Methodology to calculate Crop Water Requirements and

Irrigation Scheduling

Prepared by Stefan GALCA, International Irrigation Expert, 2022

Contents
1. Required Data ................................................................................................................................... 3
1.1 Climatic data ........................................................................................................................... 3
1.2 Climate Change ....................................................................................................................... 3
1.3 Soil data .................................................................................................................................. 3
2. Methodology of data processing ...................................................................................................... 5
2.1 Calculation of rainfall events with probability of 50% and 75% ............................................ 5
3. Methodology for Calculation of Crop Water Requirements and Irrigation Scheduling using
CROPWAT ................................................................................................................................................. 8
3.1 CROPWAT software .............................................................................................................. 8

List of Tables

Table 1 Geographical coordinates and altitude of each Meteorological Station....................................... 3

Table 2 Soil types and covered areas in Armavir ..................................................................................... 4
Table 3 Soil texture for each type in Ararat Valley – average values ...................................................... 4
Table 4 Soil Water Parameters ................................................................................................................. 4
Table 5 Yearly Rainfall from Meteo Station 1 ......................................................................................... 5
Table 6 Calculation of occurrence probability for yearly rainfall at Meteo Station 1 .............................. 6
Table 7 Distribution of the rainfall with 50% occurrence at Meteo Station 1 .......................................... 7

List of Figures

Figure 8 Soil types in Armavir area.......................................................................................................... 4

Figure 2 Graphical interface of CROPWAT ............................................................................................ 8
Figure 3 Option settings for calculation of Crop Water Requirements and Scheduling ........................... 9
Figure 4 Selection of Effective Rainfall calculation option...................................................................... 9
Figure 5 Selection the moment to apply irrigation ................................................................................. 10
Figure 6 Selection the size of application ............................................................................................... 10
Figure 7 Daily Climatic data input and Daily ETo results...................................................................... 11
Figure 8 Rain window of CROPWAT to input precipitation data.......................................................... 12
Figure 9 Crop window to input data related to crop ............................................................................... 13
Figure 10 Soil window to input data on soil ........................................................................................... 13
Figure 11 Example results of Crop Water Requirements for Tomato .................................................... 14
Figure 12 Schedule of irrigation of Tomato ........................................................................................... 15
 1. Required Data
1.1 Climatic data

The required climatic data are Daily Minimum Temperature, Daily Maximum Temperature,
Rainfall, Daily Average Air Humidity, Daily Wind Velocity and Daily Sunlight duration for a
series of 20 – 30 years.

Data on elevation and geographical coordinates of each Meteo station is also required.

Table 1 Geographical coordinates and altitude of each Meteorological Station

Meteorological Station Latitude (degrees) Longitude (degrees) Altitude (m)
Station 1 44.0499995897 40.1300018965 865
Station 2 44.5430773244 39.9601310623 835
Station 3 44.7200014423 39.8200002246 822

1.2 Climate Change

Data for Climate Change have been downloaded from WorldClim website (link:
https://www.worldclim.org/data/v1.4/cmip5_30s.html) for the year 2050 (average for 2041
– 2060) and for the CCSM4 scenario, for the Representative Concentration Pathway RCP 8.5,
which is the worst case scenario (basically little or no change in the carbon emissions in the
future 30 years). The climatic model CCSM4 and emission scenario RCP8.5 are agreed at the
Third National Communication as per paragraph Error! Reference source not found., above.
Data are in form of raster GeoTIFF files which can be viewed and processed using QGIS or
ArcGIS. Available parameters are: Average Monthly Minimum Temperature, Average Monthly
Maximum Temperature and Monthly Precipitation. This data has been downloaded and will
be used for estimation of the Climate Change impact. The other required data will be taken
from historical data and will be considered unchanged.

1.3 Soil data

The soils in each area of influence of climatic data should be set as in example below.
 Figure 1 Soil types in Armavir area

Table 2 Soil types and covered areas in Armavir

ID_PPRD, as in map
Soil Description Area (ha)
in Figure 1
Total Armavir out of which: 60048.91
Meadow 29 29531.52
Mainly solonchak solonetzes 33 14515.31
Brown podzolic soils and their surface - gleyed types 37 16002.08

Table 3 Soil texture for each type in Ararat Valley – average values
Texture
# Soil type clay loam Sand
(%) (%) (%)
i Meadow 50 40 10
ii Mainly solonchak and solonetzes 73 27 0
iii Brown podzolic soils and their surface - gleyed types 2 84 14

Average Groundwater depth 1.5 m and mineralization 1-3 g/l = 1.5 – 4.7 dS/m
Important soil parameters for calculation of Crop Water Requirements are shown in table
below.

Table 4 Soil Water Parameters

Texture WP FC Sat Available Ksat Bulk
water Density
# Soil type clay loam Sand
(% (% (% (mm/m) (mm/h) (g/cm3)
(%) (%) (%)
Vol) Vol) Vol)
i Meadow, irrigated. 50 40 10 29.3 43.5 58.7 140 6.63 1.09
ii Mainly solonchak and 73 27 0 35.3 47.0 59.8 120 6.95 1.06
solonetzes
iii Brown podzolic soils and 2 84 14 13.5 39.6 48.8 260 190.09 1.36
their surface - gleyed
types
Note: WP = Wilting Point, FC = Field Capacity, Sat = Saturation Capacity, Available Water = FC-WP, Ksat = saturated hydraulic
conductivity.
 2. Methodology of data processing

2.1 Calculation of rainfall events with probability of 50% and 75%

The calculation of rainfall event probability will be calculated using the FAO methodology
described in the documentation FAO-Irrigation and Drainage Paper 25 “Effective rainfall in
irrigated agriculture”, in “Chapter III-Application of effective rainfall data in irrigation and
drainage”, found at following link: http://www.fao.org/3/X5560E/x5560e04.htm#TopOfPage

Step 1: Collect all yearly rainfall data for the whole range of years as is shown below, as an
example for the Meteo Station 1:

Table 5 Yearly Rainfall from Meteo Station 1

Yearly
Rainfall
Year (mm)
1980 102.6
1981 319
1982 287.2
1983 191.8
1984 192
1985 198.6
1986 273.2
1987 349.9
1988 218.7
1989 137.1
1990 196.2
1991 234.8
1992 303.8
1993 303
1994 305
1995 161.3
1996 167.3
1997 195.3
1998 129.4
1999 174.4
2000 152.8
2001 220.5
2002 302.7
2003 334.3
2004 199.7
2005 300.1
2006 277.9
2007 317
2008 124.1
 Yearly
Rainfall
Year (mm)
2009 272
2010 271
2011 283.9
2012 210
2013 260.8
2014 263.7
2015 342.9
2016 292.4
2017 174.7
2018 241.9
2019 192.4

Step 2: Arrange all data in Table 5, above, in order, from highest to lowest value as shown in
Table 6, below. Next step is to set the rank from the highest to lowest value of yearly rainfall,

as in Table 6, below, at the Rank column. The occurrence probability is calculated with the
formula below:

Fa = (100 x (2n-1)) / (2 x y)

Where:
Fa = Occurrence probability (%);
n = rank of the rainfall value numbered from highest to lowest;
y = number of years (y = 40 in this example);
x is the sign for multiplication.

Table 6 Calculation of occurrence probability for yearly rainfall at Meteo Station 1

Occurrence
Number of Ordered Rainfall
Rank probability
years Year values in descend
n Fa
y order (mm)
(%)
1 1987 349.9 1 1.25
2 2015 342.9 2 3.75
3 2003 334.3 3 6.25
4 1981 319.0 4 8.75
5 2007 317.0 5 11.25
6 1994 305.0 6 13.75
7 1992 303.8 7 16.25
8 1993 303.0 8 18.75
9 2002 302.7 9 21.25
10 2005 300.1 10 23.75
11 2016 292.4 11 26.25
12 1982 287.2 12 28.75
13 2011 283.9 13 31.25
14 2006 277.9 14 33.75
 Occurrence
Number of Ordered Rainfall
Rank probability
years Year values in descend
n Fa
y order (mm)
(%)
15 1986 273.2 15 36.25
16 2009 272.0 16 38.75
17 2010 271.0 17 41.25
18 2014 263.7 18 43.75
19 2013 260.8 19 46.25
20 2018 241.9 20 48.75
21 1991 234.8 21 51.25
22 2001 220.5 22 53.75
23 1988 218.7 23 56.25
24 2012 210.0 24 58.75
25 2004 199.7 25 61.25
26 1985 198.6 26 63.75
27 1990 196.2 27 66.25
28 1997 195.3 28 68.75
29 2019 192.4 29 71.25
30 1984 192.0 30 73.75
31 1983 191.8 31 76.25
32 2017 174.7 32 78.75
33 1999 174.4 33 81.25
34 1996 167.3 34 83.75
35 1995 161.3 35 86.25
36 2000 152.8 36 88.75
37 1989 137.1 37 91.25
38 1998 129.4 38 93.75
39 2008 124.1 39 96.25
40 1980 102.6 40 98.75

Looking to the results of the rainfall probabilities we can see that the closest year to the rainfall
event with probability of 50% is the year 1991 and this year is selected as the reference year
for the 50% occurrence probability. In same way, the reference year with 75% occurrence
probability is the year 1983. Monthly distribution of rainfall is obtained from daily data or from
monthly data as in table below.

Table 7 Distribution of the rainfall with 50% occurrence at Meteo Station 1

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Total
1991
(mm)
24 9 49 20.4 19.2 19.1 6.4 0 0 13.5 46 28.2 234.8
 3. Methodology for Calculation of Crop Water Requirements and
Irrigation Scheduling using CROPWAT

3.1 CROPWAT software

The software application CROPWAT – 8 developed by FAO and freely downloadable at this
link: http://www.fao.org/land-water/databases-and-software/cropwat/en/

CROPWAT – 8 has been developed based on FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper 56.

The graphical interface is shown in the figure below.

Figure 2 Graphical interface of CROPWAT

On the upper side of graphical interface there are self-explaining tools and menus. Before
proceeding to use CROPWAT it is required to set the units by selecting Options under Settings
menu.

Figure 3 Option settings for calculation of Crop Water Requirements and Scheduling

The next tab of Option menu is rainfall and it lets user to select how to calculate Effective
rainfall. The example below shows the selection of USDA soil conservation service option.

Figure 4 Selection of Effective Rainfall calculation option

The next tab of Option menu is non rice crop scheduling rule and it lets user to select how to
calculate the size of irrigation application and when the irrigation should be applied. The
example below shows the timing to irrigate: when the moisture in soil depletes at critical
point. Other possibilities are: at User defined interval, Below or above the critical depletion
point, at Fixed interval per stage, at Fixed depletion, at Given ET crop reduction per stage, at
a Given yield reduction or select No irrigation (rainfed).

Figure 5 Selection the moment to apply irrigation

Figure 6 Selection the size of application

The size of the application is calculated based on the option selected in the tab non rice
scheduling. In the figure above, the option Refill soil to field capacity is selected. This option
is most frequent. Other options are: User defined application depth, Refill soil below or above
filed capacity and Fixed application depth. The menu also lets the user to select the irrigation
efficiency. In this case an efficiency of 70% has been selected for calculation of gross irrigation
norm.

On the left side of the main window there are buttons to input data or to show results such
as: Climate/ETo, Rain, Crop, Soil, CWR (Crop water requirements), Schedule, Crop Pattern,
Scheme. Below, each of this buttons / windows will be explained.

Climate/ETo button will open a separate window to let user to input climatic data and finally
get the Reference Crop Evapotranspiration ETo results, as can be seen in figure below

Figure 7 Daily Climatic data input and Daily ETo results

Climate/ETo window lets the user to input Location data of the Meteo Station such as: Name
of Meteo Station, Country, Altitude, Latitude and longitude and the year. Altitude and latitude
are mandatory data for calculation of ETo, as explained in paragraph Error! Reference source
not found., above. The Figure 7, above shows input climatic data for each day in May and the
resulted reference evapotranspiration ETo for each day in May. The average value of ETo is of
3.65 mm/day. With the methodology described in paragraph Error! Reference source not
found., above, the value of average ETo was of 3.64 mm/day. The difference between the two
methods is very small and occurs due to rounding of data before and after calculation. It is
mentioned that Excel is calculating with at least 9 digits after decimal points while CROPWAT
uses only 1 or 2 digits after decima point. Same results are obtained for all compared values
of ETo calculated with both methods. Conclusion: Calculation of ETo with CROPWAT is
sufficient accurate and can be used instead of Excel template.

Rain button opens a window to allow the user to input daily or decade or monthly
precipitation data as is shown in figure below:

Figure 8 Rain window of CROPWAT to input precipitation data

The Rain window also shows the monthly value of the effective rainfall calculated with the
option selected before. Same formula to calculate the effective rainfall has been used in the
Excel methodology to calculate Crop water requirements, with same results.

Crop button opens a window to let the user to input data regarding planting date, crop
coefficients, lengths of crop growing stages, rooting depth, crop height, critical depletion of
soil moisture as fraction of TAW and yield response. The figure below shows input of crop data
for Tomato, cultivated in Artashat area, Ararat Valley. The crop coefficients Kc have been same
as used in the Excel template, corrected using the same formulae. Since the critical depletion
is set to a point where no reduction in yield is foreseen, then the yield response has been kept
as 1.00.
 Figure 9 Crop window to input data related to crop

Soil button opens a window to let the user to input the name of soil and all required
parameters to calculate the moisture balance in soil, as in figure below.

Figure 10 Soil window to input data on soil

CWR Crop Water Requirements button opens a window to show the results of calculation of
Crop Water Requirements, as in figure below. The results are consolidated to be presented
on decades and total.
 Figure 11 Example results of Crop Water Requirements for Tomato

Schedule button opens a window with results of calculations of the scheduling of irrigation
applications showing the size of proposed value of net irrigation norm and the date of
application (calendar day and number of the day since planting date), as is shown in the figure
below.
 Figure 12 Schedule of irrigation of Tomato

In addition, total gross irrigation value is shown along with the precipitation lost and efficiency
of rainfall. In this case, the rainfall efficiency is of 89.3% which is a very good value. The total
number of applications proposed by CROPWAT is of 11 applications of 42 – 46 mm (420 – 460
m3/ha). The highest flow = 0.93 l/s/ha is the value that should be used for sizing of all
infrastructure components for the irrigation duration case of 24 hours/day. For shorter
irrigation duration, the flow will be modified accordingly.

Example: in case of 20 hours/day irrigation duration then the flow will be higher by 24/20
=1.2. In this case, the flow = 0.93 l/s x 1.2 = 1.12 l/s/ha.