I r r i g a t i o n & D r a i n a g e S y s t e m s E n g i n e e r i n g ISSN: 2168-9768 Irrigation & Drainage Systems Engineering Meskelu et al., Irrigat Drainage Sys Eng 2019, 8:1 DOI: 10.4172/2168-9768.1000230 Open Access Research Article Volume 8 • Issue 1 • 1000230 Irrigat Drainage Sys Eng, an open access journal ISSN: 2168-9768 Keywords: Alternate furrow; Conventional furrow; Fixed furrow; Lemon grass; Water use efciency Introduction Lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus (DC) Stapf) is one of the essential oil-bearing perennial grasses belong to Poaceae or Gramineae family which mainly used for aromatic and medicinal purposes. Among the aromatic purpose it is widely used in diferent foods, sof drink, alcohols and sanitation materials like soups. Moreover, its oil has been used as anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties to cure various diseases like cough, cold, spitting of blood, rheumatism, lumbago, digestive problems, bladder problems, leprosy, and as mouth wash for the toothache and swollen gums, anti-purgative and sudorrifc to reduce fever with anti-oxidant activity [1-4]. Lemongrass could be grown as a perennial crop under either irrigated or non-irrigated condition in diferent part of the world especially in India in which most of the oil produced is being exported to West Europe, U.S.A. and Japan [5]. Irrigated agriculture supply more than 40% of food and agricultural commodities within 17% of agricultural land with consumption of more than 70% of the water withdrawal from all sources; despite water is limited resource and the temporal and spatial variation exacerbating the problems [6]. Moreover, among diferent water consuming sectors, irrigation is the most inefcient sector [7]. On the other hand, water scarcity is increasing from time to time in the globe and now days almost one-ffh of the world’s population live in areas of scarcity and almost one quarter of the world’s population face economic water shortage [8]. However, application of irrigation water is essential as crop growth and yield majorly afected due to drought in diferent crops especially in low rainfall areas [9]. Similarly, despite high tolerance to a wide range of soils and climatic conditions, better performance of lemongrass growth and yield could be obtained on well-drained sandy loam soil with high fertility and exposed to sunlight with good irrigation [10]. Lemongrass is cultivated under rain fed condition in high rainfall area and as irrigated crop under semi-arid tropical conditions [11,12]. Since water stress is among the major factors that afect the yield of diferent crops, it is essential to maximize the yield obtained per amount of irrigation water used in water limiting areas. Te issue is more vital as agricultural land and irrigation water are rapidly diminishing due to rapid industrialization and urban development [13]. Under limited water resource area, efcient utilization of the Response of Lemongrass (Cympopogon citratus (DC) Stapf) to Deficit Irrigation and Furrow Irrigation Water Application Methods at Wondo Genet, Ethiopia Meskelu E 1 *, Debebe A 1 , Tesfaye H 1 and Mohammed M 2 1 Wondo Genet Agricultural Research Center, Shashemene, Ethiopia 2 Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Abstract The study was conducted at Wondo Genet Agricultural Research Center, SNNP Region, Ethiopia, 7°05’ N latitude, 38°37’ E longitude and 1785 m.a.s.l for three years (2015/16 to 2017/18) based on the objective to determine the level of defcit irrigation levels and furrow irrigation water application techniques on yield and water productivity of lemongrass (Cympopogon citratus (DC) Stapf). Three types of furrow irrigation techniques (alternate, fxed and conventional furrow) combined with different irrigation levels (100, 75 and 50% ET C ) with three replications were used in randomized complete block design. Different furrow irrigation application methods and irrigation levels highly signifcantly (p<0.01) affected fresh biomass, dry biomass and water use effciency of lemongrass during 2015/16 and 2017/18. Moreover, essential oil yield of lemongrass was signifcantly (p<0.05) affected due to different furrow irrigation application methods and irrigation levels both during 2015/16 and 2017/18. However, no signifcant (p ≥ 0.05) variation was observed in number of tillers per hill and essential oil content of lemongrass due to different furrow irrigation methods and defcit levels during 2015/16 and 2017/18. Higher fresh biomass (9610, 7348 and 4458 kg/ha) and dry biomass (2507, 2136 and 1408 kg/ha) were obtained at 100% ETC under conventional furrow method during the three successive years. Similarly, maximum essential oil yield of 62.5 and 40.1 kg/ha was obtained at conventional furrow irrigation method with 75 and 100% ETC during 2015/16 and 2017/18, respectively. On the other hand, minimum fresh biomass (7123, 4689 and 2296 kg/ha) and dry biomass (1903, 1308, 704 kg/ha) during the three successive year, and essential oil yield of 44.9 and 20.0 kg/ha were obtained at fxed furrow with 50% ETC during 2015/16 and 2017/2018, respectively. In addition to these, higher water productivity of 0.080, 0.075 and 0.052 kg/m 3 was obtained due to alternate furrow irrigation with 50% ET C during three successive years. On the other hand, the minimum water productivity of 0.024, 0.026 and 0.021 kg/m 3 was obtained at conventional furrow technique with 100% ET C during 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2017/18, respectively. Therefore, for maximizing essential oil yield under no water limiting scenario, lemongrass could be irrigated with conventional furrow irrigation methods with 100% ET C . However, under limited water resource condition, the main objective will be to maximize the water use effciency without signifcantly reducing the oil yield. Therefore, in this case lemongrass could be irrigated with alternate furrow technique with 100% ET C at Wondo Genet and similar agro-ecology and soil type. *Corresponding author: Meskelu E, Wondo Genet Agricultural Research Center, P. O. Box 198, Shashemene, Ethiopia, Tel: 251916856072; E-mail: emeskelu@yahoo.com Received November 08, 2018; Accepted April 04, 2019; Published April 11, 2019 Citation: Meskelu E, Debebe A, Tesfaye H, Mohammed M (2019) Response of Lemongrass (Cympopogon citratus (DC) Stapf) to Defcit Irrigation and Furrow Irrigation Water Application Methods at Wondo Genet, Ethiopia. Irrigat Drainage Sys Eng 8: 230. doi: 10.4172/2168-9768.1000230 Copyright: © 2019 Meskelu E, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.