Enhancing Wheat Productivity and Water Efficiency: Innovative Drip Irrigation Approaches for Sustainable Water Management in Punjab

Dr Vikas Sharma; Nitin Madan Changade; Dnyaneshwar A Madane; Suryakant B Tarate

doi:10.56093/ijas.v96i11.166853

Authors

Dr Vikas Sharma Assistant Professor, Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Lovely Professional University Jalandhar, Punjab
Nitin Madan Changade Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, School of Agriculture, Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar, 144001, Punjab
Dnyaneshwar A Madane Department of Soil and Water Engineering, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
Suryakant B Tarate Scientist in National Research Centre for Makhana, Darbhanga, Bihar

https://doi.org/10.56093/ijas.v96i11.166853

Keywords:

Grain Yield, Irrigation Water saving, Irrigation Water Use Efficiency , Surface Drip Irrigation , Subsurface Drip Irrigation , Wheat

Abstract

A three year experiment was conducted with two drip irrigation methods (SDI and SSDI) and three irrigation levels (irrigation at 100, 90 and 80% of IWR) in split plot design. Plant growth, yield contributing parameters (except ear length), wheat grain yield and IWUE were significantly affected by different combination of drip irrigation methods and irrigation levels. In wheat cultivation, micro irrigation techniques (SDI and SSDI) in combination with selected irrigation levels increased grain yield by 10 to 36.9 %, IWUE by 3 times and save 57.5% irrigation water compared to surface flood irrigation (control). Findings has provided scientific evidence that, SSDI boosts yield influencing variables, grain yield by 2.4%, harvesting index by 14.6% and IWUE by 24 % over SDI technique, as demonstrated in wheat grown in Punjab's Central Plain Zone. Among all the treatments, T₅ (where irrigation supplied at 90% of IWR under SSDI) was found the best combination of drip irrigation method and level to irrigate wheat crop with significant plant height (121 cm), grain yield (7.1 t/ha), harvesting index (46.8 %), irrigation water saving (51.5%) and IWUE (0.35 t/ha-cm). Hence, THE treatment combination SSDI × I₂ can use to irrigate wheat crop with a goal of sustainable wheat production in central plain zone as well as other water scare regions of Punjab having similar agro-climatic condition and crop management scenario. Further studies are also required to evaluate the transferability of our study results to other soil and agro-climatic conditions.

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