Effect of mulching on In-situ moisture conservation and productivity in vegetable crops under rainfed condition

Water use efficiency in agriculture can be enhanced by several strategies mainly by reducing evaporation from the soil surface. The mulching techniques were being used widely in rainfed crop production worldwide. The mulching techniques can also be implemented in kharif vegetables production under rainfed conditions. The current study aimed at evaluating the effect of both plastic mulch and organic mulch on growth and yield of vegetable crops such as radish, cauliflower, yambean and okra during the kharif season of 2011 and 2012. The field experiment was designed by taking four vegetable crops such as radish, cauliflower, yambean and okra and three mulching methods such as plastic mulching, organic mulching and no mulching. The results indicated that the mulched plots had higher soil moisture content than bare soil plots, which has positively reflected on vegetative and yield parameters. It is also concluded from this study that mulching has a very beneficial effect for vegetable crops in rainfed conditions including increase in soil moisture, reduces weed growth, maintain soil temperature, increase in yield and promotes early harvest of the crops. It was found that plastic mulching increased the soil temperature by 1.6 - 2.5 °C as compared to no mulching conditions in all the vegetable crops. In case of organic mulching, the soil temperature increased by 1.4 - 2.2 °C as compared to no mulching conditions in all the vegetable crops. Weed density of no mulching treatment were found to 21-25 whereas weed density in case organic mulching and plastic mulching were found to be 7-9 and 3-5 respectively in all the vegetable crops. In addition, organic mulch also adds organic matter, stimulates soil microflora and increases the biological activity of soil. Both the mulching has beneficial effect but the cost of cultivation in plastic mulching is higher than the organic mulching because organic mulch is freely available to the farmers and also plastic mulching requires more technical guidance for maintaining mulch in the field. Therefore, the organic mulching will be very much beneficial and easily adoptable by the farmers in the rainfed conditions of the North Eastern Ghat Zone of Odisha.