Water use efficiency of green gram (Vigna radiata L.) impacted by paddy straw mulch and irrigation regimes in north-western India

Lovepreet Kaur, Anureet Kaur and A.S. Brar

Agricultural Water Management, 2021, vol. 258, issue C

Abstract: A multilocation field experiment was conducted at Students’ Research Farm, Department of Agronomy, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana and PAU, Regional Research Station (RRS), Bathinda, during summer 2019. The experiment was conducted in RCBD with 15 treatment combinations with 3 replications. The treatments comprised of 3 mulch levels i.e., M0, M6, and M12 i.e., no mulch, 6 and 12 t ha−1, respectively, and 5 irrigation schedules i.e., I10, I20, I30, and I40 with 10%, 20%, 30% and 40% depletion of available soil water (ASW), respectively, and IR (PAU recommendation as 4 irrigations). The growth parameters (plant height, dry matter accumulation and leaf area index), yield attributing characters namely pods per plant, number of seeds per pod and thousand-grain weight, seed and straw yield were significantly higher in M12 than M6 and no mulch (M0). The growth parameters, yield attributes, seed and straw yield were significantly higher for I10 due to increased irrigation frequency (5–6 irrigations). Both M0I10 (seven irrigations without mulch) and M6I30 (3 irrigations with straw mulch (6 t ha−1)) treatments observed comparable seed yield (1.06 t ha−1). Therefore, the substantial increase in seed yield with lower crop water use with the usage of straw mulch saves a considerable amount of water. Subsequently, the use of 6 t ha−1 of straw mulch with 3 irrigations (30% depletion from available soil water) facilitated a higher seed yield. The crop water use (CWU) was highest for M0 as due to bare soil, resulted in more evapotranspiration. The bio-physical productivity (BPWP) and water use efficiency was found to be maximum for mulch treatments. The I10 reported maximum CWU, whereas, Bio-physical water productivity (BPWP) were higher for I40 treatment where only one irrigation was given in this treatment. The WUE was maximum in I30 treatment at Ludhiana and in I20 at Bathinda location.

Keywords: Green gram; Mulch levels; Irrigation regimes; Yield; Water productivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377421004613
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:258:y:2021:i:c:s0378377421004613

DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2021.107184

Access Statistics for this article

Agricultural Water Management is currently edited by B.E. Clothier, W. Dierickx, J. Oster and D. Wichelns

More articles in Agricultural Water Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().