Inefficient synchronisation of water and nutrient supply, coupled with inadequate soil-moisture conservation, is constraining strawberry productivity in the north-western Himalayan region, according to a study by researchers at CSK Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University, Palampur.
Strawberry is an economically important, high-value fruit crop cultivated widely in temperate and subtropical regions. Its production is also expanding in tropical agro-ecosystems due to increasing consumer demand and its premium market value.
However, strawberry cultivation is highly sensitive to agro-climatic variability, soil properties and resource availability. The crop possesses a shallow and fragile root system, coupled with high transpiration demand, making it particularly vulnerable to water stress and nutrient imbalance, the researchers observed.
“Therefore, precise water and nutrient management is essential to sustain productivity and fruit quality under open-field conditions. Water scarcity and declining soil fertility are major constraints to sustainable horticultural production,” they said.
According to open-source data, India produces more than 20,000 metric tonnes of strawberry annually, with Mahabaleshwar accounting for a major share of production. Agriculturalists in Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan are increasingly taking up strawberry cultivation.
The three-year field study was conducted to evaluate the effects of fertigation schedules, mulching, and irrigation regimes on strawberry growth, yield, fruit quality, water-use efficiency (WUE) and economics returns. The findings were published in Nature’s Scientific Reports, a peer-reviewed journal, on September 12.
The study provides region-specific insights for optimising fertigation strategies and irrigation regimes under open-field conditions. Adoption of the identified integrated approach can enhance resource-use efficiency and climate resilience in strawberry production systems in similar agro-ecological regions. The findings, according to the researchers, confirm that integrated water, nutrient, and soil management enhances productivity and profitability in strawberry cultivation.
The study comprised three fertigation schedules, two mulching materials (straw and polyethylene) and two irrigation regimes. Significant differences were observed among treatments for growth, yield, quality, WUE, and economic returns.
Polythene mulch improves yield, water-use efficiency
Polyethylene (PE) mulch advanced flowering and harvesting and increased fruit yield by 34.7 per cent compared with straw mulch. It also improved WUE by 81.1 per cent, net returns by 47.4 per cent and the benefit-cost ratio by 43.6 percent.
Among the fertigation schedules tested, application of 25 per cent the recommended nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium (NPK) dose as basal fertiliser and the remaining 75 per cent through fertigation produced a 19.2 per cent higher yield than applying 100 per cent of the NPK dose as basal fertiliser.
The treatment also recorded a 17.9 per cent greater WUE, 21.1 per cent higher net returns and an 18.6 per cent improvement in the benefit-cost ratio.
Fertigation is an agricultural technique where water-soluble fertilizers are injected and dissolved directly into an irrigation system, such as drip or sprinkler irrigation, to feed plant roots. It increases fertilizer use efficiency to 80–90 per cent and reduces resource utilisation by up to 40 per cent.
Optimal irrigation boosts yield
The study also found that irrigation at 0.8 pan evaporation (PE) enhanced fruit yield by 43.2 per cent, WUE by 41.3 per cent, net returns by 16.1 per cent and benefit-cost ratio by 16.2 per cent over 0.4 PE and 0.6 PE regimes. PE is the ratio of the volume of irrigation water applied to the total water that evaporates from a standard open pan evaporimeter over a specific period.
Integrated application of 50 per cent inorganic and 50 per cent organic nutrient sources improved fruit quality traits, including fruit weight, ascorbic acid content and total soluble solids, the study said.
