Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

Vol 26, Aug Suppl. Issue, 2020; Page No.(140-144)

PITCHER IRRIGATION IN SALINITY MANAGEMENT FOR PRODUCTION OF BRINJAL CROP IN COASTAL SOIL OF WEST BENGAL, INDIA

Rahul Adhikary, Monisankar Bera, Susanta Kumar De and Arunabha Pal

Abstract

Pitcher irrigation, an indigenous technology, alternative to drip irrigation is one of the cheapest among the latest advancement of localized method of small scale irrigation and found most efficient of using saline irrigation water with blending with fresh water. A study was undertaken at the Kakdwip, South 24 Pargona, West Bengal to investigate the effect of various combinations of saline and sweet water through pitcher pot irrigation on yield and quality of pre-kharif Brinjal. Five treatment combinations were taken viz., T1- brinjal with 100% sweet water treatment, T2- brinjal with 75% sweet water+25% saline water treatment , T3- brinjal with 50% sweet water+50% saline water treatment, T4 - brinjal with 25% sweet water+75% saline water treatment, T5 - brinjal with 100% saline water treatment. All the treatments are applied during the cultivation of pre-kharif brinjal which is used as test crop in RBD design with four replications. The yield and yield component of each treatment was recorded. It significantly increased with the application of each of the different type of treatments over 100% saline water treatment. The results of present study lead to suggest that application of various combinations of saline and sweet water through pitcher pot irrigation increases growth and yield of brinjal crop. Although the blending of sweet water in various level with saline water found satisfactory performance towards improving the yield of brinjal. Therefore application of equal proportions of sweet and saline water may be useful for ameliorating the salinity constraints for brinjal production in the above area.