Samuel Lindi*, Bakasho Iticha and Mehiret Hone
Water scarcity is among the major limiting factor that affects crop production in which efficient utilization of limited irrigation water is vital. A field experiment was conducted for two consecutive years at Kulumsa Agricultural Research Centre during the dry season based on the objective to determine the effect of moisture stress at different growth stages on yield and water productivity of wheat. Fifteen treatments combined and imposed at four growth stages were used in A Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. The two years combined result indicated that moisture stress at different growth stages highly significant (P < 0.05) influenced plant height and grain yield of wheat. On the other hand, there was no significant (p > 0.05) variation among treatments on hectolitre weight, total kernel weight, and above-ground biomass. A maximum plant height of 70.5 cm was obtained when wheat is irrigated at the initial and development stages only. The highest grain yield (4.71 ton/ha) was obtained at control treatments where all the growth stage is irrigated which were followed by a treatment in which moisture stress happens only during the late season. On the other hand, the lowest grain yield (2.23 ton/ha) was obtained when wheat irrigated only during the late season, stressing the rest growth stages which leads to a reduction of 52.7% from the control treatment. Generally, the study showed that the grain yield of wheat was highly affected when moisture stress is imposed during the initial and development stages. In addition to this, the highest (4.71 ton/ha) and lowest (2.23 qt/ha) aboveground biomass were obtained at the control and when irrigation was applied only during the late season, respectively. The highest water productivity of 4.56 kg/m3 was obtained when only the initial stage is irrigated. Treatments that received lower irrigation water showed better water productivity especially when moisture stress was not imposed during the initial and development stages. Therefore, in areas where irrigation water is not limited, wheat should be irrigated during all growth stages and if there is limited water resource for irrigation water it could be irrigated only during the initial stages or initial and development stages to maximize water productivity.
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