*Directorate of Onion and Garlic Research (ICAR), Rajgurunagar-410 505, Pune, (MS)
Division of Olericulture, SKUAST-Kashmir, Shalimar-191 121, Srinagar, (J&K)
Online published on 20 May, 2016.
An experiment was conducted to study the comparative performance of drip irrigation and fertigation over conventional methods of irrigation and fertilizers application in capsicum var. Nishat-1. The experiment consisted of 16 treatment combinations replicated four times. The treatments include 4 levels of irrigation viz., 100%, 80% and 60% ET through drip and 100% surface irrigation; and four levels of fertigation viz., 100%, 80% and 60% recommended NPK through fertigation and 100% recommended NPK through manual. Surface irrigation and manual fertilizers application were treated as control. Irrigation schedule for drip irrigation was based on estimated crop water requirement using pan evaporation data, crop coefficient, pan coefficient and percentage wetted area of the crop root zone. Observations were recorded for various growth and yield attributes. Economics of the system under Kashmir conditions was also studied. In case of growth and yield attributes, drip irrigation at 80% ET water along with 80% recommended NPK as fertigation was found significantly superior over all other treatment combinations with maximum fruit yield (366.48 q/ha). It was further concluded that by adopting drip irrigation system, the highest income of Rs. 2, 82, 026/-could be generated in capsicum as against Rs. 1, 69, 990/-realized under conventional method. Benefit cost ratio was also noticed maximum (3.33: 1) with the same treatment combination i e. 80% ET through drip + 80% recommended NPK through fertigation.
