Rainwater Harvesting and Supplemental Irrigation for Wheat in Kandi Region of Punjab

摘要

Moisture stress coupled with variable weather conditions is common phenomena in lower Shivaliks of Northern India, which results in higher dependence on supplemental irrigation. The present study was conducted with wheat crop under rainfed conditionsin Talwara block of Hoshiarpur district, Punjab with three treatments, viz., T_1: No irrigation, T_2: Irrigation at crown root initiation (CRI) stage and T_3: Irrigation at CRI stage and at flowering stage. Significantly higher grain and straw yield (3485 kg ha~(-1) and 6029 kg ha~(-1)) was observed in T3 in comparison to T_2 (3260 kg ha~(-1) and 5379 kg ha~(-1)) and T_1 (2820 kg ha 1 and 4484 kg ha~(-1)). Net return was Rs 34,610 ha~(-1), Rs 27,208 ha~(-1) and Rs 17,826 ha~(-1), whereas, B:C ratio was2.63, 2.31 and 1.88 with respect to T_3, T_2 and T_1 treatments, respectively. Less heat use efficiency for water stress conditions was observed in T_1 (1.2 ha~(-1) °C days) as compared to T_3 (1.4 ha~(-1) °C days) and T_2 (1.3 ha~(-1) °C days). Hence, it can be concluded that supplemental irrigation improved the grain yield and economic returns of rainfed wheat sown under limited irrigation.