Performance evaluation of on-farm water management practices for groundwater irrigated wheat crop

Improving water use efficiency and farm productivity can be among some of the most important options to address the problem of excessive groundwater pumping at the farm level and promote sustainable agriculture practices. This study consists of field experiments conducted at Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVKSonipat, CCS HAU), Sonipat, farm for two years i.e., during rabi 2017-18 and rabi 2018-19. For this different irrigation methods (Check basin, border flood and micro sprinkler irrigation) and agricultural practices (zero tillage, conventional tillage and laser guided land levelling) were evaluated in terms of yield and water use in wheat crops. Along with that, performance evaluation was conducted in terms of different irrigation efficiencies for different practices. Based on the results of field experiments, micro sprinkler irrigation (T₄) may be preferred in terms of grain and straw yield (45.55 q ha^-1 and 58.55 q ha^-1, respectively), WUE_grain (1.27 q ha^-1cm^-1) and relatively higher efficiency of water application (94.49%) and distribution (94.72%). Treatment T₃ (Border irrigation with laser guided land levelling having 0.3% longitudinal slope) followed after T₄ with grain and straw yield (43.70 q ha^-1 and 55.73 q ha^-1, respectively), WUE_grain (1.05 q ha^-1cm^-1), water application (87.45%) and distribution (91.76%) efficiency, while T5 (Farmer’s practice) had least preferable results.