Improving Irrigation Management

The best estimates of crop water use result from direct measurement, but this is not always feasible on large scale. The next most accurate approach would be one which integrates our understanding of the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum as mechanically as possible. The Soil Water Balance (SWB) model is a mechanistic, real-time, generic crop, soil water balance, irrigation scheduling model. SWB gives a detailed description of the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum, making use of weather, soil and crop management data. Traditional irrigation was practiced in Ethiopia since time immemorial. Despite this, water productivity in the sector remained low. At Godino, farmers use the same water amount and interval, regardless of crop species and growth stage. In an effort to improve this, two of the traditional irrigation scheduling methods was compared with two more scientific methods, using furrow irrigation. The growth performance and tuber yield of potato cv. Awash revealed that irrigation scheduling using a neutron probe (NP) significantly outperformed the traditional methods, followed by SWB model irrigation calendar. Since NP involves high cost and skills to use, SWB is preferred.