Irrigation is one of the key drivers to growth through enhancing agricultural productivity, increasing rural household income and hence alleviating poverty. In Ethiopia, agriculture is a mainstay of economy. Environmental degradation, traditional farming practices, effects of recurrent drought and high population pressure have aggravated food insecurity in Ethiopia. Assessing water resource potential, soil type and selecting suitable crop variety for irrigation water use is vital for sustainable agriculture. This is particularly important in areas where the rivers are found in deep gorge that not accessible for surface irrigation. Identification of suitable crop variety for the given environment is the basic important criterion during assessment of irrigation practice. This study was conducted on the Beshilo river basin as case study and analyzed the main challenges to assess irrigation practices to enhance agricultural productivity of the basin and similar alluvial river basins. The study mainly focused on assessment of irrigation practices on alluvial river plain of Beshilo river upper Blue Nile Basin Ethiopia. Primary data (discharge capacity of the pump and physical characteristics of the soil in the alluvial plain, 54 soil samples) w ere collected from three farmers‟ field at the head, middle, and tail water users of irrigation scheme. Required secondary data(total yields, area irrigated per crop per season, crop types, planting date, command area, operation &maintenance costs, income generated by irrigation services, cost of irrigation infrastructure and climatic data) were obtained from farmers and Woreda Agriculture offices. Geographical information system version 10.3(GIS), Microsoft office 2010 and CROPWAT 8.0 tools were used for data analysis. Soil laboratory test were employed to determine the soil physicochemical characteristics of selected three representative sample plots. The irrigation application efficiency and storage efficiency for head, middle, and tail ends of the command ranged from 27.4 % to 40.3% and 52% to 69% respectively. Relative water supply is 1.1 which indicates slightly excess water supplied to the scheme. The relative irrigation water supply is 1.2 and is greater than unity that indicates unwise use of water resource. Most of the soil textural class is loamy sand and contains 77% of sand, 18% of silt and 5% of clay by weight fraction. Loamy sand soils are characterized as low water holding capacity, medium fertility, and fast drainage rate. This suggest that pepper, potato, sweet potato, tomato, groundnut maize, cotton and wheat are suitable crop types for the alluvial plain. During this study pepper crop was used for yield analysis. The yield gained from pepper crop on alluvial soil is 15.3 quintal/hectare. Therefore, proper irrigation practice on alluvial areas plays a vital role to improve food security with carful management for sustainability of alluvial flood plains. The main recommendations made in this study include, farmers should practice and grow the recommended crop varieties in addition to pepper crop. Promoting extension services, water quality, soil chemical properties, environmental factors and actual water resource of a basin needs further research, establishment of motor pump maintenance center needs special attention and giving adequate emphasis to alluvial resource is mandatory. The main problems that hindered the scheme to deliver its utmost potential include, lack of road access and extension support service (improper crop selection and lack input supply such as pesticide and improved variety seeds), giving inadequate emphasis to alluvial resources, poor economic background of the beneficiary farmers to afford agricultural inputs and lack of pump maintenance center. Key words: - Irrigation practices, Alluvial plain, soil texture, Beshilo river, suitable crop, yield,