Water saving and crop yield under sub-surface wick irrigation system for sponge gourd ( Luffa aegyptiaca ) and bitter gourd ( Momordica charantia ) crops.

Abstract

Abstract High Efficiency Irrigation Systems (HEIS) are expensive to install maintain and cannot be operated without skillful labor. While, new water conserving micro irrigation technologies are becoming more popular in counties where water is almost negligible for adopting flood or other conventional irrigation techniques, these technologies can be adopted to convert the desert land into oasis. The present study was thus conducted on experimental field of Department of Land and Water Management, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam to evaluate the performance of sub-surface bottle wick irrigation system in terms of water saving and crop yield. Total twelve plastic bottles with water holding capacity of 2 liters were used in the study. All bottles are drilled at the opening caps; wicks were fixed in these holes and glued. Treatments were named as, wick irrigation system for sponge gourd (WS) and wick irrigation system for bitter gourd (WB). Total 6 basins were used in this study and named as B1 to B6 (B1-B3 used for WS and B4-B6 for WB treatments), 2 wicks attached plastic bottles were buried in basins at 10-15 cm bellow the soil surface and the irrigation was applied. The sponge and bitter gourd overnight wetted seeds were sown on the wetted soil around the wicks. The experimental results revealed that the water savings were about 90.1%, and 92.5% with WS and WB treatments respectively, compared to conventional flood irrigation systems. The crop yield was 3.64 kg/basin (9100 kg/hac -1 ) and 4.16 kg/basin (10400 kg/hac -1 ) with WS and WB treatments. The crop water productivity (CWP) was about 13.68 kg/m 3 and 19.66 kg/m 3 with WS and WB treatments. It was concluded that wick irrigation system performs better, especially in terms of water saving and crop yield, but it need several irrigation intervals and consume more time. Further, studies may be conducted on different aspects with different crops and different soil textures. Users are suggested to adapt wick irrigation in water scare regions, small scale farming, urban agriculture, green house crop production. If irrigation is available in large amount, flood irrigation systems can be used to achieve higher yields.