Effect of Land Configuration and Deficit Irrigation on Growth, Yield and Water Productivity of Maize-Cowpea Sequence Cropping
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Date
2017-05
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University of Agricultural Science, Dharwad
Abstract
A field experiment was conducted during summer and kharif 2015 and 2016 to study the effect of land configurations and deficit irrigation on growth, yield and water productivity of maize-cowpea sequence cropping at the Main Agriculture Research Station, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, Karnataka. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with three replications comprising twelve treatment combinations. The treatments included three land configurationsviz., Broad bed and furrow (BBF), corrugated furrow and ridges and furrow methods with four irrigation levels [(irrigation once in ten days, irrigation at 40, 50 and 60 per cent depletion of available soil moisture (DASM)].
The results revealed that, ridges and furrow method of planting recorded significantly higher maize grain yield (70.6 q ha-1). Similarly, irrigation at 40 per cent depletion recorded significantly higher maize grain yield (69.6 q ha-1). Corrugated furrow method of planting with irrigation at 50 per cent depletion recorded significantly higher maize equivalent yield (100 q ha-1) and system net return (` 94,253 ha-1) as compared to other interactions. However, it was on par with ridges and furrow method with irrigation at 40 per cent DASM. The residual effect of BBF method of planting recorded significantly higher grain yield (13.4 q ha-1), net return (` 27,515 ha-1) and rain water use efficiency (5.96 kg ha-mm-1) of cowpea.
The amount of water used varied from 329.3 to 626.2 mm among different interactions. Significantly higher water productivity (1.68 kg m-3) was noticed in BBF method of planting with irrigation at 60 per cent DASM. However, this interaction was on par with corrugated furrow method at 50 per cent DASM (1.66 kg m-3) as compared to the rest of the interactions. The results indicated that, irrigation scheduling with corrugated furrow at 50 per cent DASM found superior for maize-cowpea sequence cropping.