Drip irrigation has become a well-established method for irrigating high-value crops in regions, where water resources are scarce and/or expensive. Field experiments were conducted to examine the performance of Water pad-drip irrigation system for production of tomatoes during dry period of January to April, 2017 in Arba Minch area. The effects of water-pad application with crop water requirement have significant yield variation. Different treatments were carried out with different categories in total area of 150m2 plot. All treatments except T1 and T5 applied water-pad with a dimension of 6 m length, classified in to four compartments of water-pad width and water application. Treatment (T2, T3 &T4) water application level considered were 100 %, 75 %& 50 % H2O for the crop with Water-pad width 21 cm, 14 cm, 7 cm and 0 cm respectively. The result showed under T4 with 1.65, 1.5, 1.39 and 0.9 kg yield plant-1, followed by T3 with 1.5, 1.3, 1.25 and 0.95 kg yield plant-1; and T2 with 1.3, 1.15, 1.1 kg and 1.0 kg plant-1 was obtained respectively. For T4, T3 and T2, percentage of yield was increased by 36, 25 and 14 %, respectively, compared with T1 and T5. This indicates that water-pad in irrigation system decrease the water consumption and increase yield product. Therefore, the study concludes that applying water pad has an important indicator to reduce irrigated water loss by percolation and increase crop yield product.

Keywords: Irrigation Practice; Water-Pad; Drip-Irrigation; Crop yield; Tomatoes; Treatment