Growth, yield and water use of drip irrigated cassava planted in the late rainy season of North Eastern Thailand

Abstract

Field experiment was carried out at Agronomy Experimental Farm, Faculty of Agriculture, Khon Kaen University in 2015-2016 to investigate the response of cassava to supplementary irrigation during the dry season month. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with four replications. The main plots comprised two cassava varieties (Huaybong 80 and Rayong 11). The sub l included four levels of drip irrigation [I-20, EV-40 mm (crop received 20 mm of water when daily cumulative pan evapolation value reached 40 mm during the dry season months)]; [I-20, EV-60 mm] ; [I-10, EV-40 mm] ; [I-10, EV-60 mm] and [I-10] (cassava under rainfed condition without additional irrigation)]. Results indicated that irrigation at (I-20, EV-40 mm) produced maximum the fresh (52 t ha-1) and dry (22 t ha-1) storage root yield. Huaybong 80 variety a gave significantly higher the storage root yield than that of Rayong 11 variety. The highest starch content also was obtained in the (I-20, EV-40 mm) treatment. There was no significant difference in the starch content between the two cassava varieties. Water were applied in treatment [I-20, EV-40 mm], [I-20, EV-60 mm], [I-10, EV-40 mm] and [I-10, EV-60 mm] was an average 299 mm, 194 mm, 150 mm and 97 mm, respectively during the growing season. Water use efficiency was the highest (35.3 kg ha-1 mm-1) in the [I-20, EV-60 mm] treatment.