Yield, Water Use Efficiency and Economics of Drip Fertigated Broccoli (Brassica Oleracea Var. Italica)

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present study was conducted with the objectives of evaluating the effect of drip irrigation and fertigation levels on soil water retention, water use efficiency, and productivity of broccoli. The treatments comprised of (a) two-drip irrigation levels, namely, I0.4 – Drip at 40% Cumulative pan evaporation (CPE) and I0.8 – Drip at 80% CPE (b) Four fertigation levels, namely, F50 – 50% recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF), F100 – 100% RDF, F150 – 150% RDF and F200 – 200% RDF (c) Farmer’s practice – FYM @ 1 kg m−2 + 10 g m−2 IFFCO + 2 g L−1 of 19:19:19 at 15-day intervals and drip irrigation @ 2 L m−2 daily (d) Recommended Practice (RP)- 100% RDF + drip at 100% CPE replicated thrice. Results indicated that the soil moisture increased with increase in drip irrigation level from I0.4 to I0.8 with very less depletion rate per day resulting in the soil moisture content near the field capacity in all drip irrigated treatments. Among the drip fertigation treatments, higher fertigation doses (200% RDF and 150% RDF in combination with 40 and 80% CPE) produced more yield but also resulted in high cost of cultivation, which leads to low benefit cost ratio. However, fertigation treatment I0.8F50 resulted in high benefit cost ratio with higher water use efficiency and fertilizer expense efficiency, which further saved water and fertilizers to the tune of 20 and 50% as compared to recommended practice to maintain same yield levels in broccoli.