Influence of irrigation on yield and moisture utilization of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea)

A field experiment was conducted during 1994-97 on clay-loam soil of medium land with winter groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.). The pod yield increased with increasing irrigation water : cumulative pan evaporation (IW : CPE) and the maximum yield of 22.4 q/ha was obtained at 1.4 IW : CPE with 52.5 cm evapotranspiration (ET), 76.1 cm water requirement (WR) and 42.6 kg/ha/cm crop water-use efficiency (CMUE). It required 12 irrigations of 6 cm depth each with ET:Pan E ratio of 0.87. Most of the ancillary characters, however, showed increasing trend up to 1.2 IW:CPE which also gave pod yield (21.91 q/ha) at par with that of 1.4 IW:CPE. The value of ET, WR, run-off and percolation at 1.2 IW:CPE were 46.95, 65.39, 3.25 and 21,39, cm respectively. The crop water-use efficiency and field water-use efficiency were computed to be 46.0 and 33.81 kg/ha/cm respectively with ET:Pan E value of 0.78 at this moisture regime.