Leaching Requirements
It is the amount of excessive irrigation water applied for
passing through the rootzone to reduce the concentration
of salts in the root zone for the purpose of reclamation.
The leaching requirements can be estimated by the following
formula provided by FAO Corporate Document Repository.
Where,
LR=Minimum leaching requirement to control salts,
ECw= Salinity of applied water (dS/m),
ECe= Average soil salinity tolerated by crop (dS/m).
Leaching Requirements
• The total depth of water to be applied annually
to meet both crop water need and leaching
requirement can be estimated by the following
equation.
Where,
IW= Depth of irrigation water applied (mm/year),
ET=Total annual crop water demand (mm/year),
LR=Leaching requirement.
Assignment
Calculate the amount of salts added to one acre
of wheat using canal water and tubewell
water?
IRRIGATION DEPTH
It is the depth (dn) of water required to bring the soil to its field
capacity level in the effective rootzone for plant growth.
Where,
FC =Moisture available in the soil at its field capacity,
MC = Moisture available at the time of irrigation,
As =Apparent specific gravity (i.e. ratio of bulk density of soil in [Link]-
3to the density of water in the same units as that of bulk density),
rz= Rootzone depth in cm.
The grass irrigation depth can be calculated by using the following
formula:
Irrigation Time
It is the time (T) required to irrigate a certain
area (A) with the available supply of water (Q)
for applying the required depth of water (D).
QxT=AxD
Where,
Q = is in cfs; T = is in hrs; A = is in acres;
D = is in inches
Irrigation Efficiencies
In general efficiency is the ratio of output to
input whereas irrigation efficiency represents
how efficiently water is being conveyed or
used. It is influenced by degree of land
preparation, irrigation system design, skill and
care of [Link] types of irrigation
efficiencies are described in the followings.
Irrigation Efficiencies
Conveyance Efficiency: (Ec)
It is the ratio of water delivered at farm to the water
delivered at the water source
Ec=volume of water applied or deliver to the field/volume
of water diverted from source
Application Efficiency: (Ea)
It is the ratio of water stored in rootzone during irrigation
to the water deliveredto the field.
Ea = volume of water stored in RZ/Volume of water applied
to the field
Irrigation Efficiencies
Irrigation Efficiency: (Ei)
It indicates how efficiently available water
supply is being used, based on different
methods of evaluation.
E i = Ec x E a
Ei = volume of water stored in RZ or field/
volume of water diverted from source
Irrigation Efficiencies
Water Storage Efficiency (s)
It is theratio of water stored in the root zone during irrigation to the
water needed in the rootzone prior to irrigation.
Water Distribution Efficiency(d)
It is ratio of difference from unity of ratio of the average numerical
deviations to the average depth stored during the irrigation.
Water distribution efficiency indicates uniformity in distribution
of water over the entire root zone.
Irrigation Efficiencies
Crop Water Use Efficiency (cwu)
It is the ratio of crop yield (Y) to the water
depleted by evapotranspiration (ET).
Field Water Use Efficiency (fwu)
It is the ratio of crop yield (Y) to the irrigation
water applied to the field.
Assignment
• A discharge of 100 L/sec is delivered from a canal and 76 L/sec is
delivered to the field. Area of 2.5 ha is irrigated in 12 hours.
Irrigation is started after depletion of 50% of available soil
moisture. The effective root zone depth is 1.5 m; available soil
moisture holding capacity is 18 cm m-1, runoff loss is 400 m3. Water
penetration depth is 1.6 m and 1.0 m at head and tail of the field,
respectively.
Calculate;
• Conveyance efficiency.
• Application efficiency.
• Storage efficiency.
• Distribution efficiency.
EVAPOTRANSPIRATION AND ITS
TERMINOLOGIES
• Evaporation: It is the amount of water, which is evaporated from the soil surface,
leaves of the plants or during conveyance of water from the source to the plants. It
includes all those water losses, which can occur while meeting crop water needs of the
plants.
• Evapotranspiration (ET): It is sum of evaporation and transpiration. Transpiration is
that water, which is lost through plant bodies during its growth.
• Consumptive Use (CU): It is evapotranspiration plus the amount of water consumed
during tissue building process of the plants or the water consumed for plant growth in
addition to evapotranspiration. As, the water used by the plants for building tissues is
nearly 1% of the total ET, therefore, CU is mostly taken as equivalent to ET.
• Crop Coefficient (KC):It is the ratio of actual evapotranspiration (ETc) of the crop to
the reference evapotranspiration (ETo). KC depends on soil type, climate, crop type
and growth stages of crop.
EVAPOTRANSPIRATION AND ITS
TERMINOLOGIES
• Reference ETo: (FAO) It is the rate of water loss in
the form of evapotranspiration from a uniform grass,
8-15 cm tall, shading the ground, not suffering from
any disease, actively growing and not short of water.
• Actual ETc: It is the rate of actual
evapotranspiration taking place under the real field
conditions taking into account status of the soil
moisture as well as stage of the crop and climatic
conditions.
METHODS FOR ESTIMATING ET
• The measurement of ET is helpful in planning
the depth of water required by the plants or
evapotranspired through the plants.
• It can be measured directly under field
conditions and can also be estimated using
climatic data.
Direct Measurement of ET
Direct measurement of ET has been made through
Lysimeters either weighing type or measuring inflow
and outflow volumes of water.
Weighing type lysimeters provide more accurate data
by monitoring periodic measurements of the weight
of the lysimeters whereas measuring all types of
water entering into the lysimeters and leaving the
lysimeters.
The water budget equation can be used for any closed
system to estimate the unknown component while
measuring the inflow and outflow components into
and out of the system:
Direct Measurement of ET
• Ws= Wi + Wp –We – Wdp + Wgw
• Where,
• Ws = Change in soil moisture content over the
considered period,
• Wi = Water inflow into the system i.e. irrigation,
• Wp = Precipitation,
• We = Evapotranspiration,
• Wdp = Deep percolation losses i.e. flow out of root zone,
• Wgw = Contribution from groundwater.
Estimating ET from Climatic Data
As climatic variables of temperature, sunshine,
wind, humidity and solar radiation affect the
rate of ET from the plants or from surface of
the earth, therefore these variables have been
used to estimate ET.
One of the simplest methods is ET measurement
using Pan Evaporation pan.
Pan Evaporation
Pan Evaporation
It is measurement of evaporation from Class A Pan, which integrates
effect of all the climatic variables and can be used to estimate the
rate of ET by making its adjustment through pan coefficient.
• Where,
• ETo = Reference crop evapotranspiration (same units as that of Ep),
• Kp = Pan coefficient, usually taken as 0.7 but can also be estimated
using climatic data of relative humidity, wind speed, and the pan
surrounded by dry fallow land or green crop distance.
Blaney Criddle Method
Blaney criddle is a simple method to estimate evapotranspiration
in case pan evaporation data are not available.
This method is not very accurate especially under extreme
conditions of dry, windy, sunny, humid and cloudy areas but
still gives reasonable estimates in the order of magnitude.
ETo can be estimated as given below (FAO Corporate Document
Repository):
• Where,
• ETo= Reference mean monthly evapotranspiration (mm/day),
• P = Mean daily percent of annual day time hours over the
month,
• Tmean = Mean daily temperature (Co) over the month.
