Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
West direction), and two plants per treatment were taken for these measurements. Leaf
water use effi ciency (LWUE) was calculated as the ratio of P
n
to T
r
of leaves.
The plant height (distance from ground surface to top of plant crown), stem height
(distance from ground surface to base of fi rst branch on stem), canopy diameter (mean
of canopy spread diameter measured in N-S and E-W directions), and stem girth di-
ameter (stem diameter measured at 0.1 m above bud union) were recorded annually by
using a metric tape. Plant canopy volume was estimated using the following formula
[17]:
V
pc
= 0. 5238 H (D)
2
(4)
where: V
pc
is the plant canopy volume (m
3
), H the plant canopy height (difference
between plant height and stem height) in meter and D the mean plant canopy spread
diameter (North-South and East-West) in meter.
The number and weight of entire fruits harvested for each plant under consider-
ation in the experiment were recorded, and the mean yield per plant under various
treatments was worked out. Irrigation water use effi ciency (IWUE) was worked out as
the fruit yield per unit quantity of irrigation water applied. Five fruits per plant were
taken randomly for determination of fruit quality parameters: size, juice percent, acid-
ity, total soluble solids (TSS), Vitamin-C, Sugars (total and reducing). All the quality
parameters were determined following the standard methodology [24].
Benefi t Cost Ratio (BCR) is estimated to analyze the usefulness of any project in
view of farmers prospective. In this study, BCR was calculated to analyze the return of
the production system of Kinnow fruits under different drip irrigation strategies. Fol-
lowing assumptions were made for estimating the components of BCR which include
capital cost of the trickle irrigation system and gross and net return under different
irrigation treatments:
• Area of field is one ha
• Land is flat and
• Water source is located at the corner of the field.
The analysis was carried out to study the effect of production of Kinnow crop and
irrigation system on through the BCR parameter.
The annual fi xed cost (AFC) and annual operating cost (AOC) of the drip irriga-
tion system were calculated. Energy cost includes the electrical cost, which was taken
as Rs. 5 per kwh which are existing energy charges. The energy consumed is calcu-
lated based on the operating hours of the irrigation system. The cost of cultivation of
Kinnow includes intercultivation, weeding, application of manure, fertilizer and plant
protection and harvesting, etc. Operating cost is changing according to irrigation sys-
tem running hours. Total annual cost of the system includes both the annual fi xed cost
and annual operating cost.
The gross income from the production system includes market return from the
Kinnow crop. The prevailing market price of Kinnow crop was taken for the estima-
tion of gross return. The wholesale price of Kinnow for Delhi region is taken as Rs.
23.10 per kg and Rs. 14.58 per kg in January, 2011 and January 2012, respectively
[16]. The data generated were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) and separation
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