Effect of drip and furrow irrigation methods on yield and water use efficiency in cotton

Abstract

Adoption of drip irrigation method offers opportunity for efficient use of water and higher economic yield of cotton under irrigated conditions in arid and semi-arid regions. A field experiment was carried out at the Soil Research Farm of Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar during 2014 for evaluating the different methods of irrigation for enhancing water use efficiency in cotton. The experiment was consisted of three methods of irrigation (drip, furrow and flood irrigation) and four cultivars of cotton viz., Bt (MRC-7017), Bt (RCH-134), American (H-1236) and Desi (HD-123). The results indicated that drip irrigation significantly increased plant height, number of bolls per plant, boll weight, and number of monopods and sympods per plant. The application of irrigation with drip and furrow methods resulted in increase in seed cotton yield over flood method. The seed cotton yield was recorded highest of 2671 kg/ha of American (H-1236) followed by 2510 kg/ha of Bt (MRC-7017), 2287 kg/ha of Desi (HD-123) and 2151 kg/ha of Bt (RCH-134) in drip irrigation. The water use efficiency (WUE) was found highest in drip irrigation as compared to other methods in all the four cotton cultivars. The highest WUE of 0.58 kg/m3 was found in American (H-1236), followed by Bt (MRC-7017), Desi (HD-123) and lowest in Bt (RCH-134). The results conclude that drip irrigation has potential to increase the seed cotton yield and water use efficiency in arid and semi-arid region of the state.