Irrigation plays a key role in determining yield and quality of Burley tobacco and it is often indispensable for commercial cultivation of this crop. In semi-arid tobacco growing areas of Southern Italy, the priority of irrigation is to save water since it is one of the major limiting factors for growth and yield. In 2005 a field experiment was conducted using furrow-irrigated Burley tobacco (cv. C104) to compare two deficit irrigation treatments (50% ETc), imposed either using conventional deficit irrigation (DI50) or alternate row irrigation (ARI50), with a full irrigation treatment (100% ETc, control). In the DI50 treatment plants received half amount of water uniformly applied to both sides of the row whereas in the ARI50 treatment one-half of the root zone was wetted while the other half was maintained dry, thereby the half amount of irrigation water was applied; in particular, the wetted and dry root zone were interchanged in two subsequent irrigations. Seedlings were transplanted at a 1.0 × 0.5 m distance on May 30 and fertilized with 120 kg ha^-1 of nitrogen. All plants were topped at flowering (first week of August), harvested on September 13 and air-cured in ventilated rooms. DI50 and ARI50 decreased yield by 31% and 10%, respectively, compared to the control. DI50 and ARI50 increased the irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE, kg cured leaves ha^-1 mm^-1 of irrigation water applied) by 39 and 79%, respectively, compared to the control treatment. The dry matter at commercial harvest of DI50 and ARI50 was 46 and 24% less, respectively, than that of the control. Considering both the maintenance of yield and dry matter and the high water use efficiency of ARI50 treatment, results of the present experiment indicated that ARI50 could be a feasible irrigation strategy.