Ingeniería de Sistemas de Riego y Drenaje

Effects of Slopes, Furrow Lengths and Inflow Rates on Irrigation Performances and Yield of Sugarcane Plantation at Metehara, Ethiopia

Abstract

Assefa S, Kedir Y and Alamirew T

A field study was conducted with the aim of evaluating effects of slope, furrow length and flow rate on irrigation performances, cane and sugar yield at Metehara sugar estate. The field experiment was arranged in a split-split plot design with 0.05, 0.08 and 0.1% slopes; 100, 150 and 200 m furrow length and 4, 5 and 6 L flow rate. The analysis of performance indices indicated that the effect of slope was not statistically significant except distribution uniformity and uniformity coefficient; furrow length and flow rate were highly significant on all performance indicators. All indices except deep percolation ratio and storage efficiency have shown an increasing trend as flow rate increases. The range of cane and sugar yield found was from 9.54 to 13.33 t/ha/month and from 1.12 to 1.23 t/ha/ month, respectively. Flow rate had significant variation on both cane and sugar yield. The interaction of 200 m furrow length of and 6 lit/s flow rate gave better distribution uniformity and cane yield with slope of 0.08% was recommended for Metehara Sugarcane Plantation.