EI 1 (Chapter 3)

3.
Crop water requirement (CWR)

Introduction
• All field crops need water, soil, air and light
• Rain fall is the well known source of water for crops
• If there is insufficiency of rain water, it has to be
supplied by irrigation
• If there is too much rain, the excess should be
removed from root zone by drainage
• Knowledge of CWR is important for:
- Irrigation planning (designing irrigation schemes
including water harvesting structures)
- Planning water management activities (when, how
much and how best to irrigate)
- Mitigating environmental problems
By: Zewdu T 1
3.Crop water requirement (CWR)…
CWR:
• The total quantity of water required by the crop from its
sowing time up to harvest
• Various crops have different water requirements and even
the same type of crop may have different water need at
different places
• The total water required for crop growth is not uniformly
distributed over its entire life span
• Total demand of water is made up of:
i) Crop water use: includes evaporation and transpiration
(evapotranspiration)
ii) Leaching requirement:
iii) Land preparation /pre-sawing requirement
iv) Losses of water due to deep seepage /percolation in
canals and losses due to the inefficiency of application.
By: Zewdu T 2
Definition of terms
• Crop period- The time elapsed from the instant of
sowing to its harvesting
• Base period (B)-The time between the 1st watering of
a crop at the time of its sowing to its last watering
before harvesting
 Hence, crop period is slightly>base period
• Delta (Δ)-The total depth(cm) of water required by a
crop to come to its maturity
Example: if wheat requires 7.5cm of water after every
28 days and the base period is 140 days, find the value
delta for wheat
Solution: No. of watering= 140/28=5;
hence Δ=5x7.5cm=37.5cm
By: Zewdu T 3
• Duty of water (D)-The area that can be irrigated for full
growth of a given crop by supply of 1m3/sec water
continuously during the entire base period
Example: if water flowing at a rate of 1m3/sec runs
continuously for B days and matures 200ha, then the duty of
water for that particular crop is will be 200ha/m3 for base B
days
• Delta (Δ) and duty (D) are related as:
By: Zewdu T 4
• The terms interchangeably used for CWR are:
- Crop water use
- Crop consumptive use (Cu)
- Crop Evapotranspiration(ET)
• water need of a crop = transpiration (T) + evaporation
(E).→crop water need is also called evapo-
transpiration
• Evapotranspiration- is the combined loss of water
from the soil & crop by vaporization
• Consumptive use
- the water need of a crop in a specified time
- the sum of the volume of transpired and evaporated
water
- expressed in mm/day, mm/month or mm/season
By: Zewdu T 5
s
By: Zewdu T 6
• Evaporation is the process whereby liquid water from
a variety of surfaces, such as lakes, rivers, pavements,
soils and wet vegetation is converted to water vapour
• Transpiration is the vaporization of water contained in
plant tissues to the atmosphere
• At sowing nearly 100% of ET comes from evaporation,
while at full crop cover more than 90% of ET comes
from transpiration.
• Reference evapotranspiration (ETo)
- ET rate from a reference surface in the presence of
freely available water at the surface
- The reference surface is a hypothetical grass reference
crop with specific characteristics
By: Zewdu T 7
- expresses the evaporating power of the
atmosphere at a specific location and time
- Does not consider the crop characteristics and soil
factors
• Actual evapotranspiration-ET in the absence of
freely available water for evaporation. It is less
than Reference ET
Crop evapotranspiration under standard conditions
(ETc)
• is the evapotranspiration from disease-free, well-
fertilized crops, grown in large fields, under
optimum soil water conditions
By: Zewdu T 8
Crop evapotranspiration under non-standard
conditions (ETc adj)
• ET due to non-optimal conditions such as the
presence of pests and diseases, soil salinity, low
soil fertility, water shortage or waterlogging
• The evapotranspiration rate is below ETc
(standard) b/c of low plant growth & plant density
By: Zewdu T 9
Kc is crop factor dependent on crop type, Varity, growth

stage, length of growing period & climate
By: Zewdu T 10
Factors affecting CWR
a) Climate
Climatic factor Crop water need
High Low
Temperature Hot Cool
Humidity High/Dry Low/moist
Wind speed Windy Little wind
Sunshine Sunny (no clouds) No sun (cloudy)
b) crop type and Varity
c) The growth stage of a crop (initial, development,
mid-season & late season
By: Zewdu T 11
crop coefficient curve
• At initial and mid-season stages Kc is constant
By: Zewdu T 12
• But during crop development and late season stage,
Kc varies linearly b/n the Kc at the end of the previous
stage (Kc prev) and the Kc at the beginning of the next
stage (Kc next)
Where:
- i =day number within the growing season [1.. length
of the growing season],
- Kc i = crop coefficient on day i,
- L= length of the stage under consideration [days],
- (Lprev) = sum of the lengths of all previous stages
[days] By: Zewdu T 13
Determination of ET
ET can be estimated:
1. Directly from field measurements such as lysimeter,
field experimental plots, soil moisture study and soil
water balance
2. Indirectly from meteorological data by using
empirical & theoretical equations
• Selection of a given ET estimation method depends
on:
– Desired level of accuracy
– Availability of equipment
– Availability of meteorological data
– Technical know how
• Meteorological approach is commonly used b/c field
measurements to specific areas are difficult to obtain
due to limited equipment and skilled manpower
By: Zewdu T 14
Direct methods of ET determination
A) Lysimeter experiment
• lysimeter is a device in which a volume of soil
planted with vegetation is located in a container to
isolate it hydrologically from the surrounding soil
• The tanks are filled with soil & buried in the
ground
• Both inside and immediately outside of the
lysimeter should be perfectly matched (same
height and leaf area index)
• Can be weighing and non-weighing type
By: Zewdu T 15
Lysimeter By: Zewdu T 16

• Water is applied in measured amount to the lysimeter
• Finally, the lysimeters are weighed to estimate the
water retained in the soil & evapo-transpired
• The water received by lysimeter either from
application or precipitation excluding the outflow,
constitutes the water used by the crop.
B) Field experimental plots
• Some fields are selected for experiment
• Water is applied to the plots sufficiently for
satisfactory growth of crops
• There should be no runoff & deep percolation
• If any runoff, it should be deducted from the total
quantity of water applied
• Some correction may be applied for deep percolation
By: Zewdu T 17
C) Soil moisture study
• Several plots are selected where irrigation water is to be
applied
• Soil samples are taken from different depths at root zone
just before & after irrigation
• Water contents of the samples are measured in laboratory
• The depth of water removed from the soil is determined by
the relation:
Where:Dr-depth of water removed, P-% of water content,
w-sp.gravity of soil, d-depth of soil
• The total quantity of water removed in 30 days period is
calculated
• A curve of water consumption Vs time is prepared
• The water consumption for any period can be ascertained
from the curve
By: Zewdu T 18
D) Water balance method
• Involves assessing the incoming and outgoing water
flux into & from root zone over some time period
• Irrigation (I) and rainfall (P) add water to the root
zone.
• Part of I and P might be lost by surface runoff (RO)
and by deep percolation (DP)
• Water might also be transported upward by capillary
rise (CR)
• Water may move laterally by subsurface flow in (SFin)
or out of (SFout) the root zone but these are minor
By: Zewdu T 19
• If all fluxes other than evapotranspiration (ET) are
assessed, the evapotranspiration can be deduced from
the change in soil water content (∆SW) over the time
period as follows:
By: Zewdu T 20
Empirical & theoretical equations for ET
determination
Blaney-criddle method
Pan evaporation method
FAO Penman-Montieth method
Radiation method
Thornthwaite Method
• The above methods use meteorological data &
measure ET indirectly
By: Zewdu T 21
Blaney-Criddle Method
• Consumptive use is correlated with temperature and
sunshine-hours
• Sunshine at a place is dependent on latitude of the place
and varies with month of the year
• ET for a crop during its growing season is given by:
where:
K-monthly crop coefficient,
ET0-monthly reference evapo-transpiration (mm),
Tm-mean monthly temp(0C) =
P-monthly percentage of hours of sunshine
By: Zewdu T 22
Example: Given the following data for rice
Month mean Monthly Crop ETc = Kc*ET0
monthly % (P) of factor
temp day time (Kc)
(Tm) hours (mm/month
)
Jan 12 7.62 104 1 104
Feb 16 7.2 111.53 1.1 122.68
Mar 24 8.4 161 1.1 177.1
Total 403.78mm
• If effective RF in Jan, Feb & Mar is 2mm,3mm &
1mm respectively, the net irrigation water
requirement is 403.78-6mm=37.78mm
By: Zewdu T 23
Pan Evaporation Method
and
where:
• Kpan varies between 0.35 and 0.85, with an
average value of 0.7
• Epan is the evaporation in mm/day from the pan
By: Zewdu T 24
Penman-Monteith method
• ETO may be evaluated by the following formula:
where:
By: Zewdu T 25
Irrigation requirements of crops
• The part of water requirement of crops that should be
fulfilled by irrigation.
• In other words, it is the water requirement of crops
excluding effective rain fall, carry over soil moisture
and ground water contributions.
• IR= CWR-(Peff + S+ GW)
Where:
IR= irrigation water requirement ( monthly or seasnal)
CWR= total crop water requirement (monthly or
seasonal)
Peff= effective rainfall
S=existing soil moisture prior to application
GW=ground water contribution
By: Zewdu T 26
Effective rainfall
• Part of the precipitation which is stored in the root
zone and can be utilized by crops.
• It can be obtained by subtracting the sum of
runoff, evaporation & deep percolation from the
total RF
• The effective rainfall can be taken as a fixed
percentage of a given rainfall (daily, monthly or
seasonal) as:
P eff = Y*RF; where Y=percentage(% )
By: Zewdu T 27
Irrigation efficiency
• is the ratio of the water output to the water input
• Input minus output is nothing but losses
• If losses are more, output is less, therefore, efficiency
is less
• Efficiency is inversely proportional to losses
• Water is lost in irrigation during various processes and
different kinds of irrigation efficiencies are given
below
1. Water Conveyance efficiency ( Ec)
• This term is used to measure the efficiency of water
conveyance system associated with the canal
network, water courses and channels.
By: Zewdu T 28
• It is also applicable where water is conveyed
through canals from the source to the individual
fields
• It is expressed as:
Where:
- Ec = water conveyance efficiency , %
- Wf = Water delivered to the irrigated plot ( At the
field supply channel)
- Wd = Water diverted from the source
By: Zewdu T 29
2. Water application Efficiency (Ea)
• After the water reaches the field supply channel, part
of water may be stored in the root zone while the
other part may be lost due to different reasons.
• The ratio of water stored to water reached on the plot
Where
- Ea = application efficiency , %
- Ws = water stored in the rot zone of the plants.
- Wf = Water delivered to the irrigated plot ( At the field
supply channel)
By: Zewdu T 30
3. Water storage efficiency (Es)
• Sometimes the whole water supplied to the land may
be stored in the root zone.
• But, this stored water may not be sufficient for the
requirement.
• The ratio of water really stored and water that can be
stored in the root zone is indicator of storage
efficiency.
Where:
- Es= Water storage efficiency , %
- Ws= water stored in the rot zone of the plants.
- Wn= Water needed in the root zone prior to irrigation
By: Zewdu T 31
4. Field channel Efficiency (Efc)
• The ratio between water received at the field inlet
and that received at the inlet of the block of fields.
Where:
- Ef = Field channel efficiency
- Wp = water received at the field inlet
- Wf = water delivered to the field channel
5. Water Distribution Efficiency (Ed)
• Is an indicator how uniformly water is applied to the
field
- d = average depth of water penetration
- = average deviation from d.
By: Zewdu T 32
6. Crop Water Use Efficiency:
• The ratio of the crop yield (Y) per volume of water
consumptively used (Cu) by the crop
7. Project Efficiency (Ep)
• It indicates the overall efficiency of the system
from the head work to the final use by plants
• The overall project efficiency must be considered
in order to fix the amount of water required at the
diversion head work
• Gross irrigation requirement,
By: Zewdu T 33
Problem
• A stream size of 150 lit /sec was released from the
diversion headwork to irrigate a land of area 1.8
hectares. The stream size when measured at the
delivery to the field channels is 120lit/sec. The stream
continued for 8 hours. The effective root zone depth is
1.8m. The application losses in the field are estimated
to be 440m3
• The depth of water penetration was 1.8m and 1.2m at
the head and tail of the run respectively. The available
water holding capacity of the soil is 21cm/m and
irrigation was done at 60% depletion of AM. The
stream size delivered to the plot was 100 lit/sec. Find
Ec, Efc, Ea and Ed. By: Zewdu T 34
Solution: vol. delivered to plot
• 𝑤𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑡 𝑧𝑜𝑛𝑒 = 2880 − 𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑙. 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑠

= 2880 − 440𝑚3 =2440m3
• Total A.M = 21cm/m x 1.80m = 37.80 cm

By: Zewdu T 35
where: d =av water penet. depth
• deviation at upper end =1.8 –1.5=0.3m

• deviation at lower end = 1.5– 1.2 =0.3m
• Average numerical deviation( )=
By: Zewdu T 36
Irrigation scheduling
• Water is not applied randomly at any time and in any
quantity.
• Irrigation scheduling is the schedule in which water is
applied to the field
• The scheduling of irrigation can be field irrigation
scheduling and field irrigation supply schedules
• Depth of irrigation and interval of irrigation are
crucial parameters of field irrigation scheduling
Depth of irrigation (d):
• It is the depth of water that can be retained in the
crop root zone b/n the field capacity and the given
depletion of the available moisture content.
By: Zewdu T 37
• It is the depth of irrigation water to be applied at one
irrigation
• it is the depth of irrigation water required to replenish
the soil moisture to field capacity
• The depth of irrigation (d) is given by :
𝑑𝑛𝑒𝑡 = 𝐴𝑆 ∗ 𝐷 𝐹𝐶 − 𝑃𝑊𝑃 ∗ 𝑃
Where:
As=Apparent specific gravity of soil
D=Effective root zone depth (m)
FC = water content of soil at FC
PWP = Water content of soil at PWP
P = depletion factor By: Zewdu T 38
• Because of application losses such as deep
percolation and runoff losses, the total depth of
water to be applied will be greater than the net
depth of water required.
• Gross irrigation depth is given as:
d gross = As*D(FC-PWP)*P
Ea
Where
Ea= Field application efficiency and other parameters
as defined earlier
By: Zewdu T 39
Interval of irrigation (i):
• The interval of irrigation is the time gap in days
between two successive irrigation applications.
• It depends on the type of the crop, soil type and
climate conditions → on consumptive use rate of
the crop
Where:
- As is apparent specific gravity
- D is root depth (m)
- ET crop (peak) is the peak rate of crop-
evapotranspiration in m/day
By: Zewdu T 40
Irrigation scheduling in a command area
• It is the schedule of water supply to individual fields
or command area.
• It helps to know the total volume of water to be
applied to the soil during irrigation
• It is expressed as:
Where:
q= Stream size (application rate) lit/sec
t = Application time in sec
A = Area of the command (field) in ha
D(m), As , P, Ea are as defined earlier
• q*t indicates the total volume of water (m3) applied
at the field during irrigation in a given time ‘t’.
By: Zewdu T 41
• But the total volume of water to be diverted at the
headwork will obviously be greater than the total
volume of water to be applied at the field ,
because of conveyance losses.
• The total volume of water to be diverted at the
head work is given by:
Where:
Q = flow rate at the head work, lit/sec.
Ep = project efficiency and others as defined earlier
By: Zewdu T 42

EI 1 (Chapter 3)

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EI 1 (Chapter 3)

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3.

Crop water requirement (CWR)

Kc is crop factor dependent on crop type, Varity, growth

crop coefficient curve

• At initial and mid-season stages Kc is constant

Lysimeter By: Zewdu T 16

• 𝑤𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑡 𝑧𝑜𝑛𝑒 = 2880 − 𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑙. 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑠

• Total A.M = 21cm/m x 1.80m = 37.80 cm

• deviation at upper end =1.8 –1.5=0.3m

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