ABE 31: Introduction to

Water Management and

Irrigation

MYRHA P. CAGALITAN

Faculty- in- Charge

Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
College of Engineering
Chapter 4: Irrigation Scheduling
TOPICS

• Crop Water Requirements for irrigation

• Irrigation Scheduling
• Irrigation Scheduling methods
Intended Learning Outcome
• Discuss the importance of irrigation scheduling
• Explain the irrigation scheduling methods
• Solve problems involving crop water requirement
 CROP WATER REQUIREMENT FOR
IRRIGATIONS
➢ refer to the amount of water
needed by crops to grow
optimally and produce a good
yield when natural rainfall is
insufficient.
Low Water Requirement Plants
• Plants that require low levels of water are often called drought
tolerant.
• Drought-tolerant plants can thrive in hot, dry conditions with
very little water.
• Examples: Succulents, Lavender, Oregano

Mid-Level Water Requirement Crops

• Fall between high water demand crops and drought-tolerant
crops in terms of water needs
• Typically require consistent but not excessive moisture to thrive.
• Examples: Tomatoes, Peppers, Cucumbers, Squash, Beans, Corn
High Water Requirement Plants
• Need ample moisture to thrive and produce
optimal growth, flowering and fruiting.
• The soil of these plants always kept moist.
• Standing water is not a concern, you don’t have
to worry about root rot.
• Examples: Rice, Bamboo, Rose, lotus, Cranberries,
etc.
Crop Water Requirement (CWR)

• It is defined as the quantity of water regardless of

its source, required by a crop or diversified
pattern of crops in a given period of time for its
normal growth and development under field
conditions at a given place.
• In other words, it is the total quantity of water
required to mature an adequately irrigated crop. It
is expressed in depth per unit time.
Crop Water Requirements
✓Estimation of crop water requirement is one of the basic needs
for crop planning and for planning any irrigation project.
✓The quality of water required by a crop in a given period of time
for its normal growth under field conditions.
CWR= ET or CU + Application losses + special needs
(land prep, transplanting, leaching etc.)
Irrigation Requirement
✓ refers to the amount of supplemental water that needs to be applied
to crops or plants

IR= CWR- (ER +S)

Irrigation requirement= water requirement- (Effective rainfall + groundwater contribution)

Factors affecting Crop Water Requirements
1. Climate and Weather
2. Crop type and Variety
3. Crop Growth Stage
4. Soil Type and Quality
5. Soil Moisture Content
6. Topography and Slope
7. Irrigation Efficiency & Method
8. Crop Management Practices
9. Pest and Disease Management
10. Cultural Practices
Methods for Estimating Crop Water Requirements
1. Reference Evapotranspiration (ET0) Method
2. Crop Coefficient (Kc) Method
3. Climate-based Methods
4. Pan-Evaporation Method
5. Soil Water Balance Method
6. Remote Sensing and Satellite-based Methods
7. Crop-simulation Models
8. Field Observations
9. Irrigation Scheduling Software and Tools
IRRIGATION SCHEDULING
• Irrigation scheduling is a generic term for the act of scheduling
the time and amount of water applied to a crop based on the
amount of water present in the crop root zone, the amount of
water consumed by the crop since the last irrigation, and other
management considerations such as salt leaching
requirements, deficit irrigation, and crop yield relationships.
• Irrigation scheduling is a water management strategy that
reduces the chance of too much or too little water being applied
to an irrigated crop.
Irrigation Interval or Frequency
➢refers to how often irrigation is applied to a particular area or
crop
➢this is the number of days between two consecutive irrigations,
I = d ÷ ETc
where:
d- net depth of irrigation application (dose), mm
ETc- the daily crop evapotranspiration, mm/day

Example:
d is 19.8mm, and ETc is 2.5 mm/day
Then, I= 19.8mm ÷ 2.5mm/day
I= 8 days
Irrigation Application Efficiency
• Is a measure of how effectively water is applied to a specific
area or crop during an irrigation process.
• The amount of water to be stored in the root zone is estimated
as the net irrigation dose (d).
𝑑
Ea= x 100
𝑊𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝐴𝑝𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑑 (𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑠)
where:
d- water stored in the rootzone
Water applied (gross)- irrigation water
Example:
The net irrigation (d) for an area of 1.0 hectare is 19.8mm (i.e.
198 m3). The water delivered during irrigation is 280m3. What is
the application efficiency?
Answer:
198 𝑚3
Ea = 280 𝑚 3x 100
Ea =70.7%

The remaining 30% of water applied is lost

Table 2.1 Critical growth stages for managing water use efficiency
Crop Growth period most sensitive Growth interval in which
to water stress irrigation produces greatest
benefits
Sorghum Boot-heading Boot- soft dough
Wheat Boot- flowering Jointing- soft dough
Corn Tassel- pollination 12 leaf- blister kernel
Cotton First bloom- peak bloom First bloom- boils well-formed
Dry beans Flowering- early pod fill Axillary bud- pod fill
Potatoes Tuberization Tuberization- maturity
Soybean Flowering- early pod fill Axillary bud- pod fill
Sugar beets No critical stages WUE is maximized when
water depletion is limited ton
about 50% available water
depletion
Gross Irrigation Application Depth
✓refers to the total amount of water applied to an area through
irrigation over a specific time.
✓a fundamental parameter in irrigation management and can be used
to assess how much water is being applied to crops and to calculate
irrigation efficiency.

𝑑
dg =𝐸 (𝑓𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛)
𝑎
Practical considerations in irrigation scheduling
• Crop factors
✓Sensitiveness to water shortage
✓Critical stages of the crop
✓Rooting depth
✓Economic value of the crop
• Water delivery system
✓Canal irrigation or tank irrigation
✓Well irrigation
• Types of soil
✓Sandy- needs short frequency of irrigation and less quantity of water
✓Clay- needs long frequency of irrigation and more quantity of water
• Salinity hazard
✓To maintain favorable salt balance, excess water application may be required
rather than ET requirement of the crop to leach the excess salt through deep
percolation
Practical considerations in irrigation scheduling
• Irrigation methods
✓Basin method allows more infiltration through more wetting surface
which in turn needs more water and long interval irrigation frequency
✓Furrow methods allows less infiltration due to less wetting surface
which needs less water and short interval in irrigation frequency
✓Sprinkler method needs less water and more frequency
✓Drip method needs less water and more frequency
• Irrigation Interval
✓The extension of irrigation interval does not always save water. The
interval has to be optimized based on the agroclimatic situation
✓Minimum spreadable depth
✓We cannot reduce the depth based on the water requirement of the
crop alone. The depth should be fixed based on the soil type, rooting
nature of the crop and irrigation method followed. The minimum depth
should be as to achieve uniformity of application and to get uniform
distribution over the entire field
IRRIGATION SCHEDULING METHODS/
CRITERIA
IRRIGATION SCHEDULING CRITERIA
a. Soil Moisture Approach
✓Feel and Appearance of Soil
- One of the oldest and simple methods of determining the
soil moisture content.
- Done by visual observation and feeling the soil by hand
- Soil sample are taken from the root zone depth
- Formed into a ball, tossed into the air and caught in one
hand for judging the water content in the soil
- The accuracy of judgment improves with experience
Guidelines for judging soil moisture by feel & appearance of soil
Available soil Coarse texture Moderately coarse Medium texture Fine texture (
moisture range (sand/ loamy sand) (sandy loam) (loam, silty loam & sandy clay, silty &
loam) clay)
Above field capacity Free water appears Free water is released Free water can be Puddles; free water
when soil is bounded in with kneading squeezed out forms on surface
hand
At field capacity (100%) On squeezing, no free Same as for coarse Same as for coarse Same as for coarse
water appears on soil, textured soils at field textured soils at field textured soils at field
but wet outline of ball is capacity capacity capacity
left on hand
75% to 100% Tends to stick together Forms weak ball that Forms a ball very Easily ribbons out
slightly, may form a very breaks easily, does not pliable, sticks readily if between fingers; has a
weak ball under slick relatively high in clay slick feeing
pressure
50% to 75% Appears to be dry, does Forms a ball under Forms a ball under Forms a ball; ribbons
not form a ball under pressure but seldom pressure, somewhat out between thumb and
pressure holds together plastic, slicks slightly forefinger
under pressure
25% to 50% As above, but ball is Appears to be dry, don Somewhat crumbly but Somewhat pliable,
formed by squeezing not form a ball unless holds together with forms a ball under
very firmly squeezed very firmly pressure pressure
0 to 25% Dry, loose & single Dry and loose, flows Powdery dry, Hard, baked and
grained, flows through through fingers sometimes slightly cracked has loose
fingers crusted, but breaks crumbs on surface in
down easily into powder some places.
IRRIGATION SCHEDULING CRITERIA
a. Soil Moisture Approach
✓Depletion of the Available Soil Moisture (DASM)
- The permissible depletion level of soil moisture in the
effective crop root zone depth is commonly taken as index.
- At moisture-sensitive stages, many crops scheduling
irrigation at 20-25% DASM in the soil profile found to be
optimum.
- Other stages of irrigation schedule at 50% DASM were
found optimum.
IRRIGATION SCHEDULING CRITERIA
b. Climatological Approach
• Evapotranspiration mainly depends on climate
• The amount of water lost by evapotranspiration is
estimated from climatological data
• Irrigation is scheduled when ET reaches a particular level
• The amount of irrigation given is either equal to ET or a
function of ET
• Different methods in Climatological approach are:
a. Cumulative pan evaporation
b. IW:CPE Ratio
c. Evaporimeter
IRRIGATION SCHEDULING CRITERIA
c. Approaches based on plant factors
❑Plant appearance
✓in this method the visual signs of plants are used as an
index for scheduling irrigation.
✓For instance, plant wilting, drooping, curling and rolling of
leaves in maize is used as indicators for scheduling irrigation.
✓Water stress in some crops leads to appearance of carotenoid
(yellow and orange color) and anthocyanin pigments.
✓Shortening of internodes in sugarcane and cotton
✓Retardation of stem elongation in grapes
IRRIGATION SCHEDULING CRITERIA
c. Approaches based on plant factors
❑Critical growth stage
• The crop plants in their life cycle pass through various phases of
drought, some of which are critical for water supply.
• The most critical stage of crop growth is the one at which a high
degree of water stress would cause a maximum loss in yield.
❑Indicator plants
• Some plants are sensitive to soil-water variations
• May be used for detecting water stress in crops not showing
symptoms
• Sunflower plants are often used as indicator plants in onion crop
• An indicator plant for irrigation shows the water stress before the
crop has suffered from it.
IRRIGATION SCHEDULING CRITERIA
c. Approaches based on plant factors
❑ Soil-cum sand mini plot technique
- the available water holding capacity of the soil profile in the
mini plot by mixing with sand is artificially reduced.

❑Plant Population
- Increase in plant population by 1.5 to 2.0 times that of
optimum.
- The available water within the zone is depleted rapidly
compared to other areas when more plants are there per
unit area
 IRRIGATION SCHEDULING METHODS
Table 1: Different methods of irrigation scheduling
Method Measured Equipment Irrigation Advantages Disadvantages
parameter Needed criterion
Hand feel and Soil moisture content Hand Probe Soil moisture content Easy to use, simple, Low accuracies; field
appearance of soil. by feel can improve accuracy work involved to take a
sample.
with experience
Gravimetric soil Soil moisture content Auger, caps, oven Soil moisture content High Accuracy Labor intensive including
moisture sample by taking samples field work; time gap
between s

Tensiometers Soil moisture tension Tensiometers Soil moisture tension Good accuracy: Labor to read; needs
including vacuum instantaneous reading maintenance; breaks at
tensions above 0.7atm.
gauge of soil moisture
tension
Electrical resistance Electric resistance of Resistance blocks, AC Soil moisture tension Instantaneous reading, Affected by soil salinity;
blocks soil moisture bridge (meter) works over large range or not sensitive at low
tensions; can be used for tensions; needs some
remote sensing maintenance and field
reading.

Water budget Climatic parameters: Weather station or Estimation of No field work required; Needs calibration and
approach temperature, radiation, available weather moisture content flexible; can forecast periodic adjustments;
wind, humidity and irrigation needs in the since it is only an
information
expected rainfall future; wit same estimate calculations
depending on model used equipment can schedule cumbersome without
to predict ET. many fields. computer.

Modified atmometer Reference ET Atmometer gauge Estimation of Easy to use, direct Needs calibration; it is on
moisture content reading of reference ET. an estimation.
Advantages of Irrigation Scheduling
• It enables the farmer to schedule water rotation among the various fields to
minimize crop water stress and maximize yields.
• It reduces the farmer's cost of water and labor through fewer irrigations,
thereby making maximum use of soil moisture storage.
• It lowers fertilizer costs by holding surface runoff and deep percolation
(leaching) to a minimum.
• It increases net returns by increasing crop yields and crop quality.
• It minimizes water-logging problems by reducing the drainage
requirements.
• It assists in controlling root zone salinity problems through controlled
leaching.
• It results in additional returns by using the "saved" water to irrigate non-
cash Crops that otherwise would not be irrigated during water-short
periods.