Abstract            Volume:11  Issue-8  Year-2023         Original Research Articles

Online ISSN : 2347 - 3215 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcret@gmail.com

The study was carried out at Melkassa Agricultural Research Center, Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia. The objective was to determine irrigation level under soil moisture stress condition and investigate the effect of soil moisture stress on common growth components under scarce water resource condition. The treatment comprised seven moisture levels (100, 85, 75, 65, 55, 45 and 35% ETc) and laid out in randomized complete block design with three replications. Results indicated that, both days to flowering and physiological maturity had shown decreasing trend with increasing soil moisture stress level. Significance differences(p<0.05) were also observed on days pod maturity, Days to attain 50% flowering, Leaf area and relative leaf water content among irrigation water level whereas, high significance difference(p<0.01) was observed among treatment on plant height and Leaf area index. Treatment stressed by 55% and 65% of its crop water requirement records minimum days (86 and 85.67) respectively to first pod maturity. Full irrigation has maximum relative leaf water content at development (67.58%) and mid-season (74.37%) growing stage, which is statistically similar with those treatments stressed by 15 and 25% crop water requirement. The largest plant height of (70.58 cm) was recorded from full irrigation (100% ETc), while the smallest plant height was observed under treatment stressed by 65% (48.95 cm) which is inferior to all other treatments. Leaf area of 21.4cm2 was recorded from 75% ETc treatment which is not significant from control treatment (85 and 100% ETc).The reduction of irrigation water amount from 100% ETc to 35% ETc showed decreasing gradient of leaf area and leaf area index.

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