Influence of Drip Fertigation on Yield, Water Saving and Water Use Efficiency in Maize (Zea mays L.) Based Intercropping System 243

Abstract

Field experiment was conducted at farmer's field at Palani taluk of Dindigul district in Tamil Nadu during kharif 2008 with the objective of evaluating the drip fertigation on water saving and Water Use Efficiency (WUE) in intensive maize based intercropping system. The experiment was laid out in strip plot design with three replications. The experiment consisted of 9 fertigation levels in main plot and 4 intercrops in sub plot. Among the different fertigation levels, higher maize grain yield of 7300 kg ha -1 was recorded under drip fertigation of 100 per cent RDF with 50 per cent P and K through water soluble fertilizer (WSF) followed by application of 150 per cent RDF through drip (7050 kg ha -1 ). The yield increase over drip irrigation with soil application of fertilizer was 39 per cent. Drip irrigation helped to save water upto 43.65 per cent compared to surface irrigation method. Among the different intercrops tested, higher WUE of 21.0 kg ha-1 mm -1 was observed under maize + vegetable coriander intercropping system.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.29321/MAJ.10.100286

Pages

243 - 247

Creative Commons

Copyright

© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Madras Agricultural Students' Union in Madras Agricultural Journal (MAJ). This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited by the user.

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