Yield and water requirement of indigenous potato grown on a clay terrace soil of Bangladesh

A field experiment was conducted in the rabi (dry) season of 1997-98 on a c lay terrace soil of Bangladesh, in order to study the effects of rice straw mulching and irrigation on the yield, total water use, and water use effic iency of an indigenous low-yielding variety of potato, "Lal pakhri". The ex periment was executed in the split-plot design comprising the combination o f the two mulching conditions as a main plot and five frequencies of irriga tion distributed as a subplot. Irrigation is indispensable in the rabi seas on of Bangladesh and the yield was significantly lowest in the treatment of no irrigation after establishment of seedlings. Rice straw mulch was found to conserve soil moisture and to maintain a higher moisture regime in each irrigation level throughout the cropping period. The treatments of rice st raw mulching and the single irrigation at 30 days after sowing were the bes t combination with a satisfactory high yield of 7.9 Mg ha(-1) in the 1997-9 8 rabi season having a good amount and distribution of rainfall. The water requirement was 145.8 ram to give the highest water use efficiency of 54.5 kg ha(-1) mm(-1).