Participatory Evaluation and Demonstration of Onion Spacing in Irrigated Agriculture at Kencho Kebele in Uba Debre Tsehay Woreda, Southern Ethiopia

This study was conducted for two consecutive years to find optimum onion spacing under full irrigation, which allows the maximum yield of onion at Kencho kebele of Uba debretsehay woreda Gofa Zone Southern, Ethiopia through the support of the Participatory Small-scale Irrigation Development Program(PASID II). The experiment has four levels of onion planting spacing (8cm, 10cm, 12cm, and Farmer's practice or planting with own practice), laid down in Randomized Completed Block Design (RCBD) with four Replications. The same amount of irrigation water (416.56mm) which is 100%ETc was applied for all treatments in the five-day intervals during the study. There was no significant difference among treatment spacing 8cm,10cm, and 12cm on the total yield of onion (16.304 t/ha,17.178 t/ha, and 17.740 t/ha), respectively. The only statistical difference was observed between the three treatments and farmer practice which is 7.3cm (11.464t/ha) on average spacing. Accordingly, farmers’ (FREG) were very profitable from the study in both years. Of course, the yield obtained from the study was very low as compared to the potential yield of Red Creole variety in Ethiopia. As a result, farmers were earned a seasonal income of 34ETB/kg which was very costly, and 532,831ETB/ha on average from seasonal production. This implies that low production potential, but makes high profitable for the farmers during the season. So the PASIDP has vital economic values on the livelihood of farmers and even good training for neighborhood farmers. Therefore it was recommended that application appropriate onion spacing of 10cm with a properly managed field irrigation system makes it highly profitable with marketable yield under full irrigation (100%ETc).