EFFECT OF DIFFERENT IRRIGATION SCHEDULING ON WHEAT CROP YIELD

Abstract

Irrigation requires a relatively high investment in equipment, fuel, maintenance, and labor, but offers a significant potential for increasing farm income. Frequency and timing of water application have a major impact on yields and operating costs. To schedule irrigation for most efficient use of water and to optimize production, it is desirable to frequently determine the soil water conditions through-out the root zone of the crop being grown. A number of methods for doing this have been developed and used with varying degrees of success. To test the effectiveness of various irrigation scheduling treatments on wheat crop yield and growth, experiments were conducted on clay loam soil at the Al-Hafiz Farm Tando Allahyar during Rabi 2021–22 to investigate the effect of different irrigation schedules on wheat output and water utilization. Three irrigation intervals were used in the experiments with TD-1 wheat variety. The findings revealed that irrigation intervals had a significant influence on grain production, biological yield, quantity of tillers per plant, grain per spike, and 1000 grains weight. When the crop was irrigated according to its schedule intervals, there was little variation in growth and yield. When plots were irrigated after 14 days, the highest yield was recorded. The same was the case with the both the weight and quantity of grains per spike was maximum from other treatments. When the crop was watered after a 14-day interval, the maximum crop water productivity 3.8 (kg m -3 ) was attained. However, it was found that a combination of six irrigations on wheat variety TD-1 produced the best grain production (5560 kg ha -1 ).