Abstract

Desta Tesfaye and Israel Zewudi*

Onion is an important vegetable crop, which has produced worldwide including of Ethiopia for its daily uses and economic benefits. Under the scarcity of irrigation water, the need to use the available water economically and efficiently is unquestionable. Deficit irrigation improves water use efficiency, by maintaining soil moisture content below optimum level throughout the growing season. The objective of this study was to study the effect of onion yield response to irrigation level during low and high sensitive growth stages and bulb quality under semi-arid climate conditions. An experiment was conducted for three consecutive seasons to investigate the effect of water stress imposed at different growth stages on bulb yield and water productivity of onion (Allium cepa L.). This was mainly related to low adoption of onion production package. The objective of this research was to assess the reasons for low adoption of the recommended onion production package by farmers in the study area. The major constraints of onion production in the study area were shortage of irrigation water, high costs of irrigation equipment’s, shortage of genuine spare parts and accessories, shortage of pesticides and their adulteration, limited supply of improved onion seeds and lack of storage facilities, lack of skills and knowledge, high incidence of diseases and insect pests and weak extension and credit services. Results of Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Sulfurs rate trial revealed that most of growth and yield parameters of onion were significantly influenced by Nitrogen, phosphorus and Sulfurs fertilizer rates. The result of the study indicated that majority of farmers are used to the onion production package however they applied either above or below the research recommendation.