IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agiwat/v95y2008i11p1223-1232.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Quantifying rainfall-runoff relationships on the Dera Calcic Fluvic Regosol ecotope in Ethiopia

Author

Listed:
  • Welderufael, W.A.
  • Le Roux, P.A.L.
  • Hensley, M.

Abstract

Droughts, resulting in low crop yields, are common in the semi-arid areas of Ethiopia and adversely influence the well-being of many people. The objective of this study was to assess the benefit that in-field rainwater harvesting (IRWH) would have, compared to conventional tillage, on maize yields on a semi-arid ecotope at Dera situated on the eastern part of the Rift Valley. Rainfall-runoff measurements were made during 2003 and 2004 on 2 m x 2 m plots provided with a runoff measuring system and replicated three times for each treatment. There were two treatments: conventional tillage (CT) and no-till (NT), the latter with a flat surface that promotes runoff and therefore IRWH. Rainfall intensity was measured at 1 min intervals with an automatic tipping bucket instrument, and runoff was measured after each rain event. Measured runoff as a function of rainfall intensity and duration from half the rainfall-runoff events was used to determine the critical parameters of a appropriate runoff model. The calibrated model was found to be capable of predicting runoff in a satisfactory way. Rainfall-runoff measurements were made during the rain seasons in 2003 and 2004 during which there were 25 rain events with >9 mm of rain. There was no statistical difference between the runoff on the two treatments. The measured runoff (R) for the two rain seasons, expressed as a fraction of the rainfall during the measuring period (P), i.e. R/P, gave values of 0.46 and 0.39 for the NT and CT treatments, respectively. Results from 7 years of field experiments with IRWH at Glen in South Africa were used to estimate the yield benefit of NT for Dera compared to CT. The results were 696 and 494 kg ha-1 for 2003 and 2004, respectively. Based on the estimated average long-term maize yield of 2000 kg ha-1 at Dera, this was an estimated yield increase ranging from 25% to 35%.

Suggested Citation

  • Welderufael, W.A. & Le Roux, P.A.L. & Hensley, M., 2008. "Quantifying rainfall-runoff relationships on the Dera Calcic Fluvic Regosol ecotope in Ethiopia," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 95(11), pages 1223-1232, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:95:y:2008:i:11:p:1223-1232
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378-3774(08)00092-9
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ojasvi, P. R. & Goyal, R. K. & Gupta, J. P., 1999. "The micro-catchment water harvesting technique for the plantation of jujube (Zizyphus mauritiana) in an agroforestry system under arid conditions," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 139-147, August.
    2. Oweis, T. & Hachum, A. & Kijne, J., 1999. "Water harvesting and supplemental irrigation for improved water use efficiency in dry areas," IWMI Books, Reports H024198, International Water Management Institute.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Assefa, Shibeshi & Biazin, Birhanu & Muluneh, Alemayehu & Yimer, Fantaw & Haileslassie, Amare, 2016. "Rainwater harvesting for supplemental irrigation of onions in the southern dry lands of Ethiopia," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 325-334.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. He, Xue-Feng & Cao, Huhua & Li, Feng-Min, 2007. "Econometric analysis of the determinants of adoption of rainwater harvesting and supplementary irrigation technology (RHSIT) in the semiarid Loess Plateau of China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 89(3), pages 243-250, May.
    2. Li, X.-Y. & Zhao, W.-W. & Song, Y.-X. & Wang, W. & Zhang, X.-Y., 2008. "Rainfall harvesting on slopes using contour furrows with plastic-covered transverse ridges for growing Caragana korshinskii in the semiarid region of China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 95(5), pages 539-544, May.
    3. Abrisqueta, J.M. & Plana, V. & Mounzer, O.H. & Mendez, J. & Ruiz-Sanchez, M.C., 2007. "Effects of soil tillage on runoff generation in a Mediterranean apricot orchard," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 93(1-2), pages 11-18, October.
    4. Li, Xiao-Yan & Xie, Zhong-Kui & Yan, Xiang-Kui, 2004. "Runoff characteristics of artificial catchment materials for rainwater harvesting in the semiarid regions of China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 211-224, March.
    5. Mintesinot, B. & Verplancke, H. & Van Ranst, E. & Mitiku, H., 2004. "Examining traditional irrigation methods, irrigation scheduling and alternate furrows irrigation on vertisols in northern Ethiopia," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 17-27, January.
    6. Kumar, M. Dinesh & van Dam, J. C., 2009. "Improving water productivity in agriculture in India: beyond \u2018more crop per drop\u2019," IWMI Books, Reports H042639, International Water Management Institute.
    7. Awulachew, Seleshi Bekele, 2006. "Improved agricultural water management: assessment of constraints and opportunities for agricultural development in Ethiopia," Conference Papers h039627, International Water Management Institute.
    8. Kumar, M. Dinesh & van Dam, J. C., 2008. "Improving water productivity in agriculture in developing economies: in search of new avenues," IWMI Conference Proceedings 245276, International Water Management Institute.
    9. Molden, David & Oweis, T. Y. & Pasquale, S. & Kijne, Jacob W. & Hanjra, M. A. & Bindraban, P. S. & Bouman, Bas A. M. & Cook, S. & Erenstein, O. & Farahani, H. & Hachum, A. & Hoogeveen, J. & Mahoo, Hen, 2007. "Pathways for increasing agricultural water productivity," Book Chapters,, International Water Management Institute.
    10. Oweis, T. Y. & Hachum, A. Y., 2003. "Improving water productivity in the dry areas of West Asia and North Africa," IWMI Books, Reports H032642, International Water Management Institute.
    11. Min Tang & Hongchen Li & Chao Zhang & Xining Zhao & Xiaodong Gao & Pute Wu, 2021. "Mulching Measures Improve Soil Moisture in Rain-Fed Jujube ( Ziziphus jujuba Mill.) Orchards in the Loess Hilly Region of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-13, January.
    12. Oweis, Theib & Hachum, Ahmed, 2006. "Water harvesting and supplemental irrigation for improved water productivity of dry farming systems in West Asia and North Africa," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 80(1-3), pages 57-73, February.
    13. Osman, Rehab & Ferrari, Emanuele & McDonald, Scott, 2015. "Water Quality Assessment SAM/CGE and Satellite Accounts Integrated Framework," 89th Annual Conference, April 13-15, 2015, Warwick University, Coventry, UK 204291, Agricultural Economics Society.
    14. Yuan, Tian & Fengmin, Li & Puhai, Liu, 2003. "Economic analysis of rainwater harvesting and irrigation methods, with an example from China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 217-226, May.
    15. Oweis, Theib & Hachum, Ahmed & Pala, Mustafa, 2004. "Lentil production under supplemental irrigation in a Mediterranean environment," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 68(3), pages 251-265, August.
    16. Patrick W. Keys & Malin Falkenmark, 2018. "Green water and African sustainability," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(3), pages 537-548, June.
    17. Qadir, M. & Sharma, B.R. & Bruggeman, A. & Choukr-Allah, R. & Karajeh, F., 2007. "Non-conventional water resources and opportunities for water augmentation to achieve food security in water scarce countries," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 2-22, January.
    18. Pereira, Luis Santos & Oweis, Theib & Zairi, Abdelaziz, 2002. "Irrigation management under water scarcity," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 57(3), pages 175-206, December.
    19. Tubeileh, Ashraf & Bruggeman, Adriana & Turkelboom, Francis, 2016. "Water-harvesting designs for fruit tree production in dry environments," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 190-197.
    20. Molden, D. & Murray-Rust, H. & Sakthivadivel, R. & Makin, I., 2003. "A water-productivity framework for understanding and action," IWMI Books, Reports H032632, International Water Management Institute.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:95:y:2008:i:11:p:1223-1232. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agwat .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.