Field experiments conducted in sugarcane revealed that scheduling irrigation through drip daily at 80 percent of pan evaporation (PE) registered the highest cane yield (168.2 t ha-1) in main of cv. CO 86032 which was followed by 60 and 40 percent drip irrigation (148.5 and 140.9 t ha-1 respectively) and were significantly superior over surface method of irrigation at 0.75 IW/CPE ratio (126.2 t ha-1). In the ratoon crop, drip irrigation treatments at 40, 60 and 80 percent level of pan evaporation produced comparable cane yields (124.4, 131.7 and 128.9 t ha-1 respectively). Highest water use efficiency was observed in 40% PE treatment for both main crop and ratoon (150.3 and 146.8 kg ha mm-1 respectively). Nitrogen levels did not show any marked difference on cane yield and application of 175 kg N ha-1 as fertigation was found to be optimum and economical.
Drip irrigation, Nitrogen Fertigation, Pan evaporation, Sugarcane, Water use efficiency