Effect of drip irrigation scheduling on yield attributes and water productivity of bitter gourd-cabbage-cowpea cropping sequences

Enhanced water and nutrient use efficiency, crop yield with superior quality can be achieved by adopting drip irrigation and fertigation system in vegetables. Drip irrigation study was carried out in bitter gourd, cabbage and cowpea crop sequences respectively during Kharif, Rabi and Zaid seasons. Treatment comprised of four drip irrigation scheduling i.e., drip irrigation at 100% ET or 75% ET with irrigation scheduling daily or alternate day. Conventional furrow irrigation was also kept as control. In bitter gourd, maximum fruit yield of 143.00 q/ha was recorded with drip irrigation scheduling daily at 100% ET, whereas maximum WUE (4.657 q/ha/cm) was recorded in drip irrigation schedule at alternate day with 75% ET. Similarly, in cabbage, drip irrigation scheduling daily or alternate day with 100% ET registered 36.18% and 34.78% higher head yield, respectively over surface irrigation. In summer season, most of the growth and yield parameters in cowpea were significantly enhanced with drip irrigation at 100% ET. However, most of the yield parameters recorded under 100% ET daily or 100% ET with alternate day were noticed at par. These two treatments have registered 22.8% and 18.4% higher yield over conventional irrigation. In cowpea, WUE under drip irrigation system were 1.54 to 1.69 times higher than the surface irrigation. It was concluded from present study that drip irrigation at 100% ET daily or alternate day significantly enhanced the productivity of bitter gourd, cabbage and cowpea, however maximum WUE were reported with 75% ET.