Abstract

Irrigation plays a crucial role in addressing the main challenges caused by food insecurity and rainfall uncertainty. Determining availability of water for irrigation is required on both its quantity and quality. Quality should infer how well a water supply fulfills the needs of intended use. Water used for irrigation always contains some dissolved salts. So the suitability of water for irrigation will be determined by the amount and kind of salts present. The main objective of this study was determining the salinity threshold value of carrot in order to address the commutative effect of salt on carrot production. The experiment was designed in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) and conducted at Debre Markos Soil Laboratory with seven (0.4, 0.8, 1.2, 1.6, 2.0, 2.4 and 2.8 dS/m, respectively) salinity levels and three replications. The major findings indicated that the yield of salinity levels are 0.4, 0.8, 1.2, 1.6, 2.0, 2.4 and 2.8 dS/m and the yield are 8526, 8895, 9026, 7703, 6526, 5526 and 4466 kg/ha, respectively. The corresponding dry matter percentages were also 808, 784, 808, 692, 537, 534 and 303 kg/ha, respectively consequently. This showed that carrot would give maximum yield and dry matter when its salinity level on irrigation water is at threshold level (1.2 dS/m), but shows a higher reduction, which might even tend to zero yield provided when there is further addition of salt above the threshold level.

Keywords:

Carrot-yield, cumulative effect, salinity, threshold value,

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