Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
18.1 INTRODUCTION
Citrus is the third important fruit crop in India after banana and mango. The mandarin
(
Citrus reticulata
) occupies the top position in terms of area and production among
citrus cultivars in India. Nagpur mandarin (
Citrus reticulata
Blanco), a well-known
commercial citrus cultivar is extensively grown in around of 185,000 hectares area of
central India as an irrigated crop [11]. The acreage under the crop is increasing expo-
nentially each year due to its high production economics, as well as the cultivar suit-
ability in this region. The crop is basically irrigated by bore well or dug well through
conventional basin or furrow irrigation method
.
For the last few years, the water level
in present bore wells and dug wells is declined alarmingly creating water shortage in
summer for sustaining the crop. So every year thousand hectares of area under the crop
is permanently wilted due to water shortage, which is a great economical loss to the or-
chard growers of this region. Hence, proper irrigation water management by optimum
use of available water resource is quite necessary in this crop condition.
With the advent of drip irrigation, the use of it is gradually gaining popularity
among the citrus growers. The positive response of drip-irrigation on plant growth
and yield along with water economy is well studied in different citrus species in vari-
ous citrus growing regions of the world [1, 3, 4, 9]. Moreover, mulching by plastic
polythene has proved its effectiveness in conserving the soil moisture and increasing
the growth, yield and quality of fruits in different citrus cultivars [6, 10]. However,
the information regarding water use, plant growth and yield parameters in response
to various drip irrigation regimes with plastic mulch versus conventional basin irriga-
tion method is not reported in case of Nagpur mandarin grown in central India. Thus,
a study was undertaken to evaluate the performance of drip irrigation in conjunction
with plastic mulch versus basin irrigation method in Nagpur mandarin grown in hot
subhumid tropical climate of central India.
18.2 MATERIALS AND METHODS
The field experiment was conducted at experimental farm of National Research Cen-
ter for Citrus, Nagpur (21°
08'45” N, 79°
02' 15” E and 340 m above mean sea level)
during 2006-2009 with 4-year-old Nagpur mandarin (C
itrus reticulata
Blanco) plants
budded on rough lemon (
Citrus Jambhiri
Lush) root stock with spacing of 6x 6 m. The
experimental soil was clay loam (31.65% sand, 23.6% silt and 44.8% clay) with field
capacity (-0.33 bar) and permanent wilting point (-15.00 bar) of 29.26% (v/v) and
18.5% (v/v), respectively, with bulk density of 1.18 g cm
-3
. The mean daily USWB
Class-A pan evaporation rate varied from 1.8 mm in month of December to as high as
13.5 mm in May at the experimental site.
The treatments imposed to irrigate the plants were drip irrigation scheduled at 40,
60, 80 and 100% of cumulative class-A pan evaporation rate on alternate day (Ecp)
through two on-line 4 l/h pressure compensated dripper per plant, placed at 0.4 m
away from trunk and basin (circular ring of 0.75 m diameter) irrigation at 50% deple-
tion of available soil moisture at 0-0.3 m soil profi le. The experiment was laid out
in randomized block design (RBD) with four replications and three adjacent trees in
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