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Chapter 2
Water Requirement Of
Crops
(Crop – Water Requirement)
Defnitions
Evaporation
Evaporation is the process during which a liquid changes in
to gas.
Transpiration
Transpiration is the process by which water vapor leaves the
living plant body and enters the atmosphere.
Evapotranspiration (ET)/ Consumptive Use (CU)
It is the total amount of water used by the plant in transpiration,
building of plant tissues etc and evaporation from adjacent soils or
from plant leaves, in any specified time
Cont..
Maximum/peak rates of soil moisture use by crops
under different climatic conditions
Cool, humid 3
Cool, dry 4
Moderate, humid 4
Moderate, dry 5
Hot, humid 5
Hot, dry 8
Climatic factor
Includes precipitation, solar radiation, temperature,
wind, relative humidity and adjective heat.
Growing season
Crop characteristic
Soil characteristic
Cultural factors
Direct Methods/Lysimeter
Pan Evaporimeter Method
Empirical Methods
Penman-Monteith equation
Radiation methods (ETo = C W Rs)
Blaney-Criddle Method
Hargreaves equation
Cont…
Pan evaporation method
ETo can be obtained by using evaporation rates which are
directly measured with an evaporation pan.
Evaporation pan/Evaporimeter
It is a shallow pan, containing water which is exposed to
the evaporative influence of the climate.
The standard pan is the Class A Pan of the US Weather
Bureau is widely used.
Diameter of 1.21 m,
Depth of 25 cm
It is placed 15 cm above the ground
Cont…
Example 1
length of total growing season: 120 days (sum of all 4 crop stages according to Table 10)
ETo: average of 6.0 mm/day over the total growing season (from measurement, calculation or Table 9)
ET crop = kc x Eto
ET crop = 4.68 x 120 days = approx. 560 mm per total growing season
Irrigation Requirement
Irrigation requirement of a crop refers to the amount of water
needed to applied or supplied by irrigation in order to meet
the water requirement of the crop for optimum growth and
yield.
Consumptive Irrigation Requirements (C.I.R)
It is the amount of irrigation water required in order to meet
the evapotranspiration needs of the crops during its full
growth.
C.I.R = Cu - Re
Crop period
The time period that elapses from the instant of its sowing to
the instant of its harvesting is called the crop-period.
Duty of water
Duty of water is its capacity to irrigate land.
It is the relation between the area of the land irrigated and
the quantity of water required.
It is usually defined as the area of land which can be
irrigated if one cumec of water is applied to the land
continuously for the entire base period of the crop.
It is expressed in hectares/cumecs.
Flow duty
The duty of water in hectares/cumec as defined above is
convenient in the case of flow irrigation from canals and is
usually called flow duty.
If the flow duty and the area of land to be irrigated are
known, the required discharge in the canal can be
determined.
Area, ha
Disch arg e, Q
Duty, ha / cumec
The discharge is in cumecs.
Cont…
Quantity of Duty
For tank/dam/pond irrigation, the duty is usually expressed
as the total area of land which can be irrigated per million m3
of water stored in the tank/reserviour.
If the quantity duty in ha/Mm3 and the area to be irrigated are
known, the volume of water to be stored in the tank can be
determined. Thus
Area , ha
3
Volume of water in Mm
Duty , ha / Mm 3
Cont…
The consumptive use of water for a crop is the water actually used by it
in its metabolism and evapotranspiration.
Delta is the quantity of water actually supplied to the crop.
Delta includes not only the consumptive use of water for a crop but also
the water lost by evaporation and seepage from canals and by deep
percolation in the field.
Hence, delta is generally greater than the consumptive use.
However, if suitable values of water application efficiency and the
conveyance efficiency are taken into account, the water requirements by
the consumptive use concept may approach the value of delta.
The consumptive use concept is more scientific and rational than the
delta concept which is essentially empirical. The modern trend is to use
the consumptive use concept for the determination of water
requirements of crops and the capacity of canals.
1. Base of duty:
The base of duty of water is the period to which the stated
duty applies.
When the base of duty is not specified, it generally means
the average duty for the entire base period.
Sometimes duty is expressed for each watering. In that
case, it is necessary to specify the base during which
watering is done.
The duty for each watering gives the actual rate at which
water is applied.
Cont…
Cont…
2. Type of crop
Different crops require varying quantities of water. Therefore, duty
varies from crop to crop.
Duty is low for crops which required a large quantity of water and
vice versa.
3. Structure of soil
The soil structure affects the plant growth to a very large extent.
A good structure is called good tilth of soil.
In a soil with good structure, evaporation losses from the soil
surface are relatively less and hence duty is high.
Moreover, a soil with good structure becomes properly aerated
because of large voids and the yield of crop is increased,
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Jimma University
Jimma Institute of Technology, JiT
4. Slope of ground
The duty of water depends upon the slope of the ground.
If the slope is relatively steep, the lower portions of the field
get more water whereas the higher portions may remain
drier.
On the other hand, in the case of flat ground, the water does
not reach the extreme end of the field and that portion may
remain dry.
In order to properly irrigate the crop, more water is required
and the duty is decreased in both cases.
For a properly prepared field, duty is high.
5. Climatic conditions
Evaporation losses are more if the temperature and wind velocity
are high and, therefore, duty is decreased.
On the other hand, rainfall during the base period reduces the
irrigation requirements and hence the duty is increased.
6. Method of cultivation
If the land is properly ploughed upto the required root-zone depth
and made quite loose before sowing of the crops, the water
retention capacity of the soil is increased and, therefore, the
number of watering is reduced and duty is increased.
On the other hand, if the land is not properly ploughed and the
method of cultivation is faulty and less efficient, duty is decreased.
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Jimma University
Jimma Institute of Technology, JiT
7. System of irrigation
The system of irrigation may be
(i) perennial or non-perennial,
(ii) canal irrigation or tank irrigation,
(iii) flow irrigation or lift irrigation.
Duty is different for different systems.
(i) Perennial or non-perennial
In this system the water is applied to the land throughout the
growth period, whereas in the non-perennial system, the water is
applied only during the flood season.
The nonperennial system is also known as inundation system ).
Importance of Duty
Irrigation Efficiencies
Efficiency is the ratio of the water out put to the water input.
The ratio of the amount of water available (output) to the
amount of water supplied (input) is known as Irrigation
Efficiency. It is expressed in percentage.
(i) Efficiency of water conveyance
It is the ratio of the amount of water applied to the land to the
amount of water supplied from the reservoir. It is the ratio of
the water delivered into the fields from the outlet point of the
channel, to the water entering into the channel at its starting
point. Quantity of water of delivered into the fields from the outlet x100
c
Quantity of water diverted from the offtake
FIR
c x100
GIR
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Jimma University
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(ii) Efficiency of water- application
NIR
a x100
FIR
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Jimma University
Jimma Institute of Technology, JiT
(iii) Efficiency of Water Storage