Studies on Water Productivity and Yields Responses of Wheat Based on Drip Irrigation Systems in Clay Loam Soil

Initial interest in the use of drip irrigation for row crops like wheat was motivated by its very low water productivity with traditional method of border irrigation. Maximizing water productivity is one of the most important police in developing countries like India. Therefore, the aim of this study was to estimate the wheat yield response to drip irrigation systems and the attributed water productivity and saving water indices under clay loam soil conditions of semi tropical regions. A field experiments was conducted at the field no.50, demonstration unit of the College of Agricultural Engineering, Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India, during the rabi seasons of 2011-12 to study the effect of drip irrigation on water productivity and yield attributes of wheat crop. Results revealed that water saving of about 28.42% higher in case of drip irrigation compared with the border irrigation system. Data also revealed that water productivity of drip irrigated wheat was 24.24% more than the border irrigated wheat. However there was a slightly decrease of 10.8% in the grain yield. This may be due to the wheat plants had exposed to higher water-stress during the growing stages. Finally, it can be concluded that good management of irrigation water under drip irrigation is promising for higher water productivity and can be adopt as alternative irrigation system for irrigating intensive field crop like wheat, but more studies have to be conducted under similar field conditions. Keywords: Border Irrigation, Drip Irrigation, Water Productivity, Wheat Irrigation