Adoption of drip irrigation and impact on cotton productivity of Aurangabad district of Maharashtra

摘要

The water use efficiency is becoming crucial part of crop productivity with limited available natural resources. Cotton crop is mainly dependent on ground water for irrigation. The study evaluated the adoption of drip irrigation (DI) and its impact oncotton productivity of Aurangabad district. There is 29.50 per cent increase in cotton yield with 38.01 per cent water saving due to adoption of DI. There is 228.03 HPh/ha savings in water use and 171.03 kwh/h saving in electricity consumption in DI farmers. The adoption of DI improves cotton productivity by 29.50 per cent with 38.01 per cent water saving and reduction in electricity consumption than Food irrigation (FI). But surprisingly the water use is improved in DI i.e. 4432.8 CuM /ha than FI i.e.2846.4 CuM/ha. This additional use of water by DI may be due to the farmers tending to use limited water through DI to cotton crop for getting more yields in water scarce period. Continuous dry spell during critical crop growth stages may affect yield of the crop. The DI play important role in providing protective irrigation in critical growth stages of cotton during long dry spells of rain. The DI improves cotton productivity with reduction in water and electricity use.