Mulberry requires about 1.5-2.0” acre water per irrigation at an interval of 6 - 12 days depending upon the type of soil and seasons.
About eight number of irrigation is required per crop of 65-70 days duration to achieve the maximum leaf yield.
Thus the annual requirement of irrigation water for 5 crops is about 75” acre equal to 1875 mm rainfall distributed equally @ 36 mm per week or 5-6 mm per day.
But 80% of average annual rainfall of 1,160 mm (Lal, 2001; Gupta and Deshpande 2004) our country is received in 4-5 months and in Tamil Nadu, the average annual rainfall of 961.8 mm.
is received in 40-45 days and hence practically, it is not possible to meet the demand of irrigation for mulberry crop by rainfall alone.
Further in traditional system of irrigation practice requires more water and manpower; the two major limiting factors becoming scarce and expensive respectively in agriculture sector in general and sericulture in particular attracted the attention of researchers in recent times in the field of water technology and water management. Massive shifting of irrigation from surface water to ground water from the level of about 33% during 1960’s to more than 50% in three decades reduced the ground water level and its quality considerably