Consumptive water use

Many factors influence the amount of water consumed by plants.

The more important natural influences are climate, water supply,
soil, and topography.
The climatic factors behaved to have the greatest effect on
consumptive use on which data are generally available are
temperature, precipitation, humidity, wind movement, and growing
season.
Irrigation practices, as well as kind of crops grown, their stage of
growth, and species, also influence the amount of water consumed.
Crop consumptive water use is the amount of water
transpired during plant growth plus what evaporates
from the soil surface and foliage in the crop area.
Crop – Irrigation Water Requirements
Crop water requirements (CWR):
defined as the depth of water (millimeters) needed to meet the water
consumed through evapotranspiration (ETc) by a disease-free crop,
growing in large fields under nonrestricting soil conditions, including soil
water and fertility, and achieving full production potential under the
given growing environment.
 Calculation for crop water requirements

ETc = Kc x ETo
ETc : crop evaporation or crop water need (mm/day)
Kc : Crop factor
ETo : Reference evapotranspiration (mm/day)
Kc : mainly depends on
1. The type of crop
2. The growth stage of the crop
3. The climate
ETo : measure/predict by
1. Using evaporation pan
2. Using Penman-Monteith Equation
3. The Blaney-Criddle Equation
 Crop factor, Kc

Determination of crop factor Kc, it is necessary to :

Determine of the total growing period of each crop

Determine of the various growth stages of each crop
Determine of the Kc values for each crop for each of the growth
stages
 evapotranspiration, ETo
Using evaporation pan

ETo = Kp x ETpan
Kp : pan cofficient
ETpan : Evaporation of the pan
Using Penman-Monteith Equation
Rn: net radiation at the crop surface [MJ/m2/day],
G: soil heat flux density [MJ/m2/day],
T: air temperature at 2 m height [°C],
U2: wind speed at 2 m height [m/s],
es : saturation vapour pressure [kPa],
ea : actual vapour pressure [kPa],
es - ea : saturation vapour pressure deficit [kPa],
Δ : slope vapour pressure curve [kPa/°C],
γ : psychrometric constant [kPa /°C].
Using Blaney-Criddle Equation

ETo = p (0.46Tmean + 8)

ETo : reference evapotranspiration (mm/day),

p: mean daily percentage of annual daytime hours
Tmean: mean daily temperature (°C)