Module 3
Irrigation Water Requirement
3. 4 IRRIGATION EFFICIENCIES
1. Water Conveyance efficiency (Ec)
This term 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 expressed as follows:
Where :
Ec = water conveyance efficiency, %
Wf = Water delivered to the irrigated plot (At the field supply channel)
Wd = Water diverted from the source.
2. Water application Efficiency (Ea)
After the water reaches the field supply Channel, it is important to apply the
water as efficiently as possible. A measure of how efficiently this is done is
the water application efficiency.
Where:
Ea = application efficiency, %
Ws = water stored in the root zone of the plants.
Wf = Water delivered to the irrigated plot (At the field supply channel)
Water application efficiency below 100 percent are due to seepage looses
from the field distribution channels, deep percolation below the crop root
zone and runoff loses from the tail end of borders and furrows ( in very long
fields).
3. Water storage efficiency (Es)
Small irrigation may lead to high water application efficiencies, yet
the irrigation practice may be poor. The concept of water storage
efficiency is useful in evaluating this problem. This concept
relates how completely the water needed prior to irrigation has
been stored in the root zone during irrigation.
Where:
Es = Water storage efficiency, %
Ws = water stored in the root zone of the plants.
Wn = Water needed in the root zone prior to irrigation
4. Field Canal Efficiency (Eb)
This ratio between water received at the field inlet and
that received at the inlet of the block of fields.
Where:
Eb = Field canal efficiency
Wp = water received at the field inlet
Wf = water delivered to the field channel
5. Water Distribution Efficiency (Ed)
This 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 whereas in
clayey soils, there is over- irrigation at the lower reaches of the run.
Where:
Ed = water distribution efficiency, %
d = average depth of water penetration.
ẏ = average deviation from d.
6. 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 g/ha.cm
A. Crop Water Use Efficiency, Ew: is the ratio of the crop
yield (Y) to the amount of water consumptively used by
the crop.
6. Water Use Efficiency
B. Field Water Use Efficiency, Et: is the
ratio of the crop yield (Y) to the total
water requirement (WR) of crops
including CU losses and other needs.
7. Project Efficiency (Ep)
This shows how efficiently the water source 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.
3.5 IRRIGATION SCHEDULING
Scheduling of irrigation application is very important
for successive plant growth and maturity. Water is not
applied randomly at any time and in any quantity.
Irrigation scheduling is the schedule in which water is
applied to the field in an important aspect of an
efficient operation of an irrigation system. The
scheduling of irrigation can be field irrigation
scheduling and field irrigation supply schedules.
3.5 IRRIGATION SCHEDULING
Field irrigation Scheduling is done at
field level. The two scheduling
parameters of field irrigation
scheduling are the depth of irrigation
and interval of irrigation.
3.5 IRRIGATION SCHEDULING
1) Depth of irrigation (d)
This is the depth of irrigation water that is to be applied at one irrigation. It is
the depth of water that can be retained in the crop root zone b/n the field
capacity and the given depletion of the available moisture content. All the
water retained in the soil b/n FC and PWP is not readily available to crops.
The readily available moisture is only some percentage of the total available
moisture. Thus, depth of irrigation is the readily available portion of the soil
moisture. In other words, it is the depth of irrigation water required to
replenish the soil moisture to field capacity.
The depth of irrigation (d) is given by:
d (net) = As * D (FC – PWP)* P ,m
3.5 IRRIGATION SCHEDULING
Where:
As = Apparent specific gravity of soil
D = Effective root zone depth in m
FC = field capacity
PWP = Water content of soil
P = depletion factor
3.5 IRRIGATION SCHEDULING
Because of application losses such as deep percolation and runoff losses,
the total depth of water to be applied will be greater than the net depth of
water. The gross depth of application:
Where:
Ea = Field application efficiency and other parameters as defined above
3.5 IRRIGATION SCHEDULING
1. Interval of Irrigation (i)
The interval of irrigation is the time gap in day’s between two successive irrigation
applications.
It depends on the type of the crop, soil type and climate conditions. Thus, interval of
irrigation depends on the consumptive use rate of the crop and the amount of readily
available moisture in the crop root zone.
The consumptive use rate of the crop varies from crop to crop and during different stages of
the crop.
The RAM moisture also varies from soil to soil depending on soil water constants.
3.5 IRRIGATION SCHEDULING
The interval (frequency) of irrigation is given by:
Where: ETcrop(peak) is the peak rate of crop evapotranspiration in m/day.
For the same crop and soil science, the ETcrop (peak) goes on
increasing from the initial stage to the development and mid season
stage the interval of irrigation will go on decreasing and increasing
during rate season stage.
3.5 IRRIGATION SCHEDULING
Field Irrigation Supply Schedules (Irrigation Scheduling in a Command Area)
This is the schedule of water supply to individual fields or command area.
This is a schedule of the total volume of water to be applied to the soil during
irrigation. It depends on crop and soil characteristics.
It is expressed in m,
3.5 IRRIGATION SCHEDULING
Where:
q = Stream size (application rate) lit/sec
t = Application time in sec
Ea = Application efficiency
As = Apparent specific gravity
D = Effective root zone depth, m
P = Depletion factor
A = Area of the command (field) in ha
From the equation, if either of the application time or the
stream size fixed, one of them can be determined.
3.5 IRRIGATION SCHEDULING
In the equation below, Q*t indicates the total volume of water applied to
the field during irrigation at the head of the field. However, the total
volume of water diverted at the headwork will obviously be greater than
this value, because there is loss of water during conveyance and
distribution canals. The total volume of water to be diverted is given by
Where:
Q = flow rate at the headwork, lit/sec.
Ep = project efficiency and others as defined above.
Frequency of irrigation
𝑨𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒊𝒍 𝒎𝒐𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏
𝑭𝒓𝒆𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒊𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 = 𝑹𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒖𝒎𝒑𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒖𝒔𝒆
The depth of watering at each irrigation to bring the moisture
content w to the field capacity wfc in a soil of depth d can be
determined from the following relation:
𝒘𝒇𝒄 𝒘 𝒅
𝑬𝒂
Example:
During a particular stage of the growth of a crop,
consumptive use of water is 2.8 mm/day.
Determine the interval in days between irrigations,
and depth of water to be applied when the amount
of water available in the soil is: (i) 25%, (ii) 50%,
(iii) 75% and (iv) 0% of the maximum depth of
available water in the root zoon which is 80mm.
Assume irrigation efficiency to be 65%.
Solution:
Given:
CU = 2.8 mm/day; Ea = 65%
Max depth of available water in the root zone = 80mm
Condition 1: The amount of water available in soil is 25%
𝟖𝟎 𝒙 (𝟏 𝟎.𝟐𝟓)
𝟐.𝟖
Solution:
