Drip irrigation as a climate smart agricultural strategy to enhance productivity and water use efficiency in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.)

Abstract

Climate change is already having negative impacts on food security; therefore climate smart agricultural practices such as resilience crop variety and irrigation have become inevitable. A field experiment was carried out to investigate the impact of drip irrigation frequency on the productivity and water use of two cucumber varieties at the Research Station of Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti, Nigeria during the 2020/2021 dry season. The experiment design was 2-factorial, randomized complete block, arranged in split-plot and replicated three times. The main plot was drip irrigation frequency at three levels: irrigation water application five days a week (I5), irrigation water application four days a week (I4), and irrigation water application three days a week (I3) while the subplot was crop variety consisting of two cucumber varieties: CU-999 (V1) and Morano F1 (V2). The germination rate was significantly higher in Murano variety (96%) compared to CU-999 (83%). Irrigation, variety, and their combination did not influence (p > 0.05) cucumber growth parameters. Drip irrigation application four days a week and CU-999 cucumber variety had significantly (p < 0.05) highest number of fruits (14), fruit diameter (53.5 cm), water use efficiency (7.5 kg/ha/mm) whereas drip irrigation application five days a week and CU-999 cucumber variety had the highest fruit weight (208.8 g) and yield (3.2 kg/m²). CU-999 variety grown under four irrigations per week showed more resilience in terms of growth parameters, yield components, and water use efficiency. Therefore, CU-999 cucumber variety and irrigation four days a week is the preferred irrigation-variety combination for optimum productivity and water use of cucumber production in this region. © 2025 The Author(s)