Tesfaye Gragn*, Obsa Wolde and Alemayehu Mamo
Irrigation scheduling is the use of water management strategies to prevent over application of water while minimizing yield loss due to water shortage or drought stress. The experiment was performed at Odo shakiso District on farm in the 2020/21 and 2021/22 irrigation seasons, with the objective of determining the optimum irrigation schedule on Yield, yield component and water productivity of Onion based on the available soil moisture depletion levels. The experiment was carried out in RCBD with three replications, randomly assigned to the experimental plots with treatments. Five available soil moisture depletion levels (20% ASMDL, 40% ASMDL, 60% ASMDL, 80% ASMDL and FAO recommended ASMDL) were used as treatment. The results obtained of two years of research showed that different of levels of soil moisture available had a significant effect (P< 0.05) on bulb diameter, bulb weight, unmarketable bulb yield, marketable bulb yield, and water productivity. However, different soil moisture depletion levels showed no significant difference on plant height. The highest bulb diameter (4.25 cm) and marketable bulb yield (363.9 qt/ha) were recorded at 60%ASMDL. The highest efficiency of water use on marketable onion yield (9.487 kg/m3) was also attained at 60%ASMDL, which was statistically similar with FAO recommended ASMDL treatment. On the other hand the minimum efficiency of water use (6.234 kg/m3) was recorded at 40 per cent ASMDL. Therefore, based on the findings of the current experiment, it is recommended that using 60%ASMDL under furrow irrigation system for onion to be grown in areas around Shakiso and similar agro-ecology as best options to increase yield and water use efficiency for the production of onion.
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