Water use efficiency and evapotranspiration of NB hybrid + berseem intercropping system under semi-arid conditions

Abstract

An experiment was conducted during rabi season of 2011- 12 and 2012-13 to assess the evapotranspiration (ET) and water use efficiency (WUE) of hybrid napier + berseem intercropping system using lysimeters under organic and inorganic nutrition. The estimated water use efficiency of the system under organics showed that the maximum water use efficiency (39.83 kg dm ha-1 mm-1) coincides with third cutting. Similar trend was found for inorganic. Comparison between two nutrition sources demonstrates that the WUE of the system was higher in case of organic as compared to inorganic nutrition. The total evapotranspiration losses of the system ranged between 94.8 to 165.15 mm in different cuttings under organic situation. The crop coefficient (Kc) at each cutting stage was more than 1. The Kc values varied from 1.11 to 1.41 and 1.14 to 1.43 in organic and inorganic nutrition, respectively.