EFFECT OF DRIP IRRIGATION AND MULCHING ON TOMATO YIELD

Experiments were conducted on the fine-textured heavy soils of Western India from 1989 to 1991. These sought to study the effect of drip, mu lches and irrigation levels on tomato yield. The treatments comprised various combinations of two irrigation methods namely, drip and surfac e flood, with and without two mulches of either black plastic of sugar cane trash. For drip, three irrigation levels viz. 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 fr actions of pan evaporation (PE) were tried. In surface flood, the reco mmended irrigation schedule, i.e. 8 cm depth of irrigation at 100 mm c umulative pan evaporation (CPE), was followed. This study revealed tha t drip plus sugarcane trash mulch (STM) scheduled at 0.4 PE level was the best combination, which gave the highest fruit yield of about 51 m etric tonne . ha-1 with 44% water saving. The highest yield of 163 kg/ ha/mm of water used was also maximum in this treatment. In areas of hi gh weed intensity, drip at 0.4 PE along with plastic mulch (PM) could be adopted. This treatment resulted in 95% reduction in weed infestati on, 53% higher yield and 44% saving in irrigation water when compared with the surface flood without mulch treatment.