Abstract

The present investigation has the priority on emphasizing and description of the engineering design criteria to evaluate and determine the suggested alternative irrigation system and technique and its effect on yields as well as possibility of enhancing water productivity of wheat crop under clay loam soils of Indian agriculture. It was conducted at the research farm of Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Jabalpur (M. P.), for two consecutive rabi seasons of 2012–13 and 2013–14. To achieve the objectives of this study, wheat (GW-273) was cropped with three lateral spacings i. e. T1-60 cm, T2-80 cm and T3-100 cm, and three dripper spacings S1-30 cm, S2-40 cm and S3-50 cm in three replications under a split plot design. Based on present study with all statistical analysis and economical gain, a drip system may satisfactorily be installed for wheat crop with “Excellent” category of performance viz., coefficient of manufacture variation (1.20–1.43), coefficient of emitter flow variation (0.75–1.45), emission uniformity (98.8), Christiansen's uniformity (1.00) and statistical coefficient of uniformity (98.6–98.8) for at least two consecutive years and 60 cm lateral spacing with 50 cm dripper spacing may be recommended for wheat crop which may result in 46.36 q/ha of wheat with use of 32.3 cm irrigation depth. The yield obtained in supervised pipe irrigation was 39.82 q/ha with water use of 43.0 cm. Thus, drip irrigation as recommended may improve yield by 16.42% and save water by 25%.