TKP3501

Farm Mechanization
& Irrigation

Topic 9 :
Irrigation Principles

Dr. Wan Fazilah Fazlil Ilahi

Email: wanfazilah@upm.edu.my
Content

 Irrigation typology
 Soil – Water – Crop relationship
 Irrigation requirement
 Crop water requirement
 Irrigation scheduling
 Learning outcomes

 Student understand the typology and need of irrigation

 Student will be able to identify the parameters used to
calculate the crop water requirement.
 Student will be able to do a calculation on the irrigation
scheduling.
What is Irrigation ?

Definition of irrigation:
• Artificial watering of land
• The artificial supply and distribution of water for
agricultural purposes
• The artificial supply and distribution of water for
agricultural purposes to reach one or several of
the following objectives:
- raise productivity of land
- to guarantee a yield (risk reduction)
- crop diversification
- improve quality of the produce
How many hectare of irrigated land World wide?
250 million ha

What percentage of agricultural land is irrigated?

18 – 20 %

What percentage of the World agricultural produce

(food/fibers/industrial raw produce) is coming from
irrigated agriculture?
38 – 40 %

How many times more productive is irrigated land

compared to rain fed land?
2.67
Some terminology / nomenclature / glossary:

Irrigation ……..
System
or
Scheme
or
Project ?????
LEGEND:
Main intake
Secondary
intake
Tertiary unit
Irrigation typology:
• size of scheme / size of farms
• source of water: surface water (river, reservoir,
lake) or groundwater
• perennial or seasonal
• gravity or non-gravity (pumped)
• full or supplementary irrigation
• agronomic objective
• irrigation method
• traditional, engineered / technical, modern
irrigation
• according to development objective
• type of management
• distribution method
Typology 1: Farm size

• Small holder irrigation

• Large holdings

*Also here small and large have relative meanings

Typology 2: Water source and method of
extraction

• Surface water
– Direct intake from river/stream
– Weir in river and intake structure
– Tank irrigation
– Reservoir irrigation
• Groundwater
– Artesian water
– Kanat system
– Open wells
– Shallow tube wells
– Deep tube wells
Typology 4: Perennial or seasonal source

• Year round irrigation ( = perennial)

• Seasonal irrigation
Typology 5: Gravity or non-gravity (pumped)

• Entirely by gravity

• Pumped in pressure pipe lines up to field level

• Pumped (p.e. from river into head end main

canal) and further by gravity
Typology 6: Full or supplementary
irrigation

• Full : all water required comes from irrigation

(p.e. dry season irrigation or arid regions)

• Supplementary : in addition to rainfall (p.e.

irrigation during wet season in semi arid regions,
during summer season in moderate climats,
during the ‘dry’ season in humid climats)
Typology 7: Agronomic objective

• Compensating soil moisture shortage

• Cooling down of crops in extreme hot climates
• Protection against frost
• Delaying flowering period
• Germination of seed
• Chemical treatment of crop
• (semi-liquid) manure treatment / dumping
• Control wind erosion
Typology 8: Irrigation method
• Surface irrigation
– River flood
• Flood recession irrigation
• Spate irrigation
• Flood rise irrigation
– Basin irrigation
– Border irrigation
– Furrow irrigation

• Sprinkler / overhead irrigation

• Micro / Drip irrigation

• Sub-surface irrigation
Typology 9: Traditional, engineered /
technical, modern irrigation

• Traditional: developed by farmers

• Engineered: like the systems from 19th century
onwards
• Modernisation: process of technical and
managerial upgrading (not rehabilitation) of
schemes, combined with institutional reforms
with the aim to improve resource utilization and
delivery service to farmers
Typology 10: According to development
objective

• Maximise yield per ha

• Maximise yield per m3 of water
• Food for the cities
• Self sufficiency in food
• Development of the rural community
• India: productive/protective/minor works
• Etc.
Typology 11: Management type

• Please mention some….

Typology according to type of management
Typology 12: Distribution method

• Continuous flow / proportional flow

• Rotational systems (on-off systems)
• On-demand systems
Need for Irrigation

1) Deficient rainfall:
 Rain gauge
Malaysia average rainfall: 250 – 500 mm per year

 Rainfall (or precipitation) is measured as an absolute depth thus with a unit of

length (i.e. mm, cm or inches depending on the chosen metric system)
 refers to the net rainfall impacting earth surface not considering evaporation
losses
 1 mm of rainfall = 1 Liter of water/m² (or 0.001 m³ of water/m²)
 Example: 200cm of rainfall means that every squared metre of land in the inner
vicinity of the rain gauge received 2 m³ of water which has either turned into
runoff or recharge to the shallow groundwater system via infiltration (and a
small portion will evaporate too)
2) Non – uniformity of rainfall
3) Augmentation of crop yields
4) Exacting water requirement
5) Cash crops cultivation
6) Assured water supply
7) Orchards, gardens, greenhouses
Advantages of Irrigation
• Increase in food output through higher yield
• Rise of subsoil water level in dry areas
• Lowers production risks
• Makes agriculture competitive and profitable
• Reduced risks of crop failures
• Improvement in groundwater storage
• Rise to whole array of agro-based industries
Soil – Water – Plant Relationship
• Soil – water –plant relationship Process that requires
to be regulated for maximization of yields with a given
unit of water

• Understanding this relationship is essential for water

management principles to be applied to various
climatic, soil and cropping regions of both rain fed and
irrigated lands

• The amount of water required for a given crop depends

on:
I. State of soil
II. Crop factors
III. Climatic factors
IV. Agronomic management factors
I. State of Soil
Availability
• Even though water is present in the soil, it
sometimes is not available to the plant.
• The pore spaces are always filled with water, air, or
a mixture of both.
– When the pore spaces are filled with water, the
soil is said to be saturated. Saturation is an
unhealthy condition for plants if it lasts too long
because the oxygen needed for respiration is
missing.
– When the pore spaces are filled mostly with air,
the soil is too dry → -ve effect on plant growth.
• The number and size of
the soil pores vary with
the soil's texture and
structure.

• Clay soils have smaller

but more numerous
pores than sandy soils.
Thus, an equal volume
of clay soil holds more
water than a sandy soil
when the pores are filled
(Fig. 12-2).
• The ability of the soil to retain water is called
its water-holding capacity. Fig. 12-3.
The process…
• After a prolonged rain or irrigation, the air in the
soil pores is displaced with water. In this
condition, the soil is saturated.

• When no more water is added, losses continue,

first from the larger macropores=percolation and
then from the smaller micropores=infiltration.

• At this moisture content, the soil is said to be at

field capacity. The water has drained from the
macropores but the micropores still contain
water having a soil water potential in the range
of −5 to −33 kPa.
• If no water is added, eventually the soil reaches a
moisture content that does not sustain plant life and
the plants permanently wilt.

• The soil moisture content at which a plant wilts and

cannot recover and is called permanent wilting
point (PWP) also defined as having a soil water
potential of −1500 kPa

• Soil texture determines the relationship between soil

water content and soil moisture tension which is
represent by its soil water retention curve (SWRC).
Therefore…
Available water (AW) is defined as the soil moisture between
field capacity (FC) and the permanent wilting point (PWP):
AW = FC – PWP.

Water between FC and saturation is not considered available

because it is lost through drainage.

Water at tensions greater than PWP is held too tightly by the

soil for plants to remove.
Soil Water Retention Curve (SWRC) – Different
soil have different characteristic curves
II. Crop Factors

a) Variety
b) Growth stages
c) Duration
d) Plant population
e) Crop growing season
f) Transpiration loss through leaves
III. Climatic factors

a) Temperature
b) Sunshine hours
c) Relative humidity
d) Wind velocity
e) Rainfall
IV. Agronomic Management Factors

a) Irrigation methods used

b) Frequency of irrigation and its efficiency
c) Tillage and other cultural operations like
weeding, mulching etc
 Irrigation Requirement
• The field irrigation requirement of crops refers to water
requirement of crops exclusive of effective rainfall and
contribution from soil profile
• It may be given as follow:
IR = WR – (ER + S)
IR - Irrigation requirement; WR - Water requirement; ER -
Effective rainfall; S - Soil moisture contribution

Irrigation requirement depends upon the

a) Irrigation need of individual crop based
on area of crop
b) Losses in the farm water distribution
system etc.
All the quantities are usually expressed in
terms of water depth (mm)
 Crop Water Requirement
Crop water requirement is the water required by the plants
for its survival, growth, development and to produce
economic parts.

The crop water requirement includes all losses like:

a)Transpiration loss through leaves (T)
b)Evaporation loss through soil surface in cropped area (E)
c) Amount of weather used by plants (WP) for its
metabolism

Hence the crop water use is

taken as all losses known as
crop evapotranspiration (ETc)
 ETc = Kc ETo
ETc = Crop evapotranspiration (mm/day)
Kc = Crop coefficient
ETo = Reference crop evapotranspiration
(mm/day)

The calculation procedure for crop evapotranspiration, ETcr,

consists of:
1. identifying the crop growth stages, determining their lengths,
and selecting the corresponding Kc coefficients;
2. adjusting the selected Kc coefficients for frequency of wetting or
calculating ETcr as the product of ETo and Kc.
Crop coefficient (Kc)
• The effect of both crop transpiration and soil evaporation are integrated into a
single crop coefficient.
• The Kc coefficient incorporates crop characteristics and averaged effects of
evaporation from the soil.
• Changes in vegetation and ground cover mean that the crop coefficient
Kc varies during the growing period.
• The trends in Kc during the growing period are represented in the crop
coefficient curve.
• Only three values for Kc are required to describe and construct the crop
coefficient curve: those during the initial stage (Kc ini), the mid-season stage
(Kc mid) and at the end of the late season stage (Kc end).
• Tabulated Kc values in Chapter 6 - ETc - Single crop coefficient (Kc) FAO
Irrigation and Drainage Paper No. 56
Reference Crop Evapotranspiration (ETo)
Reference evapotranspiration (ETo) represents the rate of
evapotranspiration of green grass under ideal conditions, 8-15 cm
tall, with extensive vegetative cover completely shading the ground.

ETo Reference evapotranspiration (mm day-1)

Rn Net radiation at the crop surface (MJ m-2 day-1)
G Soil heat flux density (MJ m-2 day-1)
T Mean daily air temperature at 2 meter height
(°C)
Difficult???
u2 Wind speed at 2 meter height (m s-1)
es Saturation vapour pressure (kPa)
ea Actual vapour pressure (kPa)
es – ea Saturation vapour pressure deficit, VPD (kPa)
Δ Slope vapour pressure curve (kPa °C-1)
γ Psychrometric constant (kPa °C-1)
Grass Reference Evapotranspiration (ET0)
 Methods in
estimating water
requirement

- Historical observations Software that do the ETo

from climate database calculations for you (e.g.
(e.g.CLIMWAT 2.0) CROPWAT 8.0)

- Weather station
- Malaysian
Meteorological
Department (MET)
Print screen of monthly climatic data and reference evapotranspiration (ETo) from
CROPWAT 8.0
Exercise
Determine the crop water need (ETc) of tomatoes.
Given:
Solution
Irrigation Scheduling
• Irrigation scheduling is one of the factors that
influence the agronomic and economic viability of
small farms.
• It is important for both water savings and
improved crop yields.
• The irrigation water is applied to the cultivation
according to predetermined schedules based upon
the monitoring of:
1) the soil water status;
2) the crop water requirements.
Estimating the Irrigation Scheduling
4
2 3
1 Net irrigation
Effective Permissible
Available water application
root depth deficit
depth

8 6
7 5
Irrigation Crop coefficient (kc),
Effective Crop Reference
interval/ evapotranspiration
Irrigation rainfall evapotranspiration
(ETo)
frequency (ETc)

10
11
Gross
9 irrigation System
Irrigation application flow/
application depth capacity
efficiency
The soil water status:

1) Available Water (AW)

• The soil-water relationship.
• Available water can be obtained from the soil water
retention curve as discussed earlier.
• Total available water (Sa), Sa = FC-WP
• Soil available water (moisture) by volume,
FC-WP x bulk density
• Available moisture (Sa) in mm per metre soil depth,
FC-WP x bulk density x 10
Example:

Soil physical properties (average values)

Exercise:
Based on table above, the field capacity (FC) of a 45-cm layer of soil
(medium texture) is 18 percent. How much water in cubic metres per
hectare does this layer hold?
Answer:
1)Find WP:
FC = 18 %, WP = FC ÷ 1.85 = 9.7 %

2) Find Sa:
Sa = 18-9.7 = 8.3 %.

3) Find Sa in mm/m depth:

Bulk density = 1.2 g/cm3 ; Sa mm/m = 8.3 x 1.2 x 10 = 99.6.

4) Find Sa in mm/45 cm soil depth:

Sa mm/45 cm = 8.3 x 1.2 x 10 x 0.45 = 44.8 mm.

5) Find water in m3/ha this layer hold:

m3 /ha = 0.0996 m/m x 0.45 m x 10 000 m2 / 1 ha = 448.2 m3/ha
2) Effective Root Depth (D)
• Depth from which plants can take nearly 80% of water
needs mostly from the upper part where the root system
is denser.
• The rooting depths depend on the plant physiology, the
type of soil, and the water availability (kind of irrigation).
• Indicative figures are presented in FAO Irrigation and
Drainage Paper No. 24, Table 39.
3) Permissible Deficit (p)
• Percentage of water that is easily absorbed by the plants
without any stress that could result in yield reduction.
• The p value differs according to the kind of plant, the root
depth, the climatic conditions and the irrigation
techniques.
• Values for p are given in FAO Irrigation and Drainage
Paper No. 33.
• Field observations have shown that the lower the soil
moisture depletion (p), the better the crop development
and yield. Hence, the recommended p values are:
0.20-0.30 for shallow rooted seasonal crops;
0.40-0.60 for deep rooted field crops and mature trees.
4) Net irrigation application depth
Irrigation takes place when the permissible
percentage (p) of available water (Sa) is depleted
from the root depth, i.e. to replenish the depleted
water. Therefore:

Net depth of irrigation dose (d) (mm) = (Sa x p) D

Where,
Sa is the available water in millimetres per metre,
p is the permissible depletion (fraction),
D is the root depth (m).
Example:

Where Sa = 99 mm/m, p = 0.5, D = 0.4 m, what is

the net irrigation dose (d) in millimetres to replenish
the moisture deficit?

d = 99 x 0.5 x 0.4 = 19.8 mm

The Crop water requirement:
5) Reference evapotranspiration (ETo)
• As discussed earlier, can be determined from
climate data with weather station, MET, or climate
database

6) Crop coefficent (Kc) and crop water requirement

(ETc)
• In order to relate ETo to crop water requirements
(ETc), the specific crop coefficient (kc) must be
determined:
ETc = ETo x Kc
 Month ETo kc ETc
mm/day
January 3.72 1 3.72
February 4.04 1 4.04
March 4.31 1 4.31
April 4.16 1 4.16
May 3.96 1 3.96
June 3.75 1 3.75
July 3.79 1 3.79
August 3.95 1 3.95
September 3.78 1 3.78
October 3.77 1 3.77
November 3.41 1 3.41
December 3.41 1 3.41
Mean 3.84 3.84

• Climatic data was obtained from CLIMWAT climatic

database to calculate monthly reference evapotranspiration
(ETo) in CROPWAT 8.0.
• crop coefficient (kc) for lettuce as recommended by FAO
Irrigation and Drainage Paper No. 56 was equal to one
(Allen et al., 1998).
• ETc = kc ETo
7) Effective Rainfall

• In many areas, seasonal rain precipitation (P) might

provide part of the water requirements during the irrigation
season.
• The amount of rainwater retained in the root zone is
called effective rainfall (Pe) and should be deducted from
the total irrigation water requirements calculated.
• It can be roughly estimated as:
Pe = 0.8 P where P > 75 mm/month;
Pe = 0.6 P where P < 75 mm/month.
8) Irrigation interval or Irrigation frequency
This is the number of days between two consecutive
irrigations,
i = d ÷ ETc

Where,
d is the net depth of irrigation application (dose) in
millimetres,
ETc is the daily crop evapotranspiration in millimetres per
day.

Example: Where d is 19.8 mm, and ETc is 2.5 mm/d, then i =

19.8 ÷ 2.5 = 8 days.
9) Irrigation application efficiency
• The amount of water to be stored in the root zone is
estimated as the net irrigation dose (d).
• During the irrigation process, considerable water loss
occurs through evaporation, seepage, deep percolation,
etc.
• The amount lost depends on the efficiency of the system.
• Irrigation field application efficiency is expressed as:

where, d is water stored in the rootzone and Water Applied

(gross) is the irrigation water.
Example:
The net irrigation dose (d) for an area of 1 ha is
19.8 mm, i.e. 198 m3. The water delivered during
irrigation is 280 m3. What is the application
efficiency?

Answer:
Ea = 198 x 100 ÷ 280 = 70.7 percent, or expressed
as a fraction, 0.70.
The remaining 30 percent of water applied is lost.
10) Gross irrigation application depth

• The gross depth based on the irrigation efficiency.

• Given the irrigation efficiency as a fraction, i.e. Ea = 0.60
(60 percent),
• the gross depth of irrigation application or gross irrigation
dose (dg) is calculated as follows:

where, d is water stored in the rootzone and Ea is the

irrigation efficiency
11) System flow/capacity

The minimum flow capacity of any irrigation system should

be the one that can meet the water requirements of the area
under irrigation at peak demand:

where Q is the system flow in cubic metres per hour, A is the

area in hectares, dg is the gross irrigation application depth
(irrigation dose) in millimetres, i is the interval in days
between two irrigations at peak demand, t is the operating
hours per day, and 10 is a constant for hectares.
Note:
the minimum flow of the system should be the one that
enables completion of irrigation at least two days before the
next irrigation. This allows time to repair any damage to the
system or pumping unit. Therefore, the value of i in the
formula should be reduced by two days.

i-2
Exercise/example:
If the number of operating hours per day is seven, the
system flow should be?
• Crop: Cotton
• Area: 1.5 ha.
• Irrigation method: Pressure piped surface method.
• Irrigation efficiency: 70 percent.
• Soil of medium texture, Sa = 99 mm/m.
Answer:

Peak demand is in October when ETc is 6.2 mm/d and the

irrigation frequency (interval) is 9 days., operating hours
given as 7hrs/day. Therefore,
Example of an Irrigation Management
Without
MDC
RZC With RZC
MDC
Month Sept Oct Sept Oct
Medium available water, Sa (mm/m) 280 280 270 270
Depletion of available water, p 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2
Lettuce root depth, D (m) 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2
Net irrigation application depth, d (mm) 11.2 11.2 10.8 10.8
ET0 (mm/day) 3.78 3.77 3.78 3.77
kc 1 1 1 1
Etc (mm/day) 3.78 3.77 3.78 3.77
Irrigation interval (days) 3 3 3 3
Irrigation water need (mm/day) 3.7 3.7 3.6 3.6
Total Volume (l/day) 2.24 2.24 2.16 2.16
Application frequency per day 2 2 2 2
Total time per application (minutes) 15 15 15 15
Volume per application (l) 1.12 1.12 1.08 1.08
 Question/ Review
What is the main factors that influence the
determination of irrigation scheduling?

The irrigation water is applied to the cultivation based upon

the monitoring of:
 the soil water status;
 the crop water requirements.

The type of soil and climatic conditions have a significant effect on

the main practical aspects of irrigation, which are the
determination of how much water should be applied and when it
should be applied to a given crop.
THANK YOU
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FRIDAY, 20 DECEMBER 2019
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