Irrigation Efficiencies and

Determination of Irrigation
Water Requirements
Net and Gross Irrigation Water Requirement
Irrigation efficiencies – Conveyance, distribution, applicaiton
Net and Gross Irrigation Water Requirement
• Net Irrigation Water Requirement (NIWR) is the net amount
of water extracted by the plant from the soil to meet its
requirements within an irrigation cycle.

• It is determined as the difference between the Crop Water

Requirement (CWR) and the Effective Rainfall.

• It is expressed in depth units of water over an average

rooting depth.
Net and Gross Irrigation Water Requirement
• Gross Irrigation water requirement (GIWR) is the sum of the
net irrigation water requirement and the losses due to
system inefficiencies.

• For field application efficiency, Ea the gross irrigation

requirement is expressed as:

𝑁𝐼𝑊𝑅
𝐺𝐼𝑊𝑅 =
𝐸𝑎
Irrigation Interval (II)
• This is the irrigation cycle.
• It is equivalent to the number of days it takes a plant,
depleting water at a rate, to exhaust the net irrigation
amount.
• It is expressed mathematically as:

𝑁𝐼𝑊𝑅
𝐼𝐼 =
𝐸𝑇𝑐
Irrigation System Efficiency (Ep)
• Efficiency is the output of a specific operation in relation to
the input.

• Irrigation efficiency is water actually delivered for use by the

plant in relation to water supplied.

• It includes conveyance efficiency (Ec), field distribution

efficiency (Ed) and field water application efficiency (Ea),
amongst others.
 Water Conveyance efficiency (Ec)
• This is used to measure the efficiency of water conveyance system
associated with the canal network, watercourses and field channels. It is
also applicable where the water is conveyed in channels from the well to
the individual fields.
• It is the total water delivered to the farm gate or draw-off point in relation
to the total water transported from the source.
• It is expressed as follows:
𝑊𝑓
𝐸𝑐 = × 100
𝑊𝑑
• where: Wf = water delivered to irrigated plot, Wd = water diverted from the
source
 Water Application Efficiency (Ea)
• Water from the field supply Channel needs to be applied as efficiently as
possible. A measure of how efficiently this is done is the water application
efficiency.
• It is the total irrigation water in the root zone of the soil used by the plant
in relation to total water applied on the soil surface.
• It is expressed as follows:
𝑊𝑠
𝐸𝑎 = × 100
𝑊𝑓
• where: Ws = water stored in the root zone, Wf = water delivered to irrigated
plot
• Application efficiency is less than 100% due to seepage losses from the
canals, deep percolation below the root zone and runoff losses from the
tail end of borders and furrows.
 Water Storage Efficiency (Es)
• The concept of water storage efficiency relates how completely the water
needed prior to irrigation has been stored in the root zone during
irrigation.
• It is expressed as follows:
𝑊𝑠
𝐸𝑠 = × 100
𝑊𝑛
• where: Ws = water stored in the root zone, Wn = water needed in the root
zone prior to irrigation
• Water storage efficiency becomes important when water supplies are
limited or when excessive time is required to secure adequate penetration
of water in to the soil.
• In addition, when salt problems exist, the water storage efficiency should
be kept high to maintain favorable salt balance.
 Field (distribution) Canal Efficiency (Ef)
• It relates the total water applied to the soil surface in relation to the total
water delivered to the farm gate or draw-off point.
• It is the ratio between water received at the field inlet and that received at
the inlet of the block of fields.
• It is expressed as follows:
𝑊𝑝
𝐸𝑓 = × 100
𝑊𝑓
• where: Wp = water received at the field inlet, Wf = water delivered to the
field canal
 Water Distribution Efficiency (Ed)
• It is also referred to as the Uniformity Coefficient.
• It shows how uniformly water is applied to the field along the irrigation
run. In sandy soils there is generally over irrigation at upper reaches of the
run where as in clayey soils, there is over irrigation at the lower reaches of
the run.
• It is expressed as follows:
𝑑
𝐸𝑑 = 1 −
𝐷
• where: D = Mean depth of water stored during irrigation, d = average of
the absolute values of deviations from the mean (D)
• It represents the extent to which water has penetrated to a uniform depth,
throughout the field. For uniform penetration, deviation from mean depth
is zero and water distribution efficiency is 1.0.
 Water Use Efficiency
• This shows the yield of the crop per unit volume of water used. It may be
expressed in Kg/ha.cm or q/ha.cm
• Crop Water Use Efficiency: is the ratio of the crop yield (Y) to the amount
of water consumptively used by the crop.
𝑌
𝐸𝑤 =
𝐶𝑈
• Field Water Use Efficiency: is the ratio of the crop yield (Y) to the total
water requirement of crops including consumptive use losses and other
needs.
𝑌
𝐸𝑡 =
𝑊𝑅
Irrigation Project Efficiency (Ep)
• This shows how efficiently the water source is used in crop
production.
• It shows the percentage of the total water that is stored in the soil
and available for consumptive requirements of the crop.
• It indicates the overall efficiency of the systems from the headwork to
the final use by plants for Cu.
• The Overall project efficiency must be considered in order to fix the
amount of water required at the Diversion headwork.
• The project irrigation efficiency can be given as:
𝐸𝑝 = 𝐸𝑐 × 𝐸𝑑 × 𝐸𝑎
Example 1
• 1m3/s of water is pumped into a farm distributions system.
0.8 m3/s is delivered to a turn-out, 0.9 Km from the well.
Compute the conveyance efficiency.

Solution:
𝑂𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡 0.8
𝐸𝑐 = × 100 = × 100 = 80%
𝐼𝑛𝑝𝑢𝑡 1.0
Example 2
• 10 m3/s of water is delivered to a 32 hectare field, for 4 hours. Soil
probing after the irrigation indicates that 0.3 m of water has been
stored in the root zone. Compute the application efficiency.
Solution:
Volume of water supplied by 10 m3/s of water applied for 4 hours = (10
x 4 x 60 x 60) m3 = 144,000 m3
= (14.4 x 104) m3 = 14.4m x 104 m2 = 14.4 ha.m = Input
Output: 32ha land stores up to 0.3 m depth of water
Output = 32ha x 0.3m = 9.6 ha.m
𝑂𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡 9.6
𝑊𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦, 𝐸𝑎 = × 100 = × 100
𝐼𝑛𝑝𝑢𝑡 14.4
= 66.67%
Example 3
A stream flow rate of 150 L/s was released from the diversion
headwork to irrigate a land of area 1.8 hectares. The flow rate
when measured at the delivery to the field channels is 120 L/s.
The water was delivered for 8 hours. The effective root zone
depth is 1.80m. The application losses in the field are
estimated to be 440m3. The depth of water penetration was
1.80m and 1.20m 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 available moisture.
Find Ec, Ef, Ea, Es and Ed. The flow rate delivered to the plot was
100 L/s.