Effect of Crop and Non Crop Mulch Management under Varying Moisture Regimes on the Growth and Yield of Zero Tillage Potato in Rain-fed Low Land Rice Eco System

An experiment was carried out to study the effect of mulches and irrigation scheduling on the growth and yield of ZT potato under rain fed low land rice ecosystem. The experiment was laid out in split plot design taking three levels of irrigation viz. Single irrigation at 40 DAP (I1), Splash irrigation at 15 days interval (I2) and Irrigation at IW/CPE = 0.6 (IW = 4cm) (I3) in the main plots and three types of mulch management viz. Paddy straw mulch @ 5 t/ha (on dry weight basis) (M1), Water hyacinth @ 5 t/ha (on dry weight basis) (M2) and Soil cover (ridge and furrow) (M3) in the sub plots in different combinations, each combination being replicated thrice.Among the different irrigation schedules single irrigation at 40 DAP (I1) gave maximum fresh tuber yield (8.62 t/ha) followed by splash irrigation (7.14 t/ha) at 15 days interval. Single irrigation (I1) recorded the higher total dry matter production (221.84 g/m2) and no. of tubers per hill (4.7) at harvest. Among the mulches water hyacinth (M2) recorded the highest tuber yield (9.64 t/ha) followed by paddy straw mulch (8.36 t/ha),which might be attributed to higher plant height (45.1 cm), more number of haulms per hill (and tuber dry matter production (141.6 g/ m2).