ABSTRACT
Water is a scarce natural resource. Its per capita availability is decreasing due to climate change and increased population, and has already reached to water stress line. Availability of water for agriculture is further decreasing as more and more quantity of water is being diverted for developmental activities and industrialization. Drip irrigation system considerably reduces the wetted land surface and applies water in such a quantity that it remains within root zone of the plants thereby making evaporation and percolation losses nearly zero. Drip irrigation resulted in higher number of tillers and millable canes than that from surface irrigated crop. It was observed that tiller mortality was higher in the treatments which gave higher number of tillers before onset of monsoon. Competition for nutrients, air, water and light due to overcrowding of tillers at one place might have resulted in tiller mortality.
