Effect of Irrigation and Fertilizer Levels on Yield of Sugar Beet Grown on Clay Soil

An experiment was conducted consecutively for two years (2011–12 and 2012–13) at Soil and Water Management Research Farm, Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari to evaluate the effect of irrigation and fertilizer levels on yield of sugar beet. The experiment was carried out in factorial RBD with three levels each of drip irrigation viz; I₁0.6, I₂ 0.8 and I₃ 1.0 PEF and fertilizer viz; F₁ 80, F₂ 100 and F₃ 120 per cent of recommended dose N (120 kg ha⁻¹) and K₂O (60 kg ha⁻¹). In addition to these 9 treatments, a surface irrigation treatment was also included as control and irrigated with 60 mm depth at 1.0 IW/CPE ratio. The results revealed that the yield attributing characters viz., foliage height, root length, total plant height and root diameter were significantly higher with the treatment receiving irrigation at 0.8 PEF (I₂) and fertigation @ 100kg N and 60 kg K₂O ha⁻¹ (F₂). The individual effect of irrigation and fertilizer level as well as their interaction had significant effect on root as well as top yields. The higher yield was recorded with treatment I₂ (51.53 t ha⁻¹) and F₂ (51.03 t ha⁻¹). The interaction effect of I and F was also found to be significant on fresh root and foliage yield. The significantly higher fresh root yield was recorded with I₂F₃ and I₂F₂ of around 53 t ha⁻¹. Similar trend for fresh foliage yield was also recorded. The treatment I₂F₂ was also found to be optimum in terms of water use efficiency (90 kg hamm⁻¹) and saving in water by 20 per cent over control.