Techno Economic Feasibility of High Discharge Drip Irrigation and Mulch for Summer Sesame

An experiment was conducted at Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh to find the techno-economic feasibility of high discharge drip irrigation and mulch for summer sesame. Split plot design was adopted with twelve treatment combinations comprised of irrigation as a main factor with six levels viz., border irrigation (control), drip irrigation having online drippers of 4, 8, 14, 20 lph discharge with various combinations of dripper/lateral spacing and subsurface porous pipe irrigation system. Mulching was used as a sub factor with two levels 5 ton/ha wheat straw and no mulch. The wetting pattern under various drip irrigation treatments was studied and irrigation was scheduled by fixing the operating time equal to time required to form wetted strip, sufficient to meet the irrigation requirement of crop for each dripper discharge and dripper/lateral spacing combination. Crop response was evaluated in terms of yield attributes, water use efficiency and economics. Among drip irrigation treatments, the highest yield of 1505 kg/ha was found with 4 lph drip irrigation. The highest benefit-cost ratio was found as 4.03 with 14 lph drip irrigation treatment. High discharge drip irrigation having dripper discharge x dripper spacing x lateral spacing as 14 lph x 0.8 m x 2.1 m in combination with wheat straw mulch 5 ton/ha resulted in Rs. 17085/- more net return per hectare than traditional method of border irrigation and it was found to be the most feasible treatment for summer sesame cultivation.