S. Naveenkumar, C. Ravikumar, S. Kandasamy, M. Thiruppathi and P. Senthilvalavan
Abstract
Field experiment was conducted during Kharif, 2025 in the farmerâs field at Perampattu Village, Tirupattur District to study the effect of different stages of irrigation and integrated drought management practices for rainfed groundnut in North Eastern Zone of Tamil Nadu. The soil of the experiment field belongs to red loam. The experiments were set up using strip plot design, having 4 irrigation viz., I1 â No Irrigation, I2 -Irrigation at flowering and pod filling stage, I3 - Irrigation at pegging and pod filling stage, I4 - Irrigation at flowering, pegging and pod filling stages (I4) in the main plot and 7 drought management practices, viz., S1- absolute control, S2 -RDF alone (10:10:45 kg ha-1 of NPK), S3 - INM (RDF + Poultry manure compost 1 t ha-1 + Micro nutrient mixture 12.5 kg ha-1), S4 - RDF + Paddy straw mulch @ 5 t ha-1 + foliar application of K @ 0.5%, S5 - RDF+ Kaolin @ 1% + foliar application of K @ 0.5%, S6 - INM + paddy straw mulch @ 5 t ha-1 + foliar application of K @ 0.5%, S7 - INM + Kaolin @ 1% + foliar application of K @ 0.5% in subplot, replicated thrice. The highest pod yield (2814 Kg ha-1) and haulm yield (4220 Kg ha-1) of groundnut was recorded in the treatment of irrigation at flowering, pegging and pod filling stages along with INM + Paddy straw mulch @ 5 t ha-1 + foliar application of K @ 0.5% (I4S6). The lowest pod yield (498 Kg ha-1) and haulm yield (923 Kg ha-1) of groundnut were recorded under the combination of no irrigation with absolute control (I1S1). The highest water use efficiency (14.01 Kg ha-1 mm-1) was recorded under the treatment of irrigation at flowering and pod filling stages along with INM + paddy straw mulch @ 5 t ha-1 + foliar application of K @ 0.5% (I2S6). The lowest water use efficiency (2.90 Kg ha-1 mm-1) was recorded in the treatment of irrigation at flowering, pegging and pod filling stages along with INM + paddy straw mulch @ 5 t ha-1 + foliar application of K @ 0.5% (I4S6).