MICRO IRRIGATION PRACTICES IN STRAWBERRY (FRAGARIA X ANANASSA) - Management, Performance, and Applications of Micro Irrigation Systems - page 219

17.3.4 WATER USE EFFICIENCY (WUE)
The WUE values for drip plus paddy straw and surface irrigation plus paddy straw
were 6.8 and 4.7 kg.ha -1 mm -1 and these values for drip plus polythene mulch and poly-
thene mulch plus surface irrigation were 7.7 and 5.1 kg.ha -1 mm -1 , respectively. High-
est water use efficiency of 7.7 kg ha -1 mm -1 was observed under drip plus black poly-
thene mulch (Table 2). Drip system delivers water directly into the root zone without
wetting the entire area. The probably resulted in higher water use efficiency compared
to surface irrigation. Drip irrigation, both with and without polythene mulch registered
higher water use efficiency (WUE) as compared to surface irrigation. Averaged overall
level of irrigation, drip irrigation, without mulch gave water use efficiency of 5.5 (kg
ha -1 mm -1 ) against 3.7 (kg ha -1 mm -1 ) under surface irrigation (Table 2).

TABLE 2 Quality of water applied and water use efficiency (WUE) of strawberry under
various treatments.

Treatments Water Use Efficiency (kg ha -1 mm -1 )

1st year

2nd year Pooled

T1

3.8 3.6 3.7

T2 4.9 4.6 4.7

T3 6.3 5.9 6.1

T4 6.2 6.7 6.5

T5 7.7 7.9 7.8

T6 10.5 10.3 10.4

CD ± (5%) 1.2 1.7 1.5

17.4 CONCLUSIONS

Drip system is very effective and effi cient method of irrigation for raising
Strawberry crop, especially on light texture soils & in water scarce areas. The
corresponding fi gures for water savings & increase in yield for Strawberry
were 51 and 19%, respectively. The results further document that irrigation
requirement of Strawberry can be met effectively by operating the drip system
having discharge rate of 4 L per hour biweekly during the growing season.

17.5 SUMMARY
Field trial was conducted under research project in the farmers' field in the Bhoj-
pur district of Bihar - India on clay loam soil to improve strawberry ( Fragaria x
ananassa) productivity and quality through drip irrigation and polythene mulch and to
enhance water productivity through pressurized irrigation coupled with use of black
polythene mulch along with surface irrigation. Drip irrigation with polythene mulch