Asok Ghosh* and PK Chatterjee
DOI: 10.37421/2168-9768.2023.12.388
Water is an essential resource for overall development of human settlements. While the demand for water is rising with increase in population and improvement in standard of living, supply of natural water remains more or less constant. As a consequence, the cost of procuring water is increasing fast. Industries and major urban settlements in India and other countries with water shortage have already started taking appropriate measures for conservation of water and optimization of water usage. Currently, the agriculture and irrigation sector has to compete for water with other sectors, an overall irrigation strategy needs to be formulated for ensuring equitable and economic distribution of water in the basin set up.
Various types and formats of irrigation usage have been significantly contributed to development of human civilisation over centuries starting from irrigation by flooding in the Indus Valley civilization to irrigation by canal system in the mauryan period and commercialization of irrigation water in the twentieth century.
This paper presents the state-of-the-art concepts of various issues connected with modernization of canal and water usage system. It is observed that modernization of irrigation needs improvement in all aspects of water usage in agriculture and irrigation. Two most important aspects in this context are Water Productivity and Irrigation Scheduling. Water productivity facilities production of the same quantity of crop by using less water along with more efficient management. In India, excess water accumulates on the field during periods of heavy rain. Such excess water can be utilised either by proper drainage and reutilization of drained water in the same command or in some other command or by allowing the water to recharge the aquifer below the irrigated field and developing a proper system of conjunctive use of surface and ground water.
Accurate irrigation scheduling is a complex issue, depending on both climatic and crop factors. In India, water availability varies widely over space and time. Hence, a long term irrigation scheduling study can be carried out only through stochastic simulation of long term hydrologic water balance data. However, for immediate field decisions, advanced instrumentation system has to be adopted.
DOI: 10.37421/2168-9768.2023.12.390
Many irrigation projects have been constructed in different corners of Ethiopia, with the aim of accelerating the overall economic growth through irrigation as a possible remedy to erratic rainfall and its subsequent hunger. But, they have below the targeted execution. Irrigation performance evaluation has got the highest priority in irrigation research to resolve the problems of irrigation management. The objective of this study was to evaluate performance of field level water use efficiency at Serenta irrigation scheme, Tigray region, Ethiopia. To evaluate it, stratified random sampling was done by stratifying the farmers as head, middle and tail-end users of the water source. Then, four farmers’ fields covered with single crop onion from each location water user of the irrigation scheme were selected. For every plot, water applied depth and soil moisture contentment before irrigation and after irrigation was made at all growth stages of the crop. The irrigation depths of water applied to fields were measured using Parshall flumes and the soil moisture contents before and after irrigation were determined using gravimetric method. The results from the field measurement revealed that, the amount of water applied depth during the onion growing season was more than the crop’s requirement. The average application efficiency of the selected fields from all growth stages of the crop was, 50.2%, 58.5% and 63.5%, with average deep percolation losses 49.8%, 41.5%, 36.5% for head, middle and tail-end water users, respectively. The average storage efficiency was, 87.5%, 80.5 % and 83.94%, and distribution uniformity efficiency was, 99.2%, 99.1% and 98.63% for head, middle and tail-end, respectively. The average water use productivity was 1.28 kg/m3, 1.78 kg/m3 and 2.04 kg/m3 for head, middle and tail-end users, respectively. It can be concluded that the irrigation efficiency can be improve by minimizing water losses and applying water according to crop water requirement.
Atakltie Abebe* and Pratap Singh
DOI: 10.37421/2168-9768.2023.12.391
The study was conducted at Koga irrigation trial and demonstration site in the upper Nile River basin, to evaluate the effect of deficit irrigation on yield and water productivity of irrigated wheat. The wheat crop was subjected to water stress by not irrigating during different crop growth periods, by reducing the level of irrigation and full irrigation during all crop growth periods. The field experiment was arranged in a randomized complete block design with three replications and seven treatments. It was found that different levels of soil moisture stress had significant (p<0.001) effect on plant height, spike length, number of grains per spike, above-ground biomass, grain yield, and irrigation water productivity. There was no significant difference in crop yield for 75% of ETc and no irrigation during the lateseason crop growth period as compared to 100% of ETc application. But, the irrigation water productivity observed at 75% of ETc application and no irrigation during late season growth period was significantly higher than 100% of ETc application. Imposing deficit irrigation during the late growing period and a deficit of 25%ETc thorough out the whole growing period saved 15% and 25% irrigation water compared to full irrigation practice over the whole growing period with insignificant crop yield decrease of 1.4% and 2% respectively. Irrigation of wheat to 75% of ETc, 50%of ETc, skipping irrigation during crop development period and skipping irrigation during late season period enhance the irrigation water use efficiency by 23.6%, 8.6%, 21.5% and 13.6%, respectively than the full irrigation practice.
DOI: 10.37421/2168-9768.2023.12.389
This study evaluates the effect of furrow irrigation flow rate on irrigation water productivity, economic water productivity, and irrigation efficiency parameters based on the basis for furrow irrigation design and management in clay loam soil. The treatments were 50%, 70%, 85%, 100% and 120% Qmax, respectively. A randomized complete block design was used with three replications for the treatments. Based on the results, furrow irrigation inflow rate had a highly significant (P<0.01) effect on onion yield components and marketable yield. Based on the study, application of T3 (85% Qmax) resulted in the highest number of plant height, bulb diameter, bulb length and bulb weight. It was found that T3 yielded the highest marketable yield (19.61 tons/ha), while T1 yielded the lowest (13.59 tons/ha). A maximum of 3.72 kg.m-3 irrigation water productivity was achieved at T1, and a minimum of 1.89 kg.m-3 was obtained at T5. Under treatment T3 (85% Qmax), the highest economic water productivity of 35.76 ETB.m-3 was attained. In total, 4164.8 m3 of water was saved from varying furrow irrigation inflow rates per hectare, which was used to irrigate an additional 1.61 ha, giving a total yield of 24.39 tons per hectare. At T3, the best water application efficiency, requirement distribution efficiency, and total distribution efficiency were 63.75%, 89.92% and 92.62%, respectively. Application efficiency increased from 55.8% to 65.32% when furrow irrigation inflow rate increased from T1 to T3 and deep percolation loss dropped inversely from 44.52% to 36.25%. According to the results, application of T3 (85% Qmax) improved irrigation efficiency, onion marketable yield, economic water productivity and irrigation water productivity. The outcomes of this study could be useful in the management, planning and operation of furrow irrigation systems in clay loam soil.
Irrigation & Drainage Systems Engineering received 835 citations as per Google Scholar report
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