Impact of Drip Irrigation Regimes and Fertigation Levels on Yield and Economics of Summer Sesame (Sesamum indicum)

A field experiment was conducted at College farm, Water Technology Centre, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agriculture University (PJTSAU), Rajendranagar, Hyderabad during 2018 to 2019 to study the effect of differential drip irrigation and fertigation schedules on yield and economics of summer sesame. The experiment was framed with ten treatments viz., two irrigation levels (0.8 and 1.0 Epan), two fertigation levels (75% and 100% recommended dose of Nitrogen and Potassium), two schedules (Equal and differential) and two treatments with soil application of 100% RDF with Drip irrigation (1.0 Epan) and conventional furrow irrigation (1.0 IW/CPE) and were replicated thrice in Randomized Block Design. The results revealed that, application of 100% recommended dose of Nitrogen and Potassium (RDNK) through drip fertigation @ 0.8 or 1.0 Epan either in differential dosages based on crop growth stage or in equal splits recorded significantly superior yields (1011, 971, 977 and 990 kg/ ha, respectively) compared to the other treatments. These treatments recorded 13.5 and 26.7% higher yields, obtained from soil application of recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF) with drip irrigation at 1.0 Epan (882 kg/ha) and furrow irrigation at a 1.0 IW/CPE ratio (774 kg/ha). Further, the highest water productivity of 0.24 kg/m3 was recorded with differential application of 100% RDNK under a drip irrigation regime of 0.8 Epan. This treatment also recorded the highest gross returns ( ₹ 96,489 /ha), net returns (₹ 53,604 /ha) and B:C ratio (2.95).