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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, |
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