Influence of different levels of irrigation and black plastic mulch on the performance of banana under drip irrigation

Abstract

India, a leading fruit producing country, ranks first in banana cultivation. The crop is highly water demanding and that appears as a limitation in several areas. However, micro-irrigation has the potential to address the issue. Moreover, mulching with black plastic sheet further facilitates efficient water use. The combined application of micro-irrigation and black plastic mulch is potentially important for enhancing water use efficiency and crop productivity. Based on the above facts, a field trial was conducted to evaluate the performance of micro-irrigation levels and black plastic mulch on the performance of banana yield in the sub humid climatic condition in lateritic belt during 2019–2020. Modified penman-Montieth equation was used to estimate the crop water requirement considering the recorded local climatic data. Water requirement of banana under drip and plastic mulch may vary with non-mulched banana. Therefore, the dual crop coefficient approach has been used to estimate the crop coefficients (K) of banana under drip with black plastic mulch and without mulch conditions. The total water requirement of banana was estimated to be 1089 mm and 919 mm under non-mulched and black plastic mulched banana, respectively. To determine the optimum quantity of irrigation water requirement of banana, eight treatments were considered consisting of four irrigation levels, namely, 1.0 volume with drip (VD), 0.8 VD, 0.6 VD and 0.4 VD in combination with black plastic mulch and non-mulch. The results revealed that 0.8 VD along with black plastic mulch recorded better crop growth and yield parameters with higher yield in comparison to other treatments. Further, the treatment also resulted in maximum benefit cost ratio of 4.97.