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Evaluation of surface water drainage systems for cropping in the Central Highlands of Ethiopia

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dc.contributor.author Welderufael, W.A.
dc.contributor.author WOYESSA, Y.E.
dc.contributor.other Elsevier: Agricultural Water Management
dc.date.accessioned 2016-01-17T17:31:32Z
dc.date.available 2016-01-17T17:31:32Z
dc.date.issued 2009-11
dc.date.issued 2009
dc.identifier.issn 03783774
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/11462/688
dc.description Published Article en_US
dc.description.abstract In Ethiopia vertisols cover about 10% of the total land area and is the fourth most important soil used for crop production, accounting for nearly 23% of the total arable land used for crop production. More than half of the vertisols are found in the Central Highlands of Ethiopia, with an altitude of more than 1500 m above mean sea level. The unique physical and chemical properties of these soils and the high rainfall during the main cropping season create severe surface waterlogging problems which hinder crop production activities. Severe surface waterlogging affects the growth of plants by impeding nutrient uptake and creating oxygen deficiency around the root zone. To address this crop production problem, three surface water drainage methods, namely broad bed and furrow (BBF), ditch, and flat (traditional) methods were evaluated using the water balance of the plant root zone and wheat as a test crop. The experiment was conducted at the Ginchi Research Station in the central highlands of Ethiopia over two consecutive seasons (2000 and 2001). The results showed that both the BBF and the ditch drainage methods gave about 33% and 22% more grain yield than the flat treatment, respectively. However, there were no significant differences between BBF and ditch for both grain and biomass yield during both experimental seasons. During both seasons the total water balance (ΔWr) at the root zone especially, in the months of June, July and August on all the treatments was higher than the crop water requirement (ETc) and showed no significant difference between the treatments. Thus, the results of this study indicated that the soil water in the root zone was not significantly altered by surface drainage systems and therefore implies the need of further improvement of the different surface drainage methods regarding improving the waterlogging condition and hence the productivity of the vertisols in the Central Highlands of Ethiopia en_US
dc.format.extent 388 332 bytes, 1 file
dc.format.mimetype Application/PDF
dc.language.iso en_US en_US
dc.publisher Elsevier: Agricultural Water Management
dc.relation.ispartofseries Agricultural Water Management;Volume 96, Issue 11
dc.subject Root zone en_US
dc.subject Surface drainage en_US
dc.subject Vertisols en_US
dc.subject Water balance en_US
dc.title Evaluation of surface water drainage systems for cropping in the Central Highlands of Ethiopia en_US
dc.type Article en_US
dc.rights.holder Agricultural Water Management


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