Version 1
: Received: 17 October 2023 / Approved: 17 October 2023 / Online: 18 October 2023 (17:31:36 CEST)
How to cite:
Amdneh, M.W.; Gebul, M.A. Determination of Water Requirement and Crop Coefficient of Wheat Crop in Central Ethiopia. Preprints2023, 2023101141. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202310.1141.v1
Amdneh, M.W.; Gebul, M.A. Determination of Water Requirement and Crop Coefficient of Wheat Crop in Central Ethiopia. Preprints 2023, 2023101141. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202310.1141.v1
Amdneh, M.W.; Gebul, M.A. Determination of Water Requirement and Crop Coefficient of Wheat Crop in Central Ethiopia. Preprints2023, 2023101141. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202310.1141.v1
APA Style
Amdneh, M.W., & Gebul, M.A. (2023). Determination of Water Requirement and Crop Coefficient of Wheat Crop in Central Ethiopia. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202310.1141.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Amdneh, M.W. and Mekonen Ayana Gebul. 2023 "Determination of Water Requirement and Crop Coefficient of Wheat Crop in Central Ethiopia" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202310.1141.v1
Abstract
The importance of irrigation in boosting agricultural production and productivity is widely understood. Proper planning and effective and efficient management and operation of irrigation system require crop and site-specific data. Since the last few years, Ethiopia has embarked on expansion of irrigated wheat. However, crop-specific data useful for irrigation planning and management for wheat crop is limited. The objective of this research was to determine water requirements and crop coefficients for wheat crops based on field measurements. The research was carried out at the Debre Zeit Agricultural Research Center in central Ethiopia during the dry season (Bega) of 2021/22. The crop considered for the experiment was durum wheat of the Utuba variety. Two non-weighing lysimeter units were employed to measure the water balance components. The soil moisture was monitored using gravimetric method on daily basis conducted both before and after each irrigation event at various depth intervals. The crop required a total of 115 days to fully mature. The length of the growth of initial, development, mid, and late stages were about 20, 30, 42, and 23 days, respectively. Microsoft Excel was used for the data analysis and the CropWAT8.0 model to estimate the reference evapotranspiration. Crop evapotranspiration (ETc) was determined using the water balance equation, and crop coefficients were computed from ETc and reference evapotranspiration (ETo). The results indicate that the total seasonal water requirement of the crop was 392.75mm. The growth stage-based water requirement was 40.35 mm, 82.44 mm, 238.66 mm, and 31.3 mm during the initial, development, mid, and late growing stages, respectively. For the initial, development, mid, and late stages of wheat growth, the crop coefficient was calculated to be 0.51, 0.83, 1.29, and 0.52, respectively. It was found that a fourth-degree polynomial equation fits well and explains the relationship between day of growth stage and kc of the crop. Although a one-season measurement, the results generated here could be useful for crop-specific data in scarce areas.
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
