Water and nutrient economy in vegetable crops through drip fertigation and mulching techniques: a review.

Vegetables are important constituents of Indian agriculture and nutritional security of the people. India no doubt has diverse agro-climatic conditions with distinct seasons that are supportive for growing a wide range of vegetables and offers a lot of potential to enhance their production by adopting innovative technologies. Despite largest irrigation network in India, irrigation efficiency is merely 40% and water and nutrient use efficiencies are very low. Also bringing more area under irrigation will largely depend upon the efficient use of water and other resources. In this context, micro irrigation with fertigation especially in vegetable crops has proven a win-win technology in enhancing water and nutrient use efficiencies and in turn higher yield potential thereby achieving the prime objective of 'more crop per drop'. The technology provides precise water control, dissolved fertilizers, application facilities and thus more resilient and cost effective. Moreover, mulching along with drip irrigation and fertigation add feather to this technology by controlling weed population and increasing overall efficiency of the system. Mulching insulates the soil, provides a buffer from cold and hot temperature, reduce deterioration and erosion of soil and also checks water evaporation. This review presents the finding of various researchers involving the influence of drip irrigation, fertigation and mulching on different vegetable crops. It is evident from the studies that drip fertigation practice alone or in combination with mulching offer a huge potential in enhancing crop yields, quality, growth, water and nutrient saving in comparison with other conventional tools of irrigation and fertilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]