Vol. 12, Issue 6 (2023)

Efficient management of depleting water resources is important in order to enhance crop productivity and to attain high water use efficiency. The study aimed at identifying irrigation management practices, which could result in water savings through deliberate under irrigation. Field experiments were conducted at experimental site of Central Research field of Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Prayagraj., India on potato crop (Kufri badshah) over a period of two years during the winter seasons of 2020-2021and 2021-2022. The crop was planted in first week of December and harvested in the last week of March spanning approximately 110 days. Three irrigation treatments were maintained based on the maximum allowable depletion (MAD) of available soil water. The treatments were 20% (T₁), 40% (T₂) and 60% (T₃) maximum allowable depletion of available soil water. No soil water stress was maintained at the initial stages of the crop development so as to allow the plants attain a healthy growth. Soil moisture content was measured by gravimetric method periodically in 0-15, 15-30 and 30-45 cm soil profiles. Soil moisture showed a cyclic temporal variation at all three selected soil depths. The magnitude of this variation was higher in 0-15 cm soil profile and decreased in 15-30 and 30-45 cm soil profiles in that order. This trend was observed at all schedules of irrigation. Field experiments revealed that irrigation schedule with 40% maximum allowable depletion of available soil water gave the maximum water use efficiency for potato crop. For scheduling of irrigation of potato crop, 0-30 cm soil profile should be considered as most of the required water to be extracted from this layer by the plant.