On-farm Evaluation of Furrow Irrigated Raised Bed System with Plastic Mulch for Brinjal Crop

An on-farm experiment was conducted on farmers ’field in two villages of Unnao district, Uttar Pradesh to evaluate the effectiveness of mulched and non-mulched furrow irrigated raised bed(FIRB) system over farmers ’practice of check basin irrigation for brinjal crop. The system performance was assessed in terms of crop physiological parameters, water saving, yield, water productivity and cost of cultivation. Mulch significantly affected the physiological parameters of crop like plant height, number of branches, girth, root depth, leaf area and fruit weight. Results revealed that the water savings under furrow irrigated raised bed system without mulch (T2) and with mulch (T3) was 167.7 mm (31.2%) and 237.0 mm (44.1%), respectively, as compared to farmers ’practice (T1). Significantly higher brinjal yield (21.29 t.ha⁻¹) was observed in T3, which was 26.7% higher over T1. Higher yield and comparatively lesser application of irrigation water resulted in significantly high water productivity (88.49 kg.ha-mm⁻¹) in T3 as compared to T1 (31.34 kg.ha-mm⁻¹). The average benefit-cost ratio (BCR) for the treatments T1, T2, and T3 were 2.21, 2.58 and 2.62, respectively. Furrow irrigated raised bed cultivation of brinjal with black plastic mulch is recommended to the farmers of central Uttar Pradesh to achieve twin objectives of improved crop yields and increased water productivity.