RAIN GUN SPRINKLER IRRIGATION - AN ADVANCE TECHNOLOGY OF WATER MANAGEMENT FOR SUGARCANE

摘要

The rain gun sprinkler irrigation has an advantage of water saving along with increased water use efficiency over the conventional method of irrigation. It is possible to cover more area at a time by replacing many small sprinklers with one rain gun. TYve labour requirement in shifting of system also can be greatly reduced. The rain gun gives gentle rain, which matches with the infiltration rate of the soil and hence there is no erosion or stagnant water. The experiments were conducted at Vasantdada Sugar Institute, Pune during 2006 to 2010 to evaluate the performance of rain gun sprinkler irrigation in comparison with furrow irrigation in sugarcane crop and to study the possibility of suitable intercropping in sugarcane under rain gun sprinkler irrigation. The results revealed that 30.64% water saving, 17.16% increase in cane yield and 1.71 times more water use efficiency can be achieved by using rain gun sprinkler irrigation in sugarcane crop as compared to furrow irrigation. The seasonal intercrops can be successfully and profitably cultivated under rain gun sprinkler irrigation in paired row method of sugarcane planting of without making additional irrigation arrangement for inter crop.