Water Productivity of Capsicum and Tomato under different Growing Environments

Abstract

Effect of growing environments and fertigation levels on capsicum and tomato crops were studied at Precision Farming Development Centre, ICAR-Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, The experiments were designed with six treatments consisting of three growing environments namely open field, shade net and poly house with two levels of fertigation (100 % and 80 % ) through the drip irrigation. Recommended dose of fertilizer 100 % was found better in all the growing environments for both the crops as compared to 80 %. Water productivity of capsicum under 100 % drip fertigation treatment was 28.0, 17.1 and 9.6 kg/m respectively for growing environments of 3 poly house, shade net house and open field cultivation. For tomato crops under these environments water productivities were as 18.4, 13.7 and 12.9 kg/m respectively. Since, there was no significant difference in the yield was observed between 100% drip fertigated and 80% drip 3 fertigated treatments of both the crops in polyhouses, the study recommended to adopt 80% drip fertigation for cultivating capsicum and tomato as there would be a saving of 20% of water and fertilizers.