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Abstract
Field experiments were conducted on the sandy loam soils of Center for Protected Cultivation
Technology (CPCT), Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, India during October -
February seasons for 2 years (2008-2010) to evaluate the economic feasibility of trickle irrigation in
combination with different irrigation intervals, N application rate and crop geometry for lettuce crop.
Reference evapo-transpiration for lettuce crop was estimated using FAO-56 Penman-Monteith method.
The net irrigation volume (V) was determined after deducting the effective rainfall. The plan of
experiment included three crop geometries [45×30 (G1); 30×30 (G2) and 17.5×30 (G3) (Row × Plant
spacing in cm)], two irrigation schedules [2 day (I1) and 4 day (I2) interval] and 2 levels of nitrogen
application [60 kg ha-1 (N1) and 100 kg ha-1 (N2)]. For both the experiments, three replications were given.
The study indicated that 2 day irrigation interval with 100 kg N ha-1 application in 17.5 × 30cm crop
geometry gave the highest yield (41.4 t ha-1) with 6 per cent increase in yield as compared to rest of the
treatments. The same treatment has resulted into maximum net seasonal income, benefit-cost ratio (BCR)
and lowest payback period for both the years, respectively.