Performance evaluation of furrow irrigation system on pepper (MelkaShota) production at Tanqua Abergelle district, Tigray, Ethiopia

Abstract

The field experiment was conducted in north Ethiopia, Tigray at sub-district called Sheka-tekli. The objective of the study was to evaluate the performance of furrow irrigation systems on pepper production. The furrow irrigation treatments were i) Conventional Furrow (CF), ii) Alternate Furrow (AF), and iii) Fixed Furrow (FF). The experimental design was a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The climatic data were obtained from Ethiopian Meteorological Agency and New_LocClim software. The crop water requirement and irrigation scheduling were estimated using Cropwat8 software. The collected agronomic data were subjected to one way ANOVA while irrigation water related performances indicators were computed using equations. Accordingly, the fresh pepper yield for CF (12250 kg h-1) and AF (9670 kg h-1) were not significant different. However, there was significant difference between CF and FF methods of furrow irrigation. The fresh crop yield for FF was 7670 kg h-1. The water savings from AF and FF methods of irrigation as compared to the CF method was 30.62%.The economic irrigation water productivity was higher in AF (5.33 ETB m-3) than CF (4.68 ETB m-3) and FF (0.49 ETB m-3). Irrigation water productivity was 1.95 kg m-3, 2.22 kg m-3 and 1.76 kg m-3 for CF, and AF and FF methods of irrigation, respectively. Thus economic irrigation water productivity and environmental benefits foralternate furrow irrigation method (AF) was much superior as compared to other furrow irrigation methods.