Soil moisture distribution under different lateral and dripper spacing of surface drip irrigation system in clay loam soil

The status, availability and distribution of moisture distribution within a crop's root zone affect the yield and growth of crops. To increase the efficiency of the water use while reducing water losses due to evaporation, the precise distribution of water around the emiers must be known. For this purpose a field experiments were carried out in clay loam soil at the farm of Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Jabalpur (M.P.), during the successive rabi season of 2012–13 and 2013–14 to determine and evaluate the effect of the different lateral and dripper spacing on the soil moisture distribution, distribution paern and distribution efficiency. To achieve the objectives of this study, a surface drip irrigation system was installed with three lateral spacing i.e. T₁ – 60 cm, T₂ – 80 cm, T₃ – 100 cm and three dripper spacing are S₁ – 30 cm, S₂ – 40 cm and S₃ – 50 cm in three replication under a split plot design. The presented data indicated that the soil moisture distribution and its uniformity within the soil profile under surface drip was to great extent affected by the lateral and drippers spacing. The soil moisture uniformity under dense dripper geometry is beer rather than wider. Installing the system at 60 cm lateral with 30 cm dripper spacing is the one to be recommended as it provide a uniform moisture distribution with high water storage efficiency of 85.73% in the active root zone for most vegetable and cereals crops and leads to beer water saving in clay loam soils.