SHWETA*, SATPAL, ANITA KUMARI, NEELAM, MEENA SEWHAG, N. KHAROR AND MEHAK NAGORA
Department of Agronomy
Forage Section, Department of Genetics & Plant Breeding
Department of Botany and Plant Physiology
CCS, Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar-125004 (Haryana), India
*(e mail : malik.shweta54@gmail.com)
(Received : 2 April 2022; Accepted : 10 June 2022)
SUMMARY
Crop required water for their physiological reactions and growth. Water shortage was the responsible for the yield reduction in maize upto 40 per cent. To investigate the effect of drip irrigation frequency and interval on growth, yield and quality of maize, a field study was conducted during Kharif 2019 at Agronomy Research Farm Area, CCS Haryana agricultural university, Hisar, Haryana (India) to determine the effect of drip irrigation on yield and quality maize fodder under semi-arid region of India. The Research Area is located at 29010’ N latitude and 75046’ E longitude at an elevation of 215.2 m above mean sea level in North-West part of India. the experiment was conducted with seven treatments viz. irrigation every day 100 % of Pen evaporation (T1), irrigation every day 80% of Pen evaporation (T2), irrigation at two days interval 100 % of Pen evaporation (T3), irrigation at two days interval 80 % of Pen evaporation(T4), irrigation at four days interval 100 % of Pen evaporation
(T5) irrigation at four days interval 80 % of Pen evaporation (T6) and Control-Flood irrigation (T7) in thrice replication with RBD. The objective of research was to find out the effect of drip irrigation on maize fodder yield and quality of fodder. Growth parameter and yield attributes were recorded randomly selected and tagged plant. GFY and DFY under drip irrigation at two days interval 80 % of Pen (I4) on
par with drip irrigation every day 80 % of PEN (I2). I1, I2 and I3 treatment produced 8.43, 4.08 and 2.08% more GFY and 8.48, 4.15 and 2.13 % DFY over to I4 treatment. The flood irrigation (I7) and drip
irrigation every day 100 % of PEN (I1), drip irrigation every day 80 % of PEN (I2), drip irrigation at two days interval 100 % of PEN (I3) were at par in respect to crude protein content.
Key words: Maize, drip irrigation, fodder yield, IVDMD, crude protein content