Response of drip irrigated potato under variable irrigation levels.

摘要

With declining ground water tables and lack of adequate surface water supplies for irrigation, Indian farmers must adopt efficient irrigation systems to grow more food with less water. The drip irrigation system offers a huge potential to farmers to grow more cash crops with limited water supplies. The main objective of this study was to conduct research experiments to determine the viability of a drip irrigation system to grow potatoes under varying degrees of management practices. To accomplish the objective field studies were conducted for two years (2003 and 2004) on clay loam soil in the northern region of Allahabad to study the effect of eight water management levels (equivalent to pan evaporation replenishment of 25, 50, 75, 100, 125, 150, 175 and 200%) on potato yield, irrigation production efficiency, and economics of a potato production system using the drip irrigation method. The highest average potato yield of 48.98 tonnes/ha was observed at water use equivalent to 150% of pan evaporation replenishment. The maximum irrigation production efficiency of 106.26 kg/m3 was observed. Also, drip irrigation at 150% of pan evaporation replenishment resulted in the highest benefit cost ratio. The seasonal water applied and marketable yield of potato showed quadratic relationship (R2=0.9830), which can be used for allocating irrigation water within and between the crops. The results of this study clearly indicate that the drip irrigation system is profitable for potato production inspite of high initial investment.