Effect of Mulches and Drip Irrigation Management on the Quality and Yield of Potato Relating Hydro Thermal Regime of Soil

Utilization of potato as a processed food can help stabilize the potato production as well as its price. Processed food requires certain quality parameters for raw material. With an aim to improve quality parameters of potato, a field study was conducted using mulches and drip irrigation. Three different type of mulches (plastic, biodegradable and organic) and four irrigation levels were used. The ratio of irrigation water and cumulative pan evaporation (IW/CPE) was fixed 0.6 for low level drip irrigation (LDI), 0.8 for medium level drip irrigation (MDI), 1.0 for high level drip irrigation (HDI) and conventional irrigation was also applied. Plastic mulch showed the best results among other mulches. The highest yield of 33.15 t/ha was obtained under HDI plastic mulch treatment. The average yield of three mulched treatment under drip irrigation was 28.6% higher than the non-mulch drip irrigation treatment. Averaged crop yield (28.99 t/ha) for all the mulched drip irrigated field was 53.5% higher than the conventionally irrigated non-mulched crop (18.88 t/ha). Result also displayed that as compared to non-mulched, plastic & biodegradable mulch treatment increased the minimum soil temperature by 2-3 degrees C and brought. it close to the optimum range (10-12 degrees C). The dry matter content of potato was 21.1% and 21.5% in plastic and biodegradable mulch under LDI treatment while it was minimum 14.9% in non-mulched conventional irrigation treatment. Organoleptic observation also showed improvement in the processing quality of potatoes.