Performance Evaluation of Real Time Automatic Irrigation System on the Yield of Cabbage (Brassica oleracea L.)

Abstract

The performance evaluation of real time automatic irrigation system designed and developed at the Department of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Dapoli were carried out during January 2017 to April 2018. Cabbage crop was grown on the plot of 14.35 m x 17.10 m size along with micro-sprinklers of 26 lph discharge which were installed at spacing of 1.5 m x 1.5 m. The crop spacing of 0.30 m x 0.45 m was used with raised beds. The designed controller was installed in the field for the entire crop period from 29/01/2017 to 28/04/2017. The four sensors were randomly installed in the field, out of which two sensors were at the depth of 5 cm and the remaining two sensors were at the depth of 10 cm near to the root zone of the crop. The results revealed that the depth of water required on ETC basis was 304.37 mm while controller actually applied 283.74 mm water throughout the crop period on real time soil moisture basis. Thus, the real time automatic irrigation system saved 6.78 per cent water of total water requirement over the climatological data. The moisture content study shows that the moisture content in the field was always maintained between the field capacity and 50% depletion of permanent wilting point. The real time automatic irrigation system recorded cabbage yield of 59.54 t/ha which was 18.40% more than manual irrigation system.