Productivity and Soil Moisture Optimization for Vegetable Crops in drylands: Reduced Runoff Farming with Sensor-Based Irrigation Solutions

A polyhouse experiment (2 year) was conducted at AICRP for Dryland Agriculture during 2021/22 and 2022/23, to evaluate the impact of sensor driven irrigation levels on yield, yield attributes, irrigation efficiency and economic returns of broccoli, capsicum, pole bean and cherry tomato. The experiments were laid out separately in RCBD with six replications for each crop and wireless soil moisture sensors were installed with the purpose for collecting real time soil moisture content and controlling the irrigation levels (75, 50 and 25% ASM) via smart phone and surface irrigation as control. The two years study found that, sensor irrigation scheduling at 75% ASM recorded significantly higher average yield of broccoli (26.05 t ha ^− 1 ), capsicum (48.59 t ha ^− 1 ), pole bean (37.08 t ha ^− 1 ) and cherry tomato (42.02 t ha ^− 1 ). The mean irrigation production efficiency of broccoli (84.98 kg/ha-mm), capsicum (102.25 kg/ha-mm), pole bean (114.27 kg/ha-mm) and cherry tomato (88.41 kg/ha-mm) was higher at 75% ASM. Regression analysis revealed the polynomial relationship between the average quantity of water applied and yield of broccoli, capsicum, pole bean and cherry tomato. This relationship, with R ² values ranging from 0.73 to 0.83, can be effectively utilized to optimize irrigation water distribution among the crops both individually and collectively. Scheduling of irrigation at 75% ASM, resulted substantially higher net returns of Rs. 6,55,899 ha ^− 1 for broccoli, Rs. 9,69,689 ha ^− 1 for capsicum, Rs. 11,07,535 ha ^− 1 for pole bean and Rs. 5,79,865 ha ^− 1 for cherry tomato.