Water scarcity constrains potato production where irrigation water is limited and field application efficiency is low. This study evaluated conventional furrow irrigation, alternate furrow irrigation, and fixed furrow irrigation at 60%, 80%, and 100% of crop evapotranspiration for potato production in Dedo District, southwestern Ethiopia. A factorial experiment was conducted using a randomized complete block design with three replications. The assessment considered tuber yield, water use, water productivity, yield response, water savings, additional irrigable area, and economic indicators. The source results show that conventional furrow irrigation at 100% of crop evapotranspiration produced the highest absolute production, but used substantially more water. Alternate furrow irrigation at 80% and 100% of crop evapotranspiration provided higher water productivity with relatively small yield penalties and favorable system-level economic indicators. The findings indicate that irrigation method and irrigation level should be evaluated together when allocating scarce water among potato-producing areas.

Keywords: Potato, Deficit Irrigation, Conventional Furrow Irrigation, Alternate Furrow Irrigation, Fixed Furrow Irrigation, Evapotranspiration, Crop Water Productivity, Yield Response Factor, Water Saving, Additional Irrigable Area, Marginal Rate of Return.

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Source of Funding:

No specific external funding source is reported in the source manuscript.

Competing Interests Statement:

The source manuscript does not report competing interests.

Consent for publication:

All the authors contributed to the manuscript and consented to the publication of this research work.

Authors' contributions:

Abu Dedo Ilmi led study implementation, data analysis, and manuscript preparation; Roba Adugna Maru contributed to field supervision and manuscript review.

Informed Consent:

Not Applicable.

Availability of Data and Material:

The underlying experimental data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request, subject to author and institutional approval.

Institutional Review Board Statement:

Not Applicable.

Ethical Approval:

Not Applicable.

Acknowledgement:

The authors acknowledge the Oromia Agricultural Research Institute and Jimma Agricultural Engineering Research Center for institutional and technical support.

Declaration of Artificial Intelligence:

The authors declare that artificial intelligence tools were not used to generate, fabricate, or alter the experimental data. Any language-editing assistance used during manuscript revision did not replace the authors' responsibility for the scientific content, data, analysis, and conclusions.