Production, Quality, Water Use Efficiency, Post Harvest Attributes and Economics of Garlic as Influenced by Irrigation Methods, Irrigation Scheduling and Fertigation
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Date
2015
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Abstract
Field investigations were carried out for two years (2009 – 10 and 2010 – 11) to evaluate the effect of variable irrigation and fertigation on growth yield, irrigation/nutrient production efficiency, post harvest attributes and economic return of garlic (Allium sativum L) under micro-sprinkler, drip and surface irrigation systems at research farm of Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Deemed University, Allahabad on sandy loam soil. The crop was subjected to different levels of irrigation varying from pan evaporation replenishment of 25, 75, 125 and 175% and fertigation of 150, 200 and 250 kg/ha in order to create wide range of soil water and nutrient regimes. The depth of irrigation for different levels was calculated at 16 mm of pan evaporation. The pan evaporation values were computed after accounting the effective rainfall. The cumulative depth of irrigation for the two years of experiments, water applied varied from 74.88 – 524.21 and 78.48 – 549.38 mm.
Irrigation and fertigation had a marked effect on growth, irrigation production efficiency, post harvest characteristics and economic return of garlic. The plant growth was maximum in drip irrigation in terms of plant height and neck thickness but bulb size, no. of cloves, bulb weight and yield of marketable garlic was higher for micro irrigation method of irrigation in relatively each and every level of irrigation except for irrigation at 25% pan evaporation replenishment which indicated negligible difference. There was a marked difference in the moisture content of garlic. There was relatively insignificant differ in the bulk density, total soluble solids, protein concentration and allicin content in garlic.
In terms of economic returns micro-sprinkler method of irrigation indicated better benefit-cost ratio. Benefit-cost ratio at fertigation level F1 (150 kg/ha) and irrigation level I1 ( 175% pan evaporation replenishment) in all the three methods of irrigation indicated benefit-cost ratio which was below acceptable limits.
The regression coefficient (R2) for the developed empirical models were 0.90 or above. It was also observed that all the parameters were directly proportional to the increase in fertigation level of F3 (250 kg/ha).
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The surface method of irrigation and fertilizer application lagged behind in all aspects of production, quality, water use efficiency and post harvest attributes. Empirical models developed can be use for allocating water and nutrients to garlic crop in ordr to optimize garlic yield and economic return under variable irrigation and fertigation in tropical climatic conditions. In spite of higher initial investment micro-irrigation system for garlic production in the tropical region is highly profitable.
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Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN SOIL AND WATER ENGINEERING (IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE ENGINEERING)
Keywords
irrigation, garlic, fertigation, irrigation methods, yields, research methods, planting, costs, crops, trickle irrigation