Abstract:
Irrigation is a way of bringing water to crops by using force or gravity to move it from
the source to the field, in order to make up for the lack of moisture in the soil wher e the
crop's roots are. There are three main kinds of irrigation systems, which are surface
irrigation, subsurface irrigation and pressurized irrigation system. One of the largest
irrigation systems in Ethiopia, the Belles Sugar Development Project, lacks performance
evaluation findings for improving the overall management of the system in terms of
cutoff time, field dimensions, flow rate, advance and recession of water across the field
surface, and boost efficiency such as application efficiency, uniformit y efficiency, and
distribution efficiency. This is the primary issue that drives this research. In order to
address the issue of management and operational practice possibilities, this study was
designed.
The experimental fields which had a size of 140 m X 100 m and slope between 0.27-0.5% (measured by water-level) were selected. The field has 67 furrows and from one
fifth of it taken as the measuring test furrows which has 130 cm – 145 cm of furrow
spacing. The general field layout and experimental set up common for a furrow set is the
same for all furrows. The left and right to the measured test furrows is buffer furrows
were used to hinder unexpected laterals moisture movement beyond the monitored
furrows. A 3 inch standard Parshal flume, obtained from pawi research centre was
installed near the down-stream end of the individual furrows in a furrow set except the
buffer furrows, to monitor the rate of out flowing irrigation water. The application
efficiency obtained from the test furrow irrigation field were 67.3 and 70.75% estimated
and WinSRFR for furrow length 140 m and 64.13 and 66.3% for 80 furrow length for
estimated and WinSRFR model respctively. For 120 furrow length 65.88% for estimated
and 68.3 % for WinSRFR model. From the three furrow lengths better distribution
uniformity was obtained from furrow length 120 m (90.98%) and less distribution
uniformity obtained from furrow length 140 m (89.03%) from estimated.
Keywords: Furrow lengths, Blocked-end furrow, Irrigation performances.