Effect of mulching on spatial moisture distribution pattern in Brinjal

Water scarcity puts a big adverse impact on food production and its related activities. Under the scarce water availability condition it becomes a tedious proposition to raise crops, in absence of appropriate management, for ensuring food security. In order to get rid of this constraint, an efficient irrigation system with the use of appropriate technique and irrigation level would be the most suitable option, which can save water and increase productivity. The present investigation was carried out to determine moisture distribution of brinjal under various growing condition with 3 treatments uncontrolled condition (TJ, black mulching (T₂) and silver mulching (T₃). This experiment was conducted in the field of the Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Bena, Jamtara during 2020–2021. The iso-moisture curves for different treatments at 30, 45 and 60 days after transplanting was developed using Surfer 16 software. The results showed that application of mulch helped to increase soil moisture with depth in all the three cases uncontrolled (T1), black (T₃) and silver mulching (T₂). Higher values of moisture content (13.2%) observed in case of silver mulching at 30 cm depth followed by black mulching 12.63%. Crop under silver mulching gave more yield with improved moisture distribution.