Irrigation Water Management. Evaluation of surge flow furrow irrigation at Mekelle, Northern Ethiopia

      Аннотация: Surge flow irrigation is the intermittent application of water to furrows in a series of relatively short on and off time periods. The study was conducted to evaluate the effect of cycle ratio and discharge on application efficiency, uniformity and yield under continuous and surge irrigation. Four treatment combinations of surge flow irrigation (SF) having a single cycle time (CT) of 10 minute, and two discharge of 2 l/s (Q1) and 1 l/s (Q2), and two different cycle ratios of 1/3 (CR1) and 1/2 (CR2) were evaluated with two control continuous flow applications 1 (C). The results showed that the interaction effects were significantly different in influencing application efficiency and storage efficiency while the interaction effect was not significant different on distribution uniformity. Similarly, the tail water loss, deep percolation loss and onion yield were also significantly affected by the interaction. Better application efficiency and uniformity were achieved for surge flow with less water than continuous that saves water and increases the crop yield. Therefore, this book is important for irrigation managers to have some insights on using irrigation water in optimum way.

Ключевые слова: Ethiopia, Irrigation Efficiency, Surge flow, water use efficency