Effect of stage‐wise deficit irrigation on crop water productivity of different varieties of teff (<scp><i>Eragrostis tef</i></scp>)

Abstract The increasing demand for water for various purposes is causing the availability of water for irrigation to decrease daily. Consequently, it is necessary to implement deficit irrigation. Research on the different teff crop varieties and the level of deficit irrigation with crop growth stages at semi‐arid agroecological zones remains inadequate. Therefore, the objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of stage‐wise deficit irrigation and crop variety on crop water productivity for the teff crop. Two varieties of teff and three irrigation levels were selected and applied for each growth stage. Crop water productivity was determined by using crop water consumed with their yield production and analyzed using Statistix 10.0 software. The results showed that crop varieties had a significant effect on crop water productivity. The maximum crop water productivity (0.92 kg m −3 ) and field water productivity (1.387 kg m −3 ) were obtained for a 30% deficit at the ripening growth stage for the Tseday teff variety. Contrarily, the minimum CWP and FWP of 0.617 kg m −3 and 0.959 kg m −3 were obtained to 30% deficit irrigation at the yield formation growth stage of the Quncho teff variety. Therefore, deficit irrigation during the yield formation growth stage was not recommended, but it was possible to apply deficit irrigation during the ripening growth stage to improve crop water productivity in areas of water scarcity.