Vol. 11, Special Issue 7 (2022)

Author(s):
GB Shashidhara and Sourabh Munnoli

Abstract:
Productivity of drip irrigation was estimated in a field experiment in which sunflower was grown in the rainy season, followed by chickpea (Cicer arietinum), bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) and groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) in winter, in Dharwad in the state of Karnataka in southern India. The treatments comprised three levels of irrigation for sunflower, namely 1.0 ET0 (the reference evapotranspiration), 0.8 ET0, and surface flooding (which served as the control) and 0.6 ET0 for chickpea, 0.9 ET0 for wheat, and 0.8 ET0 for groundnut. The sunflower seed yield was significantly higher in 1.0 ET0 (2,432 kg ha⁻¹) than that in either 0.8 ET0 (2,172 kg ha⁻¹) or the control (1,847 kg ha⁻¹). In the winter too, yields with drip irrigation were significantly higher: higher by 21.40 percent in chickpea, 18.70 percent in wheat, and 15.58 per cent in groundnut; in terms of sunflower seed equivalent yield, groundnut (5,848 kg ha⁻¹) and chickpea (5,182 kg ha⁻¹) proved superior to wheat. The highest water-use efficiency (6.41 kg ha⁻¹ mm⁻¹) was recorded in the sunflower–chickpea combination. Sunflower–groundnut system fetched the highest returns (about 1,40,810 rupees, or $1846, per hectare).