Yield Response, Nutritional Quality and Water Productivity of Tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum L.) are Influenced by Drip Irrigation and Straw Mulch in the Coastal Saline Ecosystem of Ganges Delta, India

Indranil Samui, Milan Skalicky, Sukamal Sarkar, Koushik Brahmachari, Sayan Sau, Krishnendu Ray, Akbar Hossain, Argha Ghosh, Manoj Kumar Nanda, Richard W. Bell, Mohammed Mainuddin, Marian Brestic, Liyun Liu, Hirofumi Saneoka, Muhammad Ali Raza, Murat Erman and Ayman EL Sabagh
Additional contact information
Indranil Samui: Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal 741252, India
Milan Skalicky: Department of Botany and Plant Physiology, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural resources, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamycka 129, 165 00 Prague, Czech Republic
Sukamal Sarkar: Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal 741252, India
Koushik Brahmachari: Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal 741252, India
Sayan Sau: Purba Medinipur Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mulakhop, Dayaldasi, Nandakumar, East Medinipur, West Bengal 721632, India
Krishnendu Ray: Sasya Shyamala Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational and Research Institute, Arapanch, Sonarpur, West Bengal 700150, India
Akbar Hossain: Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute (BWMRI), Dinajpur 5200, Bangladesh
Argha Ghosh: Department of Agricultural Meteorology, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal 741252, India
Manoj Kumar Nanda: Department of Agricultural Meteorology, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal 741252, India
Richard W. Bell: Agriculture Discipline, College of Science, Health, Engineering and Education, Murdoch University, Perth, WA 6150, Australia
Mohammed Mainuddin: Water Resource Management Program, CSIRO Land and Water, Black Mountain Laboratories, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
Marian Brestic: Department of Botany and Plant Physiology, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural resources, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamycka 129, 165 00 Prague, Czech Republic
Liyun Liu: Graduate School of Integrated Sciences for Life, Hiroshima University, 1-4-4 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima 739-8528, Japan
Hirofumi Saneoka: Graduate School of Integrated Sciences for Life, Hiroshima University, 1-4-4 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima 739-8528, Japan
Muhammad Ali Raza: College of Agronomy, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
Murat Erman: Department of Field Crops, Faculty of Agriculture, Siirt University, Siirt 56100, Turkey
Ayman EL Sabagh: Department of Field Crops, Faculty of Agriculture, Siirt University, Siirt 56100, Turkey

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 17, 1-21

Abstract: In the coastal zone of the Ganges Delta, water shortages due to soil salinity limit the yield of dry season crops. To alleviate water shortage as a consequence of salinity stress in the coastal saline ecosystem, the effect of different water-saving (WS) and water-conserving options was assessed on growth, yield and water use of tomato; two field experiments were carried out at Gosaba, West Bengal, India in consecutive seasons during the winter of 2016–17 and 2017–18. The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design with five treatments viz., surface irrigation, surface irrigation + straw mulching, drip irrigation at 100% reference evapotranspiration (ET 0 ), drip irrigation at 80% ET 0 , drip irrigation at 80% ET 0 + straw mulching. Application of drip irrigation at 80% ET 0 + straw mulching brought about significantly the highest fruit as well as the marketable yield of tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum L.). The soil reaction (pH), post-harvest organic carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (N, P and K) status and soil microbial population along with the biochemical quality parameters of tomato (juice pH, ascorbic acid, total soluble solids and sugar content of fruits) were significantly influenced by combined application of drip irrigation and straw mulching. Surface irrigation significantly increased the salinity level in surface and sub-surface soil layers while the least salinity development was observed in surface mulched plots receiving irrigation water through drip irrigation. The highest water productivity was also improved from drip irrigation at 80% ET 0 + straw mulched plots irrespective of the year of experimentation. Such intervention also helped in reducing salinity stress for the tomato crop. Thus, straw mulching along with drip irrigation at 80% ET 0 can be recommended as the most suitable irrigation option for tomato crop in the study area as well as coastal saline regions of South Asia. Finally, it can be concluded that the judicious application of irrigation water not only increased growth, yield and quality tomatoes but also minimized the negative impact of soil salinity on tomatoes grown in the coastal saline ecosystem of Ganges Delta.

Keywords: drip irrigation; mulching; yield; quality; tomato; saline soil (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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