Efficacy of Planting Methods and Mulching Under Drip Irrigation on Yield, Water use Efficiency, Water Productivity and Economics of Cauliflower (Brassica Oleracea Var. Botrytis)

The field experiment was undertaken to study the efficacy of planting methods and mulching under drip irrigation on yield, water use efficiency, water productivity and economic return of cauliflower in acidic soil of Eastern Plateau Hill Region of India.The treatments of the study comprised different combinations of three planting methods viz., flat bed, broad bed and ridge & furrow under drip irrigation in conjunction with or without LLDPE mulch of bi colour silver black 25 micron thickness.The mulched treatments irrespective of methods of planting revealed significantly higher yield, water use efficiency, water productivity and economic returns as compared to the without mulched.The ridge and furrow either alone or in conjunction with mulch gave significantly highest yield.The ridge and furrow with mulch gave highest cauliflower average curd yield 1.05 kg plant -1 , curd yield 40.42 t ha -1 , irrigation water use efficiency 11.88 kg m -3 , gross economic water productivity 118.78 Rs m -3 and benefit cost ratio was also found highest (1.63) with net return of Rs 1, 55,672 ha -1 .The mulched planting system recorded significantly high moisture content over non mulched treatment.The mulch alone increases the yield by 29.5 %, 28.07 % and 29.8 % in flat bed, broad bed and ridge and furrow method of planting over without mulched.The highest moisture content was 14.5 and 13.9 % during crop growth period under mulched ridge and furrow system.The method of planting showed enhancement of yield up to an extent of 8.18 % (flat bed vs. broad bed), 15.72 % (flat bed vs. ridge and furrow) and 6.97 % (broad bed vs. ridge and furrow).The polythene mulched treatment also showed significant gain in N, P and K balance with simultaneous increase in crop nutrient uptake and soil available nutrient.The highest actual gain of N and K was 22 kg ha -1 .The ridge and furrow with mulch compared to flat bed without mulch gave 50.2 % higher yield.The maximum net return of 185.12 % was recorded in flat bed with mulch in compared to without mulch followed by broad bed with mulch and without mulch (140.19%) and least in ridge and furrow with and without mulch (113.62 %) respectively.The study reveals method of planting under drip irrigation in conjunction with mulch has an explicit role in increasing the land and water productivity of cauliflower.