Yield, Water Use Efficiency and Economics of Pulses as Influenced by Irrigation Levels

A field experiment was conducted on a sandy loam soil at college of Agriculture V. C. Farm Mandya, UAS Bengaluru in kharif 2016 to study the effect of irrigation levels on productivity of pulses in southern dry zone of Karnataka for achieving optimum irrigation schedule, higher yield and water use efficiency. The experiment was laid out in Split-plot Design with four levels of irrigation as main plot viz., irrigation at 60, 80, 100 per cent CPE (cumulative pan evaporation) and irrigation as per recommended irrigation practices in Southern Dry Zone of Karnataka. The pulses grown in Sub-plots were Greengram, Blackgram and Fieldbean. Analysis was done for crop equivalent yield. The results revealed that, significantly higher greengram equivalent yield was with irrigation at 80% CPE (1710 kg ha-1) as compared to irrigation at 60% CPE and recommended practice (1427 and 1502 kg ha-1, respectively) but was on par with irrigation at 100% CPE (1619 kg ha-1). The water use efficiency was significantly higher with irrigation at 80% CPE (44.01 kg ha-cm-1) as compared to rest of the irrigation levels (28.78, 39.14 to 39.15 kg ha-cm-1). The treatment combination of irrigation at 80 per cent CPE and blackgram recorded significantly higher greengram equivalent yield of 2201 kg ha-1 and water use efficiency (61.80 kg ha-cm-1) as compared to rest of the combinations. The highest B: C ratio was recorded in irrigation at 80% CPE (3.63) while the lowest with recommended practices (2.96). Hence scheduling irrigation at 80 per cent CPE in pulses enhances yield, water use efficiency and profit in Southern Dry Zone of Karnataka.