Comparative Study of the Impact of Saline Water Irrigation on Tomato Yield, Quality and Growth in Andhra Pradesh, India

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) belonging to the family Solanaceae, is one of the most important, popular, nutritious, and palatable vegetables grown in Andhra Pradesh. It plays a vital role in providing a remarkable quantity of vitamin-A and vitamin-C in human diet. Tomato is cultivated all over Andhra Pradesh due to its adaptability to wide range of soil and climate. Saline water resources are abundant in the most areas of India. Most of these resources still have not been effectively utilized. The present investigation was conducted on the effects of saline water irrigation on tomato yield, quality and growth at the Research Farm, Department of Agricultural Engineering, Aditya Engineering College, Surampalem, East Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh. Saline water differing in Electrical Conductivity (EC) 6ds/m and 4ds/m was supplied to the plant after the seedlings. The objective of this work is to compare the effect of tomato crop under drip irrigation by three different treatments. First treatment is of fresh water under drip irrigation. Second treatment is of Nacl+water with an EC of 6ds/m under controlled irrigation in the ratio 2.5:7.5. Third treatment is of Nacl+water with an EC of 4ds/m under controlled irrigation in the ratio 1.5:8.5 of the tomato variety Pusa F1 hybrid is used for the experiment. Growth of crop includes plant height, number of fruits, number of leaves, fruit length, fruit diameter and fruit weight. The healthy growth that is 69.4cm plant height, 26 leaves per plant, 34 fruits per plant, 7.8 cm fruit length, 5.4 cm diameter of fruit and 89.4 g of average fruit weight and maximum score (4.86 out of 5) in organoleptic test were obtained in (T-1) i. e. drip irrigation. Although salinized tomato fruits were smaller than non-salinized control fruits, they have increased soluble solids, high sugar content, which all are highly requested qualities by the processing tomato industry. Current research concludes that the fresh water irrigation T-1 recorded the high-water use efficiency and saline water irrigation treatments (T2&T3) having less water use efficiency may be due to the plants suffering with more soil moisture stress due to osmotic pressure build up by the saline water irrigation.