Quality of Irrigation water

‧Just as every water is not suitable for human being, in the same
manner every water is not suitable for plant growth

‧Water containing impurities which are injurious to the plant

growth may not be satisfactory for irrigation purpose

‧Water impurities are classified as

‧Sedimentation concentration in water
‧Total concentration of soluble salts in water
‧Proportion of sodium ions to the other cations
 Quality of Irrigation water

‧Water impurities are classified as

‧Concentration of potentially toxic elements presents in
water

‧Bicarbonate concentration (Concentration of Calcium +

Magnesium)

‧Bacterial contamination
 Quality of Irrigation water

‧Sedimentation concentration in water : Effect of sedimentation

in irrigated water depend on the type of source sedimentation

material and irrigated land. When fine sedimentation from water

is deposited on the sandy soil, the fertility is improved. On the

other hand if the sediment has been derived from the eroded

area, it may reduces fertility

‧Total concentration of soluable salts : Salts of calcium,

magnesium, sodium and potassium present in the irrigation water

may prove injurious to osmotic activies of the plants and

 Quality of Irrigation water

‧
 Quality of Irrigation water

‧
 Quality of Irrigation water

‧Amount in excess of 700 ppm are harmful to some plants and

more than 2000 ppm are injurious to all crops

‧Salt concentration measured by the electrical conductivity of

water

‧Electricity conductivity is expressed in micro mhos per

centimetre
 Quality of Irrigation water
S. Type of Water
No
1 Low salinity water (C1) .
Conductivity between 100 to 250
micro mhos/cm at 25 deg
2 Medium salinity water (C2) .
Conductivity between 250 to 750
micro mhos/cm at 25 deg
3 High salinity water (C3) .
Conductivity between 750 to
2250 micro mhos/cm at 25 deg
4 Very high salinity water (C4) .
Conductivity more than 2250
micro mhos/cm at 25 deg
Use in Irrigation
Can be use for irrigation for almost all
crops and for all kinds of soils
Normal salt tolerant plants can be
grown without much salinity control
Special precautions and measures are
under taken for salinity control and only
high-salt tolerant plants can be grown
Generally not suitable for irrigation
 Quality of Irrigation water
‧
 Quality of Irrigation water
‧
 Quality of Irrigation water

S. Type of Water Use in Irrigation

No

1 Low sodium water (S1). SAR Use for almost all crops and for all
lies between 0 to 10 kinds of soils

2 Medium sodium water (S2). May be used on course-texture or

SAR lies between 10 to 18 organic soils with good permeability

3 High sodium water (S3). SAR Harmful on almost all the soils,
lies between 18 to 26 require good drainage, gypsum
addition for proper irrigation

4 Very high sodium water (S4). Generally not suitable for irrigation
SAR greater than 26
 Quality of Irrigation water

‧Concentration of potentially toxic elements: A large number of elements

such as boron, selenium etc may be toxic to plants

‧Traces of Boron are essential to plant growth, but concentration above 0.3
ppm may prove toxic to certain plants

‧The concentration above 0.5 ppm may be dangerous to nuts, citrus fruits
‧Selenium, even in low concentration is toxic and must be avoided
 Quality of Irrigation water

‧Bicarbonate Concentration : High concentration of bi-corbonated ions may

result in precipitation of calcium and magnesium bicarbonates from soil-

solution, increase the relative proportions of sodium ions and causing

sodium hazards

‧Bacterial Contamination : Bacterial contamination of irrigation water is not

a serious problem, unless the crops irrigated with highly contaminated

water
 Quality of Irrigation water
‧Ex: What is the classification of irrigation water having the following
characteristics : Concentration of Na, Ca, and Mg are 22, 3 and 1.5

milli-equivalents per letre respectively and electrical conductivity is

200 micro mhos per cm at 25 deg

 Definitions
‧Crop period: It is time period required by a crop from the time of sowing to
the time of harvesting

‧Base Period: it is the periods in days during which water is supplied to a

particular crop for its growth

‧Each crop requires certain amount of water at certain interval of time

through out its period of growth

‧The depth of water supplied in each time may various from 5 to 10 cm

depending upon the crop type, climate and soil type

‧Ex: Water supplied to a crop continuously 10 days in January, 15 days in

 Definitions
‧Delta (∆) : it is total depth of water supplied to a crop for its growth
during entire base period

‧Ex: if water supplied to rice crop, 20 cm in August, 15 cm in

September, 10 cm in October, 15 cm in November and 20 cm in

December

‧∆ = 20+15+10+15+20 = 80 cm = 0.8 m
‧Total depth of water supplied to crop during the base period
represents water requirement of the crop for its full growth

‧
 Definitions
‧Frequency of irrigation or rotation period : the time interval between
two consecutive watering is called frequency of irrigation

‧Duty (D) = it is the total area irrigated by a unit discharge running

continuously during the entire base period

‧Units = area/cumec
‧D gives the relationship between volume of water and area of the
crop which it mature

‧Ex: if 10 cumes of water require to a crop in an area of 10,000 ha,

 Relationship between duty and delta
‧
Layout of Canal System
 Layout of Canal System
‧In a large canal irrigation system, the water from its source, flows into the
main canal; From the main canal, it flows into the branch canal; From the

branch canal, it flows into the distributary; From the distributary, it flows

into the minor; From the minor, it flows into the field channel/water course;

and finally into the fields.

‧During the passage of water through these irrigation canals, water is lost
due to evaporation and percolation
 Duty
‧If water require of a particular crop is more, then lesser no of hectares of
land it can be irrigated, in otherwards, if water consumed by a crop of a

given base period is more, its duty will be less

‧The duty of water-course will be less than duty of water on the field;
because when water flows from the head of the water-course and reaches

the field, some water is lost enroute as transit losses

‧Applying the same reason

‧The duty of water (D) at the head of a minor < ‘D’ at the head of water-

course
 Factors Affecting Duty
‧Duty of water varies from one place to another place and increases as one
move down stream from head of the main canal towards branches or water-

courses

‧The duty at the head of water-course (i.e outlet point of minor), is quite
important and is called outlet discharge factor, It is end point of the

irrigation department responsibilities

‧Factors on which duty depends :

‧Type of crops
‧Climate and season
 Factors Affecting Duty
‧Type of crops : different crops requires different amount of water
requirements. So, duty of water varies from crop to crop. The crop

which require large quantity of water have lower duty of water than

for the crops which requires less quantity of water

‧Climate and season : Duty includes the water lost in evaporation and
percolation. Theses losses varies with seasons. Hence duty varies

from season to season

‧Higher the temp, lesser is the duty of water

‧Higher the wind velocity, lesser is the duty of water
 Factors Affecting Duty

‧Usefull rainfall : If some useful rainfall on the irrigate land, it will

useful for growth of the crop, then so much less irrigated water

required to mature crop. More useful rainfall, less will be requirement

of irrigation water and hence more will be the duty of irrigation water

‧Type of soil : if permeability of soil under the irrigation crop is high,

the water lost due to the percolation will be more and hence duty will

be less. In case of sandy soils, the duty of water is less, because of

 Factors Affecting Duty

‧Canal condition : In an earthen canal, the percolation loss is high

which will result in a low duty of water. But, if the canal is lined, the

percolation loss will be less and duty of water will be high.

‧Topography of land : if the land to be irrigated is properly levelled

then uniform application of water will be possible which will result in

economical use of water and hence a higher duty of water

‧
 Factors Affecting Duty
‧Efficiency of cultivation method : if the cultivation method is faculty
and less efficient, resulting wastage of water, the duty of water will

naturally less.

‧If the irrigation of water economically used the duty of water will
improve

‧Importance of duty :
‧Knowing the available water at the head of main canal and duty of
various crops to be irrigated in different seasons of a year, the area
 Duty for Certain Crops

Crop Duty in hectares/

cumec

Sugercane 730

Rice 775

Other Kharif 1500

Rabi 1800
 Crops Seasons

‧Kharif : Starts from 1st April and ends on 30th September.

‧The Kharif crops are rice, bajra, jowar, maize, cotton, tobacco,
groundnut, etc

‧The Kharif crops also called “ Summer crops”

‧Rabi : Starts from 1st October and ends on 31th March
‧The Rabi crops are wheat, barely, gram, linseed, mustard, potatoes,
etc

‧The Crop crops also called “Winter crops”

 Optimum utilization of Irrigation water
‧Crops rotation : The process of changing the type of crop to be
grown in the same field is know as crop rotation

‧It has found if the same crop is grown in same field every year,
fertility of the land gets diminished and crop production is reduced

‧Optimum utilization of Irrigation water : if a crop is sown and

produced under absolute identical conditions, using different amount

of water depths, the yield is found to vary

 Optimum utilization of Irrigation water
‧The yield increase with water, reaches a certain maximum value and
falls down. The quantity of water at which yield is maximum is called

optimum water depth

 Irrigation Efficiencies

‧Efficiency of water- conveyance (nc) : It is defined as the ratio of the

quantity of water delivered to the field or the irrigated land to the

quantity of water diverting into the canal system from the river or

reservoir.

‧It represent water loses which occurs in conveyance from the point
of diversion into the canal system to the field
 Irrigation Efficiencies
‧
 Irrigation Efficiencies
‧
 Irrigation Efficiencies
‧
 Irrigation Efficiencies
‧
 Irrigation Efficiencies
‧
 Irrigation Efficiencies
‧Ex: The depths of penetration along the length of a boarded srip at
point 30 m apart were probed. Their observed values are 2.0, 1.9,

1.8, 1.6 and 1.5 m. compute the water distribution efficiency?

 Consumptive Use or Evapotranpiration (Cu)

‧Cu for a particular crop may be defined as the total amount of water
used by plants in transpiration (building of plant tissue etc) and

evaporation from adjacent soils in any specified time

‧The value of Cu may be different for different crops, the value of Cu

for the same crop vary with at different times and places

‧The value of daily Cu are determined for a particular crop at

 Consumptive Use or Evaporation (Cu)

‧The Transpiration is defined as the process by which water leaves a

living plant through its leafs during the photosynthesis to enters

atmospheric as water vapour

‧Transpiration occurs when the plants manufactures carbohydrates

for its growth by the process of photosynthesis
 Water Holding Capacity of Soil

‧Water holding capacity of soil is one of the dominating factor

influence irrigation water requirement

‧The water holding capacity mainly depends on its porosity

‧In general there are two type of pores in soil viz, i) capillary or

small pores and (ii) Non-capillary or large pores

‧The capillary pores hold tightly the water by capillarity action and
 Water Holding Capacity of Soil

‧On the other hand the non-capillary pores do not hold water tightly
and hence large amount of water held by the soil drained off under

gravity

‧Thus capillary pores induce greater water holding capacity while

non-capillary pores induces draining and aeration

‧The relative magnitude of capillary and non-capillary pores depend

 Classification of Soil Water

‧The water extraction is reduced by some of the forces

‧The resisting forces are more in clayey soil than the sandy soils
‧The water added to a soil mass during irrigation, held in the pores of
soil and term as soil water or soil moisture

‧The soil water categorise as

‧Gravitational water
‧Capillary water
 Classification of Soil Water

‧Gravitational water : it is water which is not held by the soil and

drains out freely under the influence of gravity

‧With addition of water to the soil during irrigation, the water content
of the soil is raised to a state of saturation corresponding to point A

on the water content versus time curve

‧At this points all soil pores are completely filled with water and soil
 Classification of Soil Water

‧Some of this water is held very loosely by the soil and readily moves
under the pull of gravity, thus the water content of the soil is

reduced to AB1 (or AB2) on the curve

‧The reduction in the water content of the soil will be along the curve
AB1 if there are no plants growing on the soil and will be along the

curve AB2 if there are plant growing on the soil which will utilize

some water through transpiration

 Classification of Soil Water
‧Thus the water content between A and B1 (or B2) thus represents the
gravitational water

‧Most of the gravitational water is not available to the plants for their
use because it drains out rapidly from the root zone

‧The water content corresponding to point B1 or B2 is termed as field

capacity, which represent the lower limit of the gravitational water
 Classification of Soil Water
‧Capillary water : The water content retained in the soil after the
gravitational water has drained off from the soil is know as capillary water,

which is held in the soil by surface tension as a continuous film around the

soil particle and capillary pores between the soil particles

‧The plant roots gradually absorb the capillary water the constitutes the
principle source of water for plant growth

‧The capillary water is also designated as available water

 Classification of Soil Water
‧The water content in the soil reduce to AB2C (if plants are going – supplying
the water to meet the requirement of transpiration and evaporation) other

AB1E (if no plants growing in the soil- available water use to meet the

requirement of evaporation)

‧The plants roots will continue to extract water from the soil until it is
reduced to point C below which it is not possible to extract enough water to

meet the transpiration requirement of plant and wilt permanently

 Classification of Soil Water
‧Hygroscopic water : The water which is absorbed by the dry soil particles
from the atmosphere and is held very thin film on the surface of the soil

particles due to adhesion or attraction between surface of particles and

water molecules

‧The hygroscopic water is held with considerable force, it cannot be removed

easily from the soil particles and is shown by the curve CD, there is very

little variation in the amount of hygroscopic water present in the soil

 Classification of Soil Water
‧The reduction of water content continuous till reaches to ultimate wilting
point

‧Very little amount of hydroscopic water lying between permanent and

permanent wilting point and can be extracted for the survival of plant

‧Below permanent welting point the water present in soil can not extracted by
plant roots
 Classification of Soil Water
‧
 Classification of Soil Water
‧
 Reclamation of saline soil
‧Land reclamation is a process by which an uncultivable land is made fit for
cultivation

‧Saline and water logged lands gives very less crop yields, and are therefore,
almost unfit for cultivation, unless they are reclaimed

‧Every agricultural soil contains certain minerals and salts in it

‧Some of these salts are beneficial for plants as they provide the plant food,
while certain others prove injurious to plant growth
 Reclamation of saline soil
‧These salts are soluble in water
‧If the water table rises up, or if plant roots are grown within the capillary
fringes, water from watertable starts flowing upward

‧The soluble alkali salts also move up with water and deposited in the soil

within plant roots as well as on the surface of land

‧The phenomenon of salts coming up in solution and forming thin ( 5 to 7.5

cm) crust on surface, after the evaporation of water is called effeorescene
 Reclamation of saline soil
‧The salty water surrounding the roots of plants reduces the osmotic activity
of the plants

‧The plant roots act as semi-permeable membranes, pure water on one side of
the membrane (water already extracted by the roots) and highly concentrated

salt solution on the other side

‧The pure water from within the roots start flowing out of the roots by
‘osmosis’ towards the salt solution, until the pressure on pure water side
 Reclamation of saline soil
‧The salty water surrounding the roots of plants reduces the osmotic activity
of the plants

‧The plant roots act as semi-permeable membranes, pure water on one side of
the membrane (water already extracted by the roots) and highly concentrated

salt solution on the other side

‧The pure water from within the roots start flowing out of the roots by
‘osmosis’ towards the salt solution, until the pressure on pure water side
 Reclamation of saline soil
‧Effeorescene can be avoided if the water is maintained sufficiently below the
roots, so that the capillary water is not reach the root zone of the plant

‧An efficient drainage system consisting of surface drains as well as sub-

surface drains must be provided to lower the saline lands

‧Adopting the leaching process to make soil free from existing soil
‧Leaching : In this process, the land is flooded with adequate depth of water,
the alkali salts present in the soil, get dissolved in this water, which
 Reclamation of saline soil
‧The process is repeated till the salts in the top layer of the land reduces to
extent that some salt salt resistant can be grown

‧Other measures:
‧Lining of canals and water courses
‧Reducing the intensity of irrigation
‧By introducing crop-rotation
‧By optimum use of water