An experiment was conducted on farmer's field to observe the effects of different drip irrigation regimes on water use efficiencies (WUE) and soil moisture status for cotton variety NHH44 in Vidarbha region during 2001 and 2002. Treatments were based on open pan evaporation approach. The highest cotton yield was obtained from the least irrigation treatment (T 1). WUE ranged from 0.02 kg/ha/mm in the treatment T 5 to 0.34 kg/ha/mm in T 1. The greatest irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) was observed in treatment T 1 (2.26 kg/ha/mm), and the smallest IWUE was in treatment T 5 (0.18 kg/ha/mm) in the experimental years, indicating saving of more than 58 per cent irrigation water. Soil moisture status was below 50 per cent of available water capacity (AWC) for 105 days in 2001 as compared to 135 days in 2002 in T 1 implying that light irrigations in place of 6 cm for the clay soils in this part would be preferable and drainage of excess rainwater could be critical to improve yields.
