There has been a growing gap between the demand for maize and its supply. One of the reasons often attributed to decline in maize productivity is poor production practices, awareness and characterized by low use of modern inputs. In order to avoid the lack of all the above to assess the current levels of technical efficiency of maize cultivation like spacing of Maize cultivation with effective management of irrigation practices could be taken as a study. The study was taken up for the cultivation of maize crop (variety of Co H(M) 6) with main treatments of sub surface drip irrigation through calculated water requirement of crops (WRc) at 75%, 100% & 125% and sub treatments of fertilizer application through fertigation at 50%, 75% & 100% of RDF. The irrigation was given in alternative days and the fertigation was given once in a week as per the schedule given in crop production guide. The inline emitter spacing is 40 cm and lateral spacing is 80 cm were considered for drip layout and paired row system was followed. The irrigation with 75 % WRc consumed 338 mm of irrigation water and recorded lower yield of 5070 kg/ha with the yield penalty of 31% (2300 kg/ha) when compared to 100 % irrigation water. Similarly the irrigation with 125% consumed 529 mm of irrigation water and recorded the grain yield of 7343 kg/ha with a reduction in yield of 250 kg/ha. The treatment I3F1 (125 % WRc with 100% fertigation) was consumed higher quantity of irrigation water (529 mm) with lowest WUE ( kg/ha mm) and water productivity ( kg/m3 & Rs. ha/mm) when compared to other treatments. The treatment I2F3 consumed 434 mm of irrigation water and recorded highest yield which saved 30 per cent of irrigation water when compared to control. In control the yield was 22 per cent significantly lowered when compared to I2F3. The combination of Irrigation with 100% WRc and 100% fertigation has given higher yield of 7670 kg/ha when compared to reduced quantity of fertigation. | Performance evaluation of maize with square spacing for maximizing the yield potential through subsurface drip fertigation
