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A field experiment was conducted during summer 2018 and 2019 to study the performance of maize (Zea mays L.) genotypes under drip and furrow irrigation regimes at the Main Agriculture Research Station, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, Karnataka. The experiment was laid out in strip plot design with 3 replications. Treatments included 4 irrigation levels (drip irrigation at 0.6 ETc, 0.8 ETc and 1.0 ETc and furrow irrigation at 0.8 IW/CPE ratio) and 4 maize genotypes. The data indicated that, furrow irrigation at 0.8 IW/CPE ratio and drip irrigation at 1.0 ETc recorded significantly higher and on par growth and yield parameters, grain yield (75.8 q/ha and 71.4 q/ha, respectively) and economic returns. Drip irrigation at 1.0 ETc consumed 28.6% less water but recorded significantly higher water productivity over furrow irrigation. Among the genotypes, NK-6240 found superior over rest of the genotypes. The combination of furrow irrigation with NK-6240 recorded significantly higher growth and yield attributes as well as grain yield and economics over rest of the combinations. However, this treatment remained statistically non-significant with drip irrigation at 1.0 ETc with NK-6240 and furrow irrigation with CP-818.

Background: Maize is the third most important food crop in India. Conventionally it is a furrow irrigated crop and hence, it calls for an effective on-farm management of water in field through micro irrigation. Intensive agriculture practice like continuous monocropping without following the principles of crop rotation and sequence have resulted in several ecological complications. Hence, blackgram was introduced as a succeeding crop after drip irrigated maize. The aim of the study was to examine the residual effect of drip irrigation levels and maize genotypes and their interaction on succeeding crop i.e. blackgram. Methods: During summer 2018 and 2019, maize experiment was conducted with four irrigation levels (drip irrigation at 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0 ETc and furrow irrigation at 0.8 IW/CPE ratio) and four maize genotypes (NK-6240, Pinnacle, CP-818 and RCRMH-2). After maize, succeeding blackgram was taken up under rainfed condition of Dharwad during kharif 2018 and 2019. Result: Performance of blackgram was superior under residual effect of drip irrigation treatments over furrow irrigation method. Among the interactions, significantly higher yield, RWUE and net returns were recorded with residual effect of I1G4 treatment combination. However, it was on par with I1G2, I1G3, I1G1, I2G1, I2G2, I2G4, I3G2 and I3G3 treatment combinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the INCOMPASS project, state of the art eddy‐covariance based surface flux measurement systems were installed at eight locations across India. These sites cover different climatic conditions, land use and land cover, and water management practices. Here we present the initial analysis of the measurements taken at seven sites mainly focusing on the year 2017, quantifying for the first time the remarkable contrasts in evaporative fraction across the seasons, climate zones and land management practices of the Indian subcontinent. With the exception of Jaisalmer which is the driest of the places studied, all the sites maintain values of evaporative fraction above 0.5 after the monsoon through to November. By contrast, for those sites with natural vegetation or rain‐fed agriculture, evaporative fraction remains below 0.3 for the dry January–May period. In the middle Gangetic Plain area, irrigation and pre‐monsoon showers together maintain evaporative fraction above 0.5 between January and June. It is also observed that different variables exhibit different intraseasonal variation characteristics even at one site. Except for Samastipur which is situated in the middle Indo‐Gangetic Plains, wind speed shows spectral peak at a smaller time‐scale compared to sensible and latent heat fluxes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A field experiment was conducted to study the effect of tillage, mulching and weed management practices on growth, yield and uptake of nutrients by chickpea during rabi 2010 and 2011 at MARS, UAS Dharwad, Karnataka. Conventional tillage increased various growth, yield parameters and chickpea yield and also nutrient uptake and nitrogen use efficiency over minimum and zero tillage practices. Significantly higher gross return, net return and B:C ratio were recorded in conventional tillage as compared to minimum and zero tillage practices. Mulching practice showed higher growth, yield and yield parameters of chickpea and also nutrient uptake and economics over minimum and zero tillage practices. Significantly higher growth, chickpea yield and yield parameters, nutrient uptake, gross return, net return and B:C ratio were recorded in application of pendimethalin as compared to other weed management practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A field experiment was conducted at the Main Agricultural Research Station, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad to study the effect of spentwash and tillage on juice quality and economics of sweet sorghum under rainfed condition. Results revealed that deep tillage recorded significantly higher ethanol yield (769.6 l/ha), juice yield (9644.0 l/ha), extractability (269.73 ml/kg), extraction per cent (31.84%), brix0 (18.250) and pol per cent (12.76%) of sweet sorghum as compared to shallow tillage. Among the different spentwash levels, 150 kg N per ha through spentwash recorded significantly higher ethanol yield (750.2 l/ha), juice yield (9567.3 l/ha), extractability (273.95 ml/kg), extraction per cent (32.30%), brix0 (17.990) and pol per cent (12.71%) as compared to 75 kg N per ha through spentwash and control, but was on par with 100 kg N per ha through spentwash recommended dose of fertility and 125 kg N per ha through spentwash. The study indicated that a treatment combination of deep tillage with 100 kg N per ha through spentwash was found to be suitable for juice quality of sweet sorghum over other treatment combinations. Based on economics, this treatment was found to be suitable for higher gross returns (Rs. 35486.9/ha), net returns (Rs. 21644.9/ha) and B: C ratio (2.56) with minimum cost of cultivation (Rs. 13842.0/ha) as compared to other treatment combinations. The enormous quantities of plant nutrients present in spentwash offers an excellent opportunity to use it as a liquid fertilizer along with irrigation water, thus enabling the farmers to save cost incurred on fertilizers and at the same time achieve higher yields of crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A field experiment was conducted at the Main Agricultural Research Station, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad to study the effect of spentwash and tillage on juice quality and economics of sweet sorghum under rainfed condition. Results revealed that deep tillage recorded significantly higher ethanol yield (769.6 l/ha), juice yield (9644.0 l/ha), extractability (269.73 ml/kg), extraction per cent (31.84%), brix0 (18.250) and pol per cent (12.76%) of sweet sorghum as compared to shallow tillage. Among the different spentwash levels, 150 kg N per ha through spentwash recorded significantly higher ethanol yield (750.2 l/ha), juice yield (9567.3 l/ha), extractability (273.95 ml/kg), extraction per cent (32.30%), brix0 (17.990) and pol per cent (12.71%) as compared to 75 kg N per ha through spentwash and control, but was on par with 100 kg N per ha through spentwash recommended dose of fertility and 125 kg N per ha through spentwash. The study indicated that a treatment combination of deep tillage with 100 kg N per ha through spentwash was found to be suitable for juice quality of sweet sorghum over other treatment combinations. Based on economics, this treatment was found to be suitable for higher gross returns (Rs. 35486.9/ha), net returns (Rs. 21644.9/ha) and B: C ratio (2.56) with minimum cost of cultivation (Rs. 13842.0/ha) as compared to other treatment combinations. The enormous quantities of plant nutrients present in spentwash offers an excellent opportunity to use it as a liquid fertilizer along with irrigation water, thus enabling the farmers to save cost incurred on fertilizers and at the same time achieve higher yields of crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Availability of global satellite based Soil Moisture (SM) data has promoted the emergence of many applications in climate studies, agricultural water resource management and hydrology. In this context, validation of the global data set is of substance. Remote sensing measurements which are representative of an area covering 100 m 2 to tens of km 2 rarely match with in situ SM measurements at point scale due to scale difference. In this paper we present the new Indian Cosmic Ray Network (ICON) and compare it's data with remotely sensed SM at different depths. ICON is the first network in India of the kind. It is operational since 2016 and consist of seven sites equipped with the COSMOS instrument. This instrument is based on the Cosmic Ray Neutron Probe (CRNP) technique which uses non-invasive neutron counts as a measure of soil moisture. It provides in situ measurements over an area with a radius of 150–250 m. This intermediate scale soil moisture is of interest for the validation of satellite SM. We compare the COSMOS derived soil moisture to surface soil moisture (SSM) and root zone soil moisture (RZSM) derived from SMOS, SMAP and GLDAS_Noah. The comparison with surface soil moisture products yield that the SMAP_L4_SSM showed best performance over all the sites with correlation (R) values ranging from 0.76 to 0.90. RZSM on the other hand from all products showed lesser performances. RZSM for GLDAS and SMAP_L4 products show that the results are better for the top layer R = 0.75 to 0.89 and 0.75 to 0.90 respectively than the deeper layers R = 0.26 to 0.92 and 0.6 to 0.8 respectively in all sites in India. The ICON network will be a useful tool for the calibration and validation activities for future SM missions like the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A field experiment was conducted at the Main Agricultural Research Station, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad to study the effect of spentwash and tillage on growth and yield of sweet sorghum under rainfed condition. Results revealed that deep tillage recorded significantly higher grain yield (18.0 q/ha) and green biomass yield (35.5 t/ha) of sweet sorghum as compared to shallow tillage (13.7 q/ha and 28.6 t/ha, grain yield and green biomass yield). Among the spentwash levels, application of 150 kg N per ha through spentwash recorded significantly higher grain yield (18.0 q/ha) and green biomass yield (34.7 t/ha) as compared to 75 kg N per ha through spentwash and control, but was on par with 100 kg N per ha through spentwash, RDF and 125 kg N per ha through spentwash. The growth parameters and yield components followed similar trend as that of yield. Treatment combination of deep tillage with 100 kg N per ha through spentwash was suitable. Spent wash application was an effective nutrient supplement which could be a potential resource for sweet sorghum cultivation at low cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agronomic evaluation of fertilizing efficiency of the spentwash was carried out at the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad in 2006. Initial chemical analysis confirmed its usefulness as a source of fertilizer as it consists most essential plant nutrients. Application of spentwash at the recommended level of nitrogen significantly affected both maize growth (plant height, number of leaves, leaf area, chlorophyll etc.) and yield (cob characteristics, test weight etc.) parameters. Spentwash is useful not only in meeting the crop N requirement but also other plant nutrients besides decreasing the current environmental problems faced by the industries. A highest maize yield (81.2 q/ha) was obtained when chemical fertilizer was replaced by the spentwash at the recommended nitrogen level. There was no advantage of applying spentwash higher than the recommended level in view of loading of soils with potassium. Application limited to the recommended level not only supplied N but also other essential plant nutrients. Spentwash substitution directly reduced fertilizer cost and thus benefited farmers by decreasing the cost with no adverse effect on soil's physical, chemical and biological properties when applied at the level recommended.