Deficit irrigation in tomato: Agronomical and physio-biochemical

Abstract

In present context and under foreseeing scenario of climate change, the declining of water allocation to agriculture due to increase of population and food demand has sensitized judicious use of available water in agriculture. Under such scenario, maximization of crop water productivity is more crucial than simple yield maximization – a target usually anticipated under irrigated condition. Deficit irrigation (DI) has been proposed as a valuable strategy of economizing water use, more particularly in water scarce arid and semi-arid regions. Available literature suggests that appropriate DI strategy may account for a significant amount of water saving with some improvement in fruit quality such as in tomato, one of the most nutritious and economic vegetables of global significance. In present review, varying aspects of DI in tomato are discussed: tactful (growth-stage/- period wise) implementation of DI strategies to attain satisfactory level of water saving without or with a minimum penalty on economic yield and quality; various morphological and physio-biochemical implications of DI in tomato plants relevance to conservative use of water; the integrated approach involving different agronomic practices with DI; and the future prospects of DI, and its combination with other approaches for sustainable tomato cultivation is also highlighted.