Introduction Cassava, often called as ‘poor man’s food’ is considered
as the most important crop among the tropical tuber crops. The crop is widely cultivated due to its adaptation to small and marginal lands, drought tolerance and comparatively affordable cost of cultivation. Apart from its role as a staple/subsidiary food, during the past few decades there has been growing recognition of the value of cassava roots as a low cost energy source for livestock and as a raw material for industrial starch and fuel alcohol. It has a built in mechanism to avoid drought by dropping its leaves temporarily. Drought stress can also be managed by giving supplementary irrigation during the drought periods. Dry matter production, crop growth rate (CGR), tuber weight and yield were significantly greater in cassava, when supplementary18 irrigations given to a depth of 5 cm which amounts to a total water requirement of 90 cm ha
for a 10 month crop (Ramanujam, 1994). Sushamma et al. (1982) reported that cassava requires 5 to 6 irrigations during summer from January to May when planted in September.
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