Influence of Irrigation and Mulching on Yield Attributes, Yield and Quality of Lentil (Lens esculentum L.) Grown as Intercrop under Limited Water Conditions

A field experiment was carried out at the Instructional farm, Jaguli, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya (State Agricultural University), Mohanpur, Nadia (W.B.) to study the effect of irrigation and mulching on growth, productivity and water use efficiency of safflower based intercropping system during two consecutive winter season of 2010–11 and 2011–12. The experiment was laid out in split-split plot design, replicated thrice, having 3 irrigation treatments in the main plots viz. I₁-rainfed, I₂-Irrigation at 0.5 IW: CPE ratio, I₃-irrigation at 0.75 IW: CPE ratio and 2 cropping system in sub-plots viz., C₁-Sole lentil, C₅-Safflower-lentil grown as 3: 2 ratio, respectively and 2 sub-sub plot treatments viz. M₀-No mulching, M₁-Straw mulching. Levels of irrigation, cropping systems and mulching significantly influenced the yield attributing characters and yield of lentil. Among all the levels of irrigation I₃ i.e. irrigation at IW: CPE of 0.75 recorded highest values of all yield attributes _{of lentil. Safflower inter cropped with lentil i.e., C2 showed better result than sole lentil i.e. C1 and straw mulching recorded better result over no mulching. Levels of irrigation significantly influenced the seed yield of lentil. The maximum seed yield (756.87 kg ha⁻¹) was recorded under irrigation at IW: CPE of 0.75 followed by irrigation at IW: CPE of 0.50 75 (706.12 kg ha⁻¹) and the lowest seed yield (667.50 kg ha⁻¹) was recorded under rainfed treatment. The seed yield of sole lentil was 855.83 kg ha⁻¹ while safflower intercropped with lentil was 564.50 kg ha⁻¹. Different levels of irrigation, cropping systems and mulching did not show any significant influence on the protein content of lentil. The highest protein content (26.79%) was recorded under irrigation at IW: CPE of 0.75.}