SENSOR BASED DRIP IRRIGATION TO ENHANCE CROP YIELD AND WATER PRODUCTIVITY IN SEMI-ARID CLIMATIC REGION OF PAKISTAN

The efficient application of irrigation and fertilizer are very important for optimizing crop water productivity and water losses even in drip irrigation. The application of sensor for monitoring of soil moisture and quantifying irrigation water is the valuable instrument for irrigation scheduling and water saving. Thus, a research study was conducted at Water Management Research Centre (PARAS), University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan to measure crop production response to water deficit and fertilizer levels in sensor-based drip irrigation system. The present study was also consisted IT-based web server for monitoring soil moisture status and subsequently served as decision support system for applying irrigation to the crops. Therefore, experiments were conducted on wheat crop with following treatments: five irrigation levels {sensor-based irrigation at CWR(SD1), 15%(SD2), 30(SD3), 50(SD4)% MAD compared with conventional time-based (TD) drip irrigation system} and three fertilizer levels {100%(F-1), 80%(F-2) and 60%(F-3) of recommended fertilizer}. The average results of wheat crop revealed that grain yield was 30.5, 18.27, 24.63 and 13.87% higher in SD1, SD2, SD3, SD4 compared to TD, respectively under F-1 fertilizer treatments in each. Among sensor-based drip irrigation (SD) treatments, water saving was more in SD4 but produced less crop yield than other treatments. Consequently, the higher water productivity was achieved in SD4 but resulted grain yield loss. Fertilizer treatments were also showed significant impact on crop yield and soil fertility. Comparatively, SD2F2 at 15% MAD level and 20% less fertilizer produced higher yield and water productivity conceived as novel concept that save water in addition to higher grain yield. Therefore, irrigating using sensors at 30% less then field capacity and 20% less then recommended dose would be recommended.