ABSTRACT
262Field studies were conducted at Precision Farming Development Center farm of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore to evaluate the crop water and fertigation requirements for grafted brinjal under drip irrigation system. The experiments were laid in strip-plot design with 27 treatments. The daily water requirement of grafted brinjal at different stages was found to be 1.9 L/day (initial stage), 3.6 L/day (vegetative stage), 4.2 L/day (flowering stage), and 5.2 L/day (harvesting stage).The total water requirement for the growth period under drip irrigation was 396.00 mm with mulch at 80% ET0 level and 495.00 mm without mulch at 100% ET0 level. It can be concluded that drip irrigation can save 16.17% of water with mulch as compared without mulch condition. The highest yield of 83.3 t ha−1, highest water use efficiency of 62.87 kg m−3, and fertilizer use efficiency of 416.5 kg ha−1 kg of N, 555.3 kg ha−1 kg of P, and 833.00 kg ha−1 kg of K) were recorded in treatment under 25 p thickness plastic mulching at 80% ET0 level and 100% RDF followed by T6 (81.1 t ha−1) and T14 (79.2 t ha−1) and lowest yield of 18.1 t ha−1, least water use efficiency (19.38 kg m−3), and fertilizer use efficiency (113.13 kg ha−1 kg of N, 150.83 kg ha−1 kg of P, and 226.25 kg ha−1 kg of K) were found in control plot treatment with 60% ET0 and 80% RDF. Increased fertilizer use efficiency with the decreased level of fertilizer dose through drip was observed.
