Evaluation of Furrow Irrigation Efficiency: A Case of Omo Kuraz - III Sugar Factory Irrigation Farm, SNNPR,Ethiopia

This research was conducted to develop infiltration model and evaluate Omo Kuraz III furrow irrigation scheme performance using three common parameters namely: irrigation application efficiency, water storage efficiency and distribution uniformity. The research was performed by field evaluation, laboratory analysis and data analysis tool. Gravimetric soil moisture determination was used to determine required irrigation water and infiltrated depth was measured using volume balance method and estimated using developed infiltration model. Kostiakov infiltration model was used to develop infiltration model for the study area. Power regression using measured infiltration data and Microsoft excel was applied to determine best fit values of coefficient and exponent of the Kostiakov model. The result for developed infiltration model coefficient ‘m’ and exponent ‘n’ is 5.52 and 0.60 whereas application efficiency, storage efficiency and distribution uniformity was found to be 78.74 %, 97.19% and 80.67% respectively. So, the result of application efficiency, storage efficiency and distribution uniformity could still lead to crop stress and reduced yields which need to be improved further.

Keywords: Furrow irrigation, Infiltration, Irrigation efficiency, Uniformity, Omo kuraz - III irrigation scheme