Abstract:
Agriculture is the main contributor of the Ethiopian economy as it accounts for about 46% of the GDP, 85% of the export and 80% of the employment opportunities. Field experiment was conducted at Werer Agricultural Research center to evaluate the effects of drip and furrow irrigation under different irrigation levels on maize yield and water use efficiency. The experiment was laid out in split plot design where drip and furrow irrigations were assigned as main plot and irrigation levels (100, 85, 70 and 55% of ETc) were assigned in the sub plot arrangement with three blocks. The highest seasonal water requirement of maize was 1169.5 mm at 100% ETc under conventional furrow irrigation which is considered as control while the lowest was 321.6 mm at 55% ETc under alternative furrow irrigation. The analysis of variance revealed that there was significant (p<0.05) difference in yield among treatments and the interaction effect of irrigation system and irrigation levels show highly significant (p<0.01) difference among treatments. The highest yield (16.7t/ha) was obtained from drip irrigation with 100% of ETc application and while the lowest (4.04 t/ha) was obtained from plots treated with alternative furrow irrigation at 55% ETc treatment. The interaction effects of irrigation system and irrigation levels has shown a highly significant (p<0.01) effect on water use efficiency. The highest (2.38 kg/m3) and the lowest (0.60kg/m3) water use efficiency were recorded from the plots treated with drip irrigation at 100% ETc and conventional furrow irrigation at 100% ETc treatments, respectively. Partial budget analysis revealed that the most economically attractive combination for resource limited farmers with lower cost of production and higher net benefits was from the application of alternative furrow irrigation with 70% ETc. In terms of water use efficiency and economic prominence, irrigating with drip irrigation system with 100% ETc can be recommended for production of maize for investors. However, for resource limited farmers, in terms of, water use efficiency and economic importance, alternative furrow irrigation with 70%ETc can be recommended for production of maize in the study area
