Irrigation Potential Assessment for Effective Agricultural Production in West Guji Zone, Ethiopia

Abstract

Irrigation is one method of increasing agricultural output in response to rising food demand. Increasing agricultural yield, arable land area, and cropping intensity are three ways to meet rising demand (number of crops per year). The purpose of this research is to determine the irrigation potential of the West Guji zone. A comprehensive study on irrigation potential, land suitability, water resources, and crop selection must be conducted to achieve this goal. The land's suitability for irrigation was determined using a combination of the Geographical Information System (GIS) and the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). Water availability was determined by using streamflow discharge for gauged watersheds and the runoff coefficient method for un-gauged sites, and the results are presented every month. To calculate the crop water requirement of the dominant crop in the study area, the crop wat-8 Model was used. According to the results of the irrigation suitability model's weighted overlay analysis, 3.1 percent of the total area is covered by a highly suitable class(s₁), 57.2 percent by a moderately suitable class(s₂), 39.6 percent by a marginally suitable class(s₃) and the remaining 0.1 percent by an unsuitable class(N). The result of streamflow analysis in both gauged and ungauged watersheds was estimated as 232.25 m³/s.  In most river catchments, the gross irrigation water requirements exceed the available water. As a result, the effective irrigable area must be calculated using the minimum effective flow.