RESPONSE OF RABI PIGEON PEA TO DIFFERENT LEVELS OF DRIP IRRIGATION
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Date
2011
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ACHARYA N.G. RANGA AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY
Abstract
A field experiment entitled “Response of Rabi Pigeon pea to Different Levels of Drip Irrigation” was conducted at Water Technology Centre, College Farm, College of Agriculture, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad during rabi, 2010 - 11. The treatments consisted of seven surface drip irrigation treatments with irrigation schedule based on pan evaporation replenishment factors of 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8, either kept constant throughout the crop life or combinations of these were taken at vegetative, flowering and pod development stages, in addition to furrow irrigation at IW/CPE ratio of 0.8 with an irrigation water depth of 50 mm. The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design with three replications. Higher pigeon pea yields were registered when irrigation was scheduled by drip at 0.8 Epan throughout crop life (I3) which was on par with 0.6 Epan throughout crop life (I2) and 0.6 Epan up to flowering and 0.8 Epan later on (I6) and were significantly superior over other drip irrigation treatments and furrow irrigation. Similar trends were observed in growth and yield attributing characters. Furrow irrigation at 0.8 IW/CPE ratio with an IW of 50 mm throughout the crop life was statistically inferior in comparison to drip irrigation treatments except 0.4 Epan throughout the crop life (I1) which recorded lower yield. Drip irrigation treatments recorded higher water productivity ranging from 2.05 to 2.63 kg m-3 in comparison to furrow irrigated crop (1.48 kg m-3). Maintaining higher moisture regimes in drip irrigated treatments resulted in higher protein content and protein yield over other
treatments. Lowest protein content and protein yield were registered in furrow irrigated
treatment (I8). The seasonal ETc requirement of pigeon pea varied from 203.8 mm to 407.5 mm among different drip irrigation treatments. It was highest in 0.8 Epan throughout the crop life (I3) followed by 0.6 Epan up to flowering and 0.8 Epan later on (I6) as compared to other irrigation treatments. The seasonal ETc under furrow irrigated crop was the highest
and amounted to 413.9 mm. The average daily ETc rate varied from 1.23 mm to 2.58 mm
under different treatments.
The quadratic water production function indicated that the predicted maximum
yield (Ymax) of 842.2 kg ha-1 was obtained at 372.3 mm of seasonal water requirement. The
water production function did not emerge through the origin and the value of regression
constant (a) was negative, indicating that some minimum amount of irrigation water i.e.,
crop ET was required to be expended to realize the economic yield in pigeon pea crop.
It can be concluded that pigeon pea can be grown as rabi crop under Rajendranagar
conditions irrigated with drip system at 0.8 Epan throughout the crop life with an optimal
seasonal water requirement of 372.3 mm. This gave a maximum yield of 842.2 kg ha-1 and
was found remunerative under the prevailing prices of output and input. Further, it was
observed that this practice of growing of rabi pigeon pea under drip irrigation is
economically viable. Under limited water supply situations, scheduling irrigation at 0.6
Epan throughout the crop life (I2) or 0.6 Epan up to flowering and 0.8 Epan later on (I6)
with an optimal seasonal water requirement of 363.1 mm was found to be most productive and remunerative.
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Keywords
RABI PIGEON PEA, DRIP IRRIGATION