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Response of Artemisia (Artemisia annua L.) for Moisture Stress Condition at Different Growth Stages at Koka, Ethiopia

Elias Meskelu*, AyeleDebebe, HenokTesfaye, Mulugeta Mohammed, Seble Bekele

The experiment was carried out at Wondo Genet Agricultural Research Center, Koka research station, Ethiopia, Ethiopia 8°26’ N latitude, 39°2’ E longitude and 1602 m.a.s.l. altitude for three dry seasons (2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19) based on an objective to identify Artemisia (Artemisia annua L.) growth stages sensitive to soil moisture stress, determine critical time for irrigation application for limited water resources and productivity of water. Fourteen moisture stress at the four growth stages (initial, development, mid-season and late season stages) and one control (irrigated all the four growth stages) were used with three replication in randomized complete block design. The study revealed that moisture stress at different growth stages had a highly significant (p<0.01) effect on pooled means of plant height, fresh leaf weight, stem fresh weight, aboveground biomass, essential oil yield and water use efficiency. Higher growth, yield and yield components like plant height, fresh leaf weight, stem fresh weight, aboveground biomass and essential oil yield were associated with the control treatment and for treatments that received higher irrigation water. However, water use efficiency was associated with treatments that received lower irrigation amounts due to moisture stress at different growth stages especially those obtained irrigation on late season stage. The study revealed that despite lower water use efficiency, irrigation of Artemisia during all the growth stages leads to higher yield herbal and essential oil yield. This shows its sensitive to moisture stress at different in all the growth stage especially in the study area and similar semi-arid environment. Therefore, it could be recommended that irrigation of Artemisia during all the growth stages should be practiced in the study area and similar agro-ecology.