Advances in Crop Science and Technology
Open Access

Irrigation is a vitally in meeting the food and fiber needs for a rapidly expanding world population. Know a day; the agricultural sector around the world is under more pressure for limiting its water use, not only because of increasing water demand, but also because of climatic changes and more frequent droughts. The challenge of feeding high population growth in the world in general and in developing countries in particular needs improvements in both water and moisture management in irrigated agriculture. To sustain the rapidly growing world population, there is a need to increase agricultural production. In irrigation water management and soil moisture conservation must be crucial to remove crop yield penalty and also crop water requirements [1]. Special in arid and semi-arid area there is limiting amount of water source so in order to use that limiting amount water source soil water and soil moisture conservation is mandatory action using different mulching materials like plastic mulch, straw mulch and other local material. Effective management of available water resources for crop production requires the producer to understand relationships between soil, water, and plants. Knowledge about available soil water and soil texture can influence the decision-making process, such as determining what crops to plant and when to irrigate.

The material used for such paper was different research conducted on different parts of the country and outputs on integrated effect of Mulching and Furrow Methods different crop types were reviewed.

This includes journals from online websites using www.goole.com search and other useful materials.

Different mulch type and furrow irrigation methods have a significant improvement on maize yield indifferent research findings. Reported that the analysis of pooled mean revealed that 1000-seed weight was significant (p<0.05) influenced due to different types of furrow irrigation water management methods. On the other hand, different mulching type had no significant effect on 1000-seed weight [2]. The highest (347.1 g) 1000-seed weight was obtained at conventional furrow method and it was statistically similar with that of alternate furrow method. On the other hand, the minimum (304.3 g) 1000-seed weight was obtained at fixed furrow a condition which was statistically inferior to both conventional and alternate furrow method. On the other hand the analysis of pooled means and both season data reveled that different types of furrow irrigation water management methods influenced aboveground biomass and grain yield of maize highly significantly (p<0.01). Maximum aboveground biomass (28.28 t/ha) and grain yield (6.29 t/ha) were observed at conventional furrow irrigation water application method. The maximum aboveground biomass and grain yield obtained at conventional furrow method were statistically superior to both alternate and fixed furrow methods. Contrary to this, minimum aboveground biomass (19.29 t/ha) and grain yield (4.20 t/ha) were obtained at fixed furrow irrigation method [3]. The minimum aboveground biomass and grain yield obtained at fixed furrow were statistically similar with that of alternate furrow irrigation method. The highest aboveground biomass and grain yield of maize obtained at conventional furrow irrigation method lead to an improvement of 46.6 and 49.8% than the fixed furrow method, respectively.

Maize

The analysis of pooled means and both season data also revealed that different types of mulch on maize had a highly significant (p<0.01) influence on aboveground biomass. Moreover, grain yield of maize was significantly (p<0.05) affected by different types of mulch. Maximum aboveground biomass (22.59 t/ha) and grain yield (4.98 t/ha) were observed at plastic mulching condition. The maximum aboveground biomass obtained at plastic mulching was statistically superior to both treatments which followed by straw mulching condition. Moreover, the minimum (20.73 t/ha) aboveground biomass obtained at no mulching condition was statistically inferior to both treatments. On the other hand, the maximum grain yield obtained at plastic mulching condition was statistically similar with that of straw mulch [4]. Moreover, the minimum (4.67 t/ha) grain yield obtained at no mulching condition was statistically similar with that of straw mulch. The highest aboveground biomass and grain yield of maize obtained at plastic mulching lead to an improvement of 19.1 and 16.9% over the conventional non-mulching condition. The research conducted on wondogent research center showed that maximum above ground biomass and 1000-seed rate both on conventional furrow irrigation method and plastic mulch [5]. This might be due to highest and adequate soil moisture content in the root zone leads to improve aboveground biomass and grain yield of maize (Table 1).

Table 1: Review on Means of yield and yield components of maize as influenced by main effects of furrow irrigation techniques and mulching materials.

Similarly the study conducted at were Werer Agricultural Research Center area revealed that above ground biomass production of maize was maximized (24654.30 kg ha-1) with conventional furrow irrigation method and (7930.40 kg/ha) was obtained from white plastic mulch. Those finding could be important information for the production of maize both using different mulch type and furrow irrigation method [6]. So as the result showed that as the soil moisture more conserved the crop yield also increased where similar agroecology and soil type alternative furrow irrigation method with plastic mulch were best practiced and option both in grain yield production and water use efficiency.

Potato

In addition to maize, Potato (Solanum tuberosum L) production under different mulch type and furrow irrigation technique condition at Kulumsa was reported. As reported that interaction effect of different mulch type and irrigation method had not significantly affected plant height at p>0.05. The result observed that plant height ranges from 76.7 to 80.9 cm under different furrow irrigation water application techniques and form 77.3 to 81.7 cm under different mulch type. The result of potato yield showed that, different types of irrigation method highly significantly (p<0.01) affected potato tuber yield. Moreover, potato tuber yield highly significantly (p<0.01) influenced due to different mulch types used [7]. The interaction effect of the two factors, furrow irrigation methods and mulch types, had a significant (p<0.05) effect on tuber yield of potato. The highest tuber yield of 44,866 kg/ha was obtained at conventional furrow irrigation method. On the other hand, the minimum tuber yield of 39,782 kg/ha was obtained at fixed furrow irrigation method which is statistically similar with the tuber yield obtained at alternate furrow method. The maximum tuber yield of 44,136 kg/ha was obtained under different straw mulch application. The minimum tuber yield of 39,218 kg/ha was obtained at plastic mulch condition which was statistically similar with no mulch condition. The interaction effect showed that higher tuber yield of 50,452 kg/ha was obtained at conventional furrow irrigation water application technique under straw mulching. Under deficit treatments, the higher tuber yield of 41,942 kg/ha was obtained at alternate furrow irrigation under straw mulch.

Onion

Research conducted on onion crop in Debre zeit Agricultural research center reported that results on different types of furrow method had a significant difference (p<0.01) on onion yield. The maximum Onion yield (39.5 t/ha) were observed at conventional furrow irrigation water application method. The maximum marketable Onion yield obtained at conventional furrow irrigation was statistically superior to both alternate and fixed furrow irrigation [8]. However, minimum marketable yield (28.9 t/ha) were obtained at fixed furrow irrigation method. Therefore, the highest marketable yield of onion obtained at conventional furrow irrigation method lead to an improvement of 27% while alternative furrow was 16% than the fixed furrow irrigation method.

In addition to different furrow irrigation method the different types of mulch on onion yield had highly significant (p<0.01). Therefore, maximum marketable yield of onion bulb (37.1 t/ha) were observed at straw mulching condition but the maximum bulb yield obtained at straw mulching condition was statistically similar with that of plastic mulch. Moreover, the minimum (29.5 t/ha) marketable yield obtained at no mulching condition was statistically significant different with both straw and plastic mulching. So, the highest marketable yield of onion bulb obtained at straw followed by plastic mulching showed an improvement of 20% and 18% respectively over the conventional nonmulching condition.

On the other hand, who reported that the highest marketable yield were obtained through black plastic mulch followed by straw mulch in Onion crop. Interaction effect of deficit irrigation levels by mulching exhibited a highly significant (P<0.01) influence on the marketable yield [9]. The highest marketable yield (47.25 ton ha-1) was obtained from combined application of treatment received 100% ETc and plastic mulch whereas the lowest marketable yield (15 tonha-1) was obtained from treatment received 50% ETc and no mulch. Based on different research conducted finding results reported that different results and conclusions.

Different Research findings on different mulch type and furrow irrigation method on different crop type at different parts of the country recommendation should be used for different irrigation conditions like fixed furrow irrigation method, alternative furrow irrigation method and different mulch type like plastic mulch, straw mulch and no mulch conditions. Research findings revealed that different mulch type under different irrigation condition significantly produced higher yield of diverse crops. Various crops under different agro-ecology and soil type were significantly different in response to mulch type. So, application of higher thickness and more soil moisture conserving mulch material like plastic mulch could be best for more yield production. Some of are recommended straw mulch are higher than the plastic mulch.

Based on different findings most of research conducted on mulch type and furrow irrigation methods are not considered cost benefit and economic analysis of mulch type and the water conserved by using mulch. In addition to this like Wed management system special in plastic mulch the wed controlling system is very difficult when the plastic covered fully the plot area.

Disease controlling system on straw mulch, mulch material standards different research finding are not mention the mulch type and rate. So when researches are conducted on mulch type should be mention mulch type special straw mulch type and in plastic mulch the thickness and also color type white or black. Although different research conducted in different parts of the country especially in research centers when proposed research activities on mulch the mulching system should be mention like all of the plot covered or only root zone of the crop and mulch materials only one crop type or local easily available any mulch materials. Moreover, more study on effect of different mulch type option and furrow irrigation method should be studied. The findings clearly indicated the interactive effect of the moisture content conservation and furrow irrigation method has significant yield advantage over almost all the control treatment on different crop types. Generally this review aims to contribute towards the research conducted in our country based on mulch type and integrated with furrow irrigation method could be documented and also filling this gap as listed above by focusing on the use of mulch in irrigated area as a best water-saving practice.