Abstract:
Many factors influence the low productivity of carrot. Improper irrigation management and
undetermined plant population is the major once among others that influence the production
and productivity of carrot in Ethiopia. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted to study
the effects of irrigation interval and number of rows per bed on growth, yield, and yield
components of carrot during the 2017 irrigation season at Koga Irrigation Scheme. The
treatments consisted of three irrigation intervals (4, 7 and 10 days) and three numbers of
rows per bed (2, 3 and 4) combined with spilt plot design with three replications where the
irrigation intervals were assigned as main plots and the number of rows per bed as subplots.
Phenological, growth, yield, and yield related parameters of carrot, variety Nantes, were
collected timely as per their respective standard procedures. Variance analysis of the data
was done using SAS Software version 9.0. Except the main effect of rows per bed on root
diameter and unmarketable yield, the main as well as the interaction effects of irrigation
interval and rows per bed significantly affected most of the tested parameters of carrot. Three
rows per bed in seven days irrigation interval and four rows per bed in four days irrigation
interval recorded the highest marketable carrot root yields with 23.57t ha-1 and 23.25 t ha-1,
respectively. Moreover, a combination of seven days irrigation interval with three rows per
bed gave the highest net benefit of carrot. However, a combination of ten days irrigation
interval with three rows per bed recorded the highest marginal rate of return which can be
recommended for the study area and areas with similar agro-ecologies. Nevertheless, it is
recommended to repeat the experiment on wider scale in different agro-ecologies for wider
utilization.
Key words: Marketable yield, Nantes, population of carrot, root diameter, root length