Effect of crop geometry and drip irrigation levels on sugarcane in south Saurashtra region of India

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of crop geometry and irrigation levels on sugarcane under drip irrigation at Main Sugarcane Research Station, Junagadh Agricultural University, Kodinar during 2011–14. The treatment consisted of three crop geometry (90 cm normal planting, paired row planting (60: 90 cm) and paired row planting (60: 120 cm) and three drip irrigation levels (0.5 PEF, 0.7 PEF and 0.9 PEF) and with an extra treatment (control) having surface irrigation (90 cm) at 1.0IW/CPE ratio. Experimental results indicated that paired row (60: 90 cm) planting gave significantly higher cane yield (101.04 t/ha) over 60: 120 cm paired row planting (88.82 t/ha) and remained at par with 90 cm row spacing (97.34 t/ha). Drip irrigation level of 0.9 PEF gave significantly higher cane yield (108.63 t/ha) over 0.7 PEF (96.01 t/ha) and 0.5 PEF (82.56 t/ha). Juice quality parameters like brix, sucrose, purity and sugar recovery percent were not affected significantly due to either crop geometry or different drip irrigation levels. Significantly higher cane yield was recorded under drip irrigation (95.74 t/ha) compared to surface irrigation (76.86 t/ha). The total water use was not affected due to different crop geometries. Water use decreased constantly in 0.7 and 0.5 PEF compared to 0.9 PEF and accordingly WUE increased.