RESPONSE OF WATER USE EFFICIENCY THROUGH FERTIGATION ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF CHILLI CROP

Water is the vital source for crop production and is the most limiting factor in Indian agricultural scenario. Though India has the largest irrigation network, the irrigation efficiency does not exceed 40%. The average rainfall in Uttar Pradesh is 650 mm as against the average rainfall of 1200 mm in the country. Due to water scarcity, the available water resources should be very effectively utilized through water saving irrigation technologies. The need of the hour is, therefore, to maximize the production per unit of water. Hence, further expansion of irrigation may depend upon the adoption of new systems such as pressurized irrigation methods with the limited water resources. Amongst those pressurized irrigation methods, drip irrigation has proved its superiority over other methods of irrigation due to the direct app lication of water and nutrients in the vicinity of root zone. Improper management of water and nutrient has contributed extensively to the current water scarcity and pollution problems in many parts of the world, and is also a serious challenge to future f ood security and environmental sustainability. The results shown the drip irrigation system of fruit characteristics recorded after every picking and the average values are expressed under various treatments of fruit yield and quality. At harvesting time, samples of green pepper fruits were randomly harvested from each plot to measure fruit length and fruit diameter. In addition, total weight of fruits in each treatment were recorded by harvesting pepper fruits twice weekly and then the total yield as Kg/fe d., was calculated. The maximum yield of crop 900 gm/plant and minimum of yield 600 gm/plant and total yield 52270 gm (52.270 kg).