Effect of Irrigation Water on Profitability as well as Sustainability of Summer Mung bean Versus Spring Maize Cultivation in Kapurthala District of Punjab

In the central plain zone of Punjab, the underground water level is depleting at a very rapid rate may be due to over exploitation of water resources used for raising the long duration and high water requirement crops in addition to the industrial use. Hence, a study was conducted to note the effect of application of irrigation water on profitability as well as sustainability of summer mung bean versus spring maize cultivation in Kapurthala. For this, front line demonstrations on summer mung bean were conducted on 32 ha area at farmers’ field during spring 2016 season. The various parameters recorded were sowing date, per cent germination, number of irrigations and man days required for various crop management practices, number of sprays applied for control of insect pest and diseases, method of harvesting, grain yield and selling rate. The grain yield obtained in mung bean varied between 9.4 q/ha to 11.5 q/ha and average grain yield was found to be 10.65q/ha under the demonstration plots. Total irrigation water applied was calculated to be 9, 850 and 1, 200 m³/ha for spring maize and summer mung bean, respectively. If we calculate, the cost of irrigation water @ 1 paisa per 10 L, the net returns for spring maize cultivation was found to be Rs 49, 421/-ha and Rs 54, 600/-ha for summer mung bean, which clearly speaks that cultivation of summer mung bean is very economical compared to spring maize.