstrated result shows that on 6 farmers field collected average minimum grain yield 24.8 kuntal/ha obtained from farmer practices (in 15 days irrigation interval) whereas average maximum grain yield 30.25 kuntal/ha from full irrigation application (in 10 days irrigation interval) throughout season. Farmers’ preference during field visit also confirmed that using irrigation scheduling in 10 days irrigation interval with full irrigation application resulted better field performance and yield of wheat. So, these indicated that it was possible to produce wheat by using full irrigation application (in 10 days irrigation interval) throughout season and demonstrate this better performing technology with full package in large scale.