Abstract            Volume:14  Issue-5  Year-2026         Original Research Articles

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

Changing climate conditions and declining water resources demand appropriate approaches to improve crop yield and water use efficiency through a reduced and more reliable water supply. This study was conducted to evaluate the response of wheat crop to irrigation regime (when and how much) and to identify water productivity of wheat under optimal irrigation regime. Field experiments were conducted in two consecutive years during 2023 and 2024 irrigation season. The experiment was carried out in RCBD with three replications, randomly assigned to the experimental plots with treatments. Five available soil moisture depletion levels (60% ASMDL, 80% ASMDL, 100% ASMDL (FAO recommended ASMDL), 120% ASMDL and 140% ASMDL) were used as treatment. The results obtained of two years of research showed that different of levels of soil moisture available had a significant effect (P< 0.05) on spike length, thousand kernel weight, grain yield and water productivity of wheat crop. However, different soil moisture depletion levels showed no significant difference on plant height and on number of tiller per plant. The highest number of spike length (7.608 g), thousand kernel weight (40.98 cm), grain yield (21.69 t/ha) and water productivity on wheat grain yield (5.640 kg/m³) were recorded at 80%ASMDL. On the other hand the minimum spike length, thousand kernel weight, grain yield and water productivity of wheat crop were recorded at 140 per cent ASMDL. Hence, based on the findings of the current experiment, it is recommended that using 80%ASMDL every five day irrigation application under furrow irrigation system for wheat crop to be grown in areas around Abaya district and similar agro-ecology with similar soil types as best options to increase yield and water use efficiency.

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