Analysis of Spatio -Temporal Variability of Water Productivity in Ethiopian Sugar Estates: using Open access Remote Sensing Source

Abstract

This study focusses on mapping the seasonal and spatial variability of agricultural water productivity of sugarcane crop in three large irrigation schemes of Ethiopia (Wonji, Fincha’a and Metahara) from open source remote sensing data. The 100m spatial resolution of WaPOR data base was used to acquire the satellite data used for water productivity estimation. The average crop water productivity was 7.5kg/m3 at Wonji, 7kg/m3 at Fincha’a and 4.3kg/m3 at Metahara irrigation schemes respectively during time period of January 1/2009 to June 30/2019. Some plots located at Dodota, Sodare and Wake-Tiyo of Wonji scheme show high water productivity during time period of January 1/2018 to June 30/2019. But the value of water productivity show decreasing at Wonji main scheme during time period of January 1/2012 to June 30/2013. At Fincha’a irrigation scheme the high-water productivity was observed at most plots located at northern part of East Bank site, northern part of West Bank site and southern part of Neshie site during the study period of January 1/2009 to June 30/2019. And low water productivity at Fincha’a was observed at plots located at northern part of Neshie site, southern part of East and West Bank site. At Metahara irrigation scheme, some plots located near Basaka lake and northern part of the scheme, show low water productivity and some plots located at southern part of the scheme show high water productivity. .