Integrated Water Management

Irrigation Water Resources

Dr. A.K. Bhattacharya

Emeritus Scientist Water Technology Centre Indian Agricultural Research Institute New Delhi 110 012

Date of submission:

November 10, 2006

Key words:

Water resources, Rainfall, Groundwater, Watershed/Catchment area, Reservoir, Barrage, Irrigation, Evapotranspiration, Crop water requirement, Irrigation demand.

CONTENTS

Topic Introduction The Hydrologic Cycle Measurement of the components of the hydrologic cycle Rainfall Interception Depression storage Overland flow and stream flow Infiltration Soil moisture storage Deep percolation Subsurface flow Evaporation and evapotranspiration Water Resources of India Space-Time Variability of Water Resources Quantification of Water Resources Crop Water Requirement Measurement of evapotranspiration Estimation of evapotranspiration Irrigation Water Demand Irrigation Water Supply Irrigation from surface sources Irrigation from groundwater sources Formation characteristics Different types of water bearing formations Recording and interpretation of water table data Groundwater pimping Pressurized irrigation Demand based and supply based irrigation Summary References

Page No. 1 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 7 9 10 10 10 14 16 20 21 22 24 25 25 26 27 27 28 29 30 30 31 32

LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Fig. 3. Fig. 4. Fig. 5. Fig. 5. Fig. 6. Fig. 7. Fig. 8. Fig. 9. Fig. 10. Fig. 11. Hydrologic cycle Nonrecording raingauge. Recording raingauge. Scheme of surface water resource development in a watershed. Infiltration characteristics of a clay soil. Infiltration characteristics of a clay soil. Tension vs. moisture deficit in Loamy Sand soil. Tension vs. moisture deficit in Sandy Loam soil. Tension vs. moisture deficit in Sandy Clay Loam soil. Major rivers and their tributaries. A simple hydrograph for the 97.5 km2 Nagwan watershed in Upper Damodar Valley, Jharkhand. Surface water resource assessment through hydrograph analysis of an 84 km2 watershed.
LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Table 2 Table 3 Table 4.

Range of average annual rainfall over different regions of Indian mainland. River basins of India and their surface water resources. Variability of monthly rainfall in monsoon India with varying annual rainfall. Variation of runoff percentage of rainfall in a few contiguous small agricultural watersheds in the Tawa Command area of Madhya Pradesh.

Irrigation Water Resources Introduction Water is an essential input for agriculture. Precipitation is a major renewable resource and is the only source of all water present over the earths surface and below the surface as groundwater. Precipitation comprises all forms of water such as rainfall, snowfall, dew, etc., received on the earth surface. In India, rainfall makes up the largest portion of precipitation. Snowfall occurs over high hills and mountains in the north. Snowmelt flows down the streams and rivers. The percentage of dew in the total precipitation is negligible and except moistening the few millimeters of top soil, it is not useful in agriculture. At a macro-scale, the annual precipitation volume over India is 4000 km3. The geographical area of India is about 328.8 million hectares. Hence, the total annual rainfall is equivalent to a depth of water of about 1.22 m or 1220 mm over the country. This amount of water, if available at the time of need by the crop plants and if this amount of water is available uniformly over the geographical area, necessity of irrigation would not arise for most of the crops that are cultivated in the country. At a micro-scale, however, the aberration is large, from an average annual rainfall of 100 mm over western Rajasthan to 11000 mm in Mausingram in Meghalaya. Besides this tremendous spatial variation, the temporal variability of annual rainfall is also very high; 80% occurring in 4 south-western monsoon months from June through September and the rest 20% in the remaining 8 months distributed as winter monsoon during January-February, pre-monsoon during March-May, and post-monsoon during September-December. There is a distinctly prolonged dry and hot period for at least three months continuously from March through May. Within the four monsoon months, there are prolonged periods of rain break when the standing crop is stressed for want of water leading to lower production and even crop failure in some cases. Thus, the apparently comfortable quantum of average water availability in reality gives rise to serious discomfort due to either deluge or extreme scarcity of water at different times of the year in different regions. This is the feature of monsoon climate, which is strong over India and this feature cannot be changed for better by human intervention. This is why development of water resources for irrigation is essential in India for meeting the crop water demands at the time of need ensuring a higher level of agricultural production. Of the 4000 km3 of precipitation renewable every year, the average annual surface flow is 1869 km3 and the utilizable portion is 1122 km3, including surface water (690 km3) and groundwater (432 km3). Much of the water is rendered unutilizable due to evaporation losses, topographic variation, uneven distribution in time, etc (CWC Pocket Book, 2005) The rainfall distribution over India represented as average annual rainfall of certain ranges is summarized in Table 1. Table 1. Range of average annual rainfall over different regions of Indian mainland*. Range of average Regions annual rainfall (mm) Less than 500 Western Rajasthan. 500 - 1000 Central Maharashtra, Chandigarh, Delhi, Eastern Rajasthan, Haryana, Kutch, Marathwada, North interior Karnataka, Pondicherry, Punjab, Rayalseema, Saurashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telengana, Western plains of Uttar Pradesh. 1000 - 1500 Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Eastern Madhya Pradesh, Eastern Uttar
4

Range of average annual rainfall (mm)

Regions

Pradesh, Gangetic West Bengal, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Orissa, South interior Karnataka, Vidarbha, Western Madhya Pradesh. 1500 - 2000 Uttaranchal. 2000 - 2500 Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura. 2500 - 3000 Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Sub-Himalayan West Bengal. More than 3000 Coastal Karnataka, Goa, Kerala, Konkan. * Adapted from Anonymous, 2006. The Hydrologic Cycle The rainwater is partly intercepted by the vegetation and partly evaporated before it reaches the earth surface. The losses due to interception and evaporation are small, usually not exceeding 5 per cent of the total. The balance 95 per cent, upon falling on the land and water bodies is disposed in various ways. The part that falls over seas and oceans is immediately rendered unsuitable for use due to high salinity in such water bodies. The part that falls over the land mass is first absorbed by the soil. The soil, however, has a limited absorption capacity. This causes generation of excess water on the land surface that starts flowing overland in different directions depending on the land slope. Soon it cuts the soil into small rills, which gradually widen and deepen to form small streams. These streams form tributaries to the rivulets and rivers. Different tributaries join the river at different places and the river widens carrying more and more water as it travels downstream. The largest sources of surface water are the rivers. The river water is stored in reservoirs and is utilized for irrigation, hydroelectric power generation, supplying drinking water and for recreation purposes. If dam and reservoir construction is not feasible due to site constraints, barrages are constructed to divert excess river water mainly during the monsoon season for irrigation. River lift schemes are also commissioned to lift the excess river flow during the monsoon months and irrigate regions at higher elevations. Irrigation sector is the largest consumer of fresh water in India, to the tune of 83 per cent, among all the fresh water using sectors (CWC, 2005-2006). During the overland flow, river flow and from the various inland water bodies as well as from the seas and oceans, evaporation continues returning the water to the atmosphere. Plants draw water from the soil and transpire most of it back to the atmosphere. Seepage and percolation losses from land surface, irrigation canals, reservoirs etc., replenish the groundwater reservoir. Groundwater is withdrawn by pumping for various purposes, including irrigation. Once brought to the surface, groundwater also undergoes losses due to seepage, percolation, evaporation and transpiration. The cycle of water movement from atmosphere to the earth surface to the groundwater reservoir and back to the atmosphere is known as the Hydrologic Cycle. Long before the development of the science of hydrology, poet Kalidasa while describing nature in his beautiful style had put down the essence of the hydrologic cycle in Sanskrit, which may be rendered as: The sun impregnates air with minute droplets of water drawn from the ocean; these droplets coalesce and grow in size to form raindrops that fall on the earth and travel through various routes to come back to the ocean. The Vedic literature contains adequate description of all the major components of the hydrologic cycle (NIH, 1990). The various components of the hydrologic cycle are precipitation, interception by vegetation, temporary storages in depressions on the earth surface, overland flow, stream flow,
5

infiltration, soil moisture storage, deep percolation, subsurface flow, evaporation and evapotranspiration. For planning and development of water resources, understanding of the hydrologic cycle and quantitative information of its various forms are the important database. A qualitative description of the hydrologic cycle is given in the schematic diagram of Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. Hydrologic cycle (Source: http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/faculty/ ritter/images/hydrosphere/hydrocyc.jpg).

Measurement of the components of the hydrologic cycle Rainfall Rainfall is measured either in a non-recording raingauge or in a recording type (automatic) raingauge. A non-recording raingauge of IMD (India Meteorological Department) specification has a 127 mm receiving funnel (catch) diameter and also for the container (Fig. 2). The depth of water collected in the container is magnified by pouring it in a pre-calibrated measure glass to read the rainfall to the nearest 0.1 mm depth. The measure glass becomes full with 25 mm of rainfall. If the rainwater collected in the container is more than 25 mm, more than one measurement is needed to know the total rainfall. The observations are taken once a day at a fixed time, usually between 8.30 AM and 9-00 AM. One gets the total rain in a 24 hour period using this type of raingauge. IMD maintains a vast database of daily rainfall throughout the country. A recording type (or automatic) daily rain gauge of IMD specification has a catch diameter of 203 mm and a float chamber capacity of 323.5 mL, which is equivalent to 10 mm of water depth over a circular area of 203 mm diameter (Fig. 3). A pen is fixed to the stem of the float to mark on a chart wound over a clock-driven drum. The drum makes one revolution around a vertical axis in 24 hours. As the rainfall accumulates in the float chamber, the float rises and the pen marks the chart. When 323.5 mL of water (or 10 mm of rain) is collected in the float chamber, the float and the pen rises to their topmost position and the water is drained by a siphon bringing the float and the pen back to their initial lowermost position. In the recorder chart, a no rainfall period is marked as a horizontal line, a period of low intensity rainfall is marked as a slowly rising line and a period of intense rainfall is marked as a single or a group of steeply rising and falling lines. The chart is changed once a day, at a fixed time, usually between 8-30 and 9-00 AM. Further details about the IMD raingauge and its use are available in the IMD publications (IMD, 1958) in Circular Nos. 6 and 116. There are other types of

recording raingauges such as the weighing type and the tipping bucket type. The siphon type is mostly used in India.

Fig. 2. Nonrecording raingauge.

Fig. 3. Recording raingauge.

Interception Interception is that part of rainfall, which is intercepted and partially held by the vegetation. It is a small quantity in the hydrologic cycle. It may be roughly measured by placing small cans under the vegetation and outside. The difference in the depth of rainfall received in these two cans is the interception loss. For representative measurement, a number of cans should be placed both within and outside the vegetation and the average value of these should be used for finding the difference. This is an approximate method, as some of the intercepted water drips on the land surface once the water holding capacity of the vegetation is full. The greater is the density of vegetation, the greater will be the interception loss. Tea bushes may intercept up to 30 per cent of the rainfall. Depression storage There are innumerable depressions on the earth surface where rainwater and the overland flow are stored temporarily. Such storages cannot be measured. For large water bodies such as ponds and lakes, the storage volume and its changes due to evaporation and seepage losss or addition of water from rainfall and surface runoff can be determined from the record of water level changes and the dimension of the storage structure. Currently, a net of about 3 million hectares of agricultural land are irrigated using water stored in pond. This is about 18 per cent of the canal irrigated area and about 10 per cent of the area irrigated by groundwater lifted from tube wells and dug wells (Anonymous, 2006). The largest pond-irrigated area is in Tamil Nadu, followed by Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, West Bengal, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, where pond irrigated area is greater than 200,000 ha. Some of the least pond irrigated areas are in the states of Tripura, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, each with 5000 ha or less under pond irrigation.

Overland flow and stream flow When the intensity of rainfall exceeds the infiltration rate of the soil (See next section for infiltration), the excess water flows over the land surface in different directions depending on the land slope. This overland flow or the surface runoff is short-lived, as the flowing water soon erodes the soil underneath to form small rills. These rills gradually grow in size to form larger streams, tributaries and rivers. Measurement of the flows in streams and other higher order natural channels is done by stream gauging. It involves measuring the flow depth, the corresponding flow area and the mean velocity of flow. The product of the mean velocity and flow area gives the discharge. As a standard method, stream gauging is done at the outlet of a watershed. Watershed is a geographical area bounded by a ridge such that all surface water flow within the watershed is directed towards a common and single outlet. A large watershed may have many small sub-watersheds, each with a single outlet. The concepts of watershed/sub-watershed or catchment/sub-catchment, natural streams of different orders, dam, reservoir, irrigation command area, etc., relevant to surface water resource development are explained in Fig. 4.

Fig. 4. Scheme of surface water resource development in a watershed.

Infiltration Infiltration is the vertically downward entry of water through the soil surface. The infiltrated water is held in the soil pores. When the water holding of the soil is exceeded, the excess flows down joining the water table causing it to rise. Infiltration takes place from rainfall, water applied for irrigation, water stored in reservoirs, water that flows in canals and streams, etc. At a given location, infiltration varies with time. Its rate reduces as the surface and lower soil layers become more and more wet. It reachs a constant low value after a long time. Infiltration at different times will vary due to changes in the soil conditions, mainly its compaction and initial moisture content. Infiltration is represented through the relation between infiltration rate and time, between the cumulative infiltration and elapsed time, and the basic infiltration rate, which is the low and steady state rate of water intake at the soil surface after a prolonged standing water condition on the field. The infiltration rate and the cumulative infiltration as functions of time are represented graphically and also through the best fit empirical relations. Figure 5 shows the graphical representations of instantaneous infiltration rate, the cumulative infiltration and the basic infiltration rate of a clay soil (Bhattacharya and Michael, 2003).

50
Cumulative Infiltration, cm

Infiltration rate, cm/h

40
Instantaneous infiltration rate

30

Cumulative infiltration

20

10

Basic infiltration rate, obtained by drawing this line horizontally to the left to meet the Y-axis

10

20 30 40 50 Time since start of infiltration, min

60

70

Fig. 5. Infiltration characteristics of a clay soil. Infiltration characteristics are determined in the field using a double ring cylinder infiltrometer comprising two 2-3 mm thick mild steel rings, one of 40 cm and the other of 25 cm diameter approximately and each about 30 cm in height and open at both the ends, a 3 mm thick and at about 40 cm square mild steel plate and a heavy hammer, a point gage, a stop watch and large water containers to store about 50 litres of water. In the field, the two cylinders are driven to a depth of about 10 cm, keeping them concentric and using the steel plate to hammer the cylinders down. Water is slowly poured in both the cylinders up to a depth of about 5 cm below the rims. Water level drop in the inner cylinder and the corresponding time are noted. Water surface depth readings from the upper edge of the cylinder are taken at close time intervals till the water surface decline for two successive readings at equal time intervals become very close to each other. In most situations, fairly steady rate of infiltration is achieved within 2 to 3 hours of starting the test. The depth of water infiltrated between two successive times is obtained from the difference between the

corresponding point gage readings. During the test, the water level in annular space between the two cylinders is maintained close to that in the inner cylinder. The cumulative infiltration data generated during a cylinder infiltrometer test when plotted on a logarithmic graph paper, the scatter diagram in most cases can be represented by a best-fit straight line. The straight line has equation of the form: I = a tb + c where I is the cumulative infiltration in terms of depth of water in time t. Such an equation for a clay soil of Madhya Pradesh was obtained as: I = 0.42 t0.612 + 0.6, where, I is in centimetre and t is in minutes. Thus, if in one hour of surface irrigation, 5.75 cm of water will infiltrate into the soil. When the cumulative infiltration equation is differentiated with respect to time, one gets the instantaneous infiltration rate equation. For the above cumulative infiltration equation, the instantaneous infiltration rate equation will be: i = 0.257 t - 0.388 where, i is the instantaneous infiltration rate in centimetre per minute at time t minutes after the start of infiltration. Knowledge of infiltration behaviour of soil is useful in selecting irrigation methods, in assessing percolation loss from water bodies stored in ponds and in categorising soil into various hydrologic soil groups, which is done for runoff estimation from watersheds. From Fig. 5, taking the basic infiltration rate as 4 cm/h, the total water infiltered from a pond in one day will be 96 cm. This is a high rate of water loss and calls for lining of the inner pond surface to reduce the water loss. For an irrigation situation, we may consider a field where the earlier mentioned cumulative infiltration equation applies. To this field growing wheat, if irrigation water depth of 7.5 cm is applied over a dry soil, it will be absorbed in 96.9 minutes or, in 1 hour and 37 minutes. This is obtained by substituting 7.5 for I and calculating t from the cumulative infiltration equation: I = 0.42 t0.612 + 0.6. In sprinkler and drip irrigation methods, the water discharge rate can be adjusted to deliver water matching to infiltration rate of soil such that both surface runoff loss and wasteful deep percolation loss of water can be avoided. Soil moisture storage Soil is a porous mass with major mineral components of sand, silt and clay comprising the solid portion. The grain size of sand ranges from 0.05 to 2 mm; that of silt from 0.002 to 0.05 mm and that of clay 0.002 mm and smaller. Other solids present in small quantities are the organic matter, pebbles and crystalline salts. The voids or the pore space of the soil contains air and soil solution, which is water containing dissolved salt of various types and in different concentrations. The total pore space in a given soil volume is a function of the relative proportions of sand, silt and clay and also of the degree of compaction of the soil. A fine or heavy soil, which contains more of clay and silt and less of sand (eg. Silty Clay Loam), has a higher porosity and hence, a higher water holding capacity. A coarse or light soil, which contains more of sand and less of silt and clay (eg., Loamy Sand), has a lower porosity and hence, a lower water holding capacity. A compact soil has less porosity than a loose soil. Loam is a medium soil having well balanced, though unequal proportions of sand, silt and clay. The moisture held in the top about 1 m of soil is important for the plants, as they draw this water through their root system. The important soil moisture parameters are the Saturation Moisture Content (SMC), the Field Capacity (FC) and the Permanent Wilting Point (PWP). At saturation, all the soil pores are filled with water and the water remains at atmospheric pressure. Some of this water is drained down under gravity. The water held in partially saturated soil at one-third atmosphere pressure is the FC moisture content. This is also called the water holding capacity of the soil. Evaporation and transpiration further reduces the soil moisture content and increases the pressure with which it is held in the soil pores. At a pressure of 15 atmosphere, the soil moisture content is termed as PWP, when the soil physically appears completely dry. The moisture content between FC and PWP is called available water, i.e., the water that is

10

available for plant use. For most crop plants, however, need of irrigation arises when 50 per cent of the available water is depleted. Soils of different texture with different percentages of sand, silt and clay, have different values for the above mentioned soil moisture parameters. Soil moisture content may be determined by various methods. By gravimetric method, a known mass of wet soil sampled from the field is oven dried at 1050C for 24 hours and the dry mass is determined. The difference between the dry mass and wet mass is the mass of the water present in the wet soil sample. The ratio of the mass of water to the mass of the dry soil multiplied by 100 is the soil moisture content in per cent dry mass basis. Gravimetric method is most accurate but cumbersome and time consuming. Other methods are based on using neutron moisture meter, time domain refractometer, infrared lamp, resistance block (gypsum block), tensiometer, etc. Tensiometer is a simple device to indicate the pressure (also called tension) at which the moisture is held in the soil and it determines the pressure which the plant roots must exert to draw the soil moisture. It is the soil moisture tension, which determines moisture availability to the plants rather than the absolute value of soil moisture content. Soil moisture tension and soil moisture deficit (from field capacity moisture content) are related but the relation is different for soils of different texture (Ray and De, 1983). Such relations for three soil textures namely, Loamy Sand, Sandy Loam and Sandy Clay Loam are given in Figs. 6, 7 and 8, respectively.

Fig. 6. Tension vs. moisture deficit in Loamy Sand soil.

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Fig. 7. Tension vs. moisture deficit in Sandy Loam soil.

Fig. 8. Tension vs. moisture deficit in Sandy Clay Loam soil.

Some typical values of important soil water parameters for a medium (Loam) soil may be Saturation Moisture Content: 35%; Field Capacity: 25% and Permanent Wilting Point: 10%,

12

all in per cent dry mass basis. This means that, respectively, 35, 25 and 10 per cent of the mass of the soil will be the mass of water corresponding to Saturation, Field Capacity and Wilting point moisture contents. These may also be expressed in per cent volume basis by multiplying with the dry bulk density (or dry density) of the soil. The dry density of soil, depending on the degree of compaction may vary from 1.0 g/cm3 to 1.5 g/cm3. If the dry density of a soil is 1.2 g/cm3, then the earlier mentioned dry mass basis moisture contents will be: saturation moisture content: 35x1.2 = 42%; Field Capacity moisture content: 25x1.2 = 30% and Wilting Point moisture content: 10x1.2 = 12%, all in per cent volume basis. This means that 1 cubic meter of wet soil will contain 0.42, 0.3 and 0.12 cubic meters of water, respectively, at Saturation, Field Capacity and Wilting Point moisture contents. All these values will be higher for a soil that is finer than Loam (eg., Clay Loam) and lower for a soil that is coarser than the Loam soil (eg., Sandy Loam). Rainfall and irrigation water are expressed in terms of depth over an area. A rainfall of 10 mm that has fallen uniformly over an area of 1 hectare amounts to a water volume of 10 hamm. This is equivalent to 1x10,000x10/1000 = 100 m3 of water (Note that 1 ha = 10,000 m2 and 10 mm = 10/1000 m). If irrigation water of 7.5 cm is applied to 1 ha of a cropped land in one irrigation, it is equivalent to applying 1x10,000x75/1000 = 750 m3 of water over 1 ha of the cropped land. Wheat for good production requires on an average 30 cm of water, which may be applied in four irrigations. If all this water is to be applied from the irrigation source, the total water withdrawal from the source will be 3000 m3 for 1 ha of a wheat field from sowing to harvesting. To be compatible with the conventional units of expressing rainfall or irrigation depth, it is useful to express the soil moisture content also in terms of depth of water. This is done by attaching to the volumetric moisture content (expressed in fraction) the depth unit compatible with the unit in which the volume of wet soil was expressed. Thus, 1 meter cube (1m x 1m x 1m) of wet soil at saturation will contain 0.42 m (or, 42 cm) of water if its volumetric moisture content were 42%. For the water properties of the Loam soil discussed above, the FC being 30 cm and the PWP being 12 cm, the available water per meter depth of the soil is (30 12) = 18 cm. Allowing 50 per cent deficit, consequent to evaporation and evapotranspiration, irrigation will be required when half of this 18 cm of water has been depleted. Assuming that the depletion started when the soil was at FC, the moisture held in the soil will be (30 9) = 21 cm and water to be added through irrigation will be 9 cm to bring back the soil again to FC. Bringing the entire 1 m depth of soil to saturation by irrigation is wasteful of water, as the water held between saturation and FC is soon lost as deep percolation and becomes unavailable to the plants. In this example, a soil depth of 1 m was assumed for calculation, as for most crop plants, the depth of active root zone is limited to 1 m. For crops with deeper or shallower effective root zones, the calculation results will be different. Effective root zone is the depth (measured from soil surface) from where most of the requirement of water and nutrients are extracted by the plant roots. Soil moisture and climatic parameters play important roles in deciding a proper irrigation interval. If the water loss rate due to evaporation and evapotranspiration in a certain region with the above discussed soil water parameters is 5 mm/day, then 50 per cent of the available water will be depleted in 90/5 = 18 days, when one should apply irrigation. Thus, the irrigation interval becomes 18 days. However, applying water in precise depth and at precise times is possible when the irrigator controls the irrigation source and the land is smooth. In large canal irrigated areas, soils are never uniform, crops vary and so do the soil moisture properties and water depletion rate. The variation is both in space and time. Space variation occurs due to heterogeneity of soil, crop, etc., and time variation occurs due to inter seasonal and intra-seasonal variation of temperature, relative humidity, air velocity, radiation received

13

on the earth surface, sun shine hours, etc. Accordingly, during the operation of an irrigation system, the irrigation interval is fixed based on the major crops grown in the command area and their water demand, the water available at the source, losses of water in transit and from the cropland and ensuring as much equitable distribution of water as feasible among the large number of beneficiary farmers. Deep percolation For agriculture, deep percolation is a loss, as the plant roots cannot extract this water. Thus, any water that has moved beyond the crop root zone is a deep percolation loss. For the groundwater reservoir, which is getting replenished by the deep percolated water, it is a gain. For normally irrigated fields, deep percolation loss can be estimated by soil moisture sampling. If there is an increase in the moisture content of the soil below the root zone, it is termed as deep percolation loss. It may not join the water table, which may be even deeper but such losses in each irrigation, ultimately lead to water table rise. In paddy fields where during certain stages of plant growth the fields retain standing water, deep percolation loss may be measured by conducting infiltration test described earlier. Subsurface flow The subsurface flow refers to the flow of water below the ground under saturated soil condition. It may be estimated by DArcys equation: Q = A K I, where A is the flow area, K is the saturated hydraulic conductivity and I is the hydraulic gradient. It can also be estimated by applying water balance equation relating all inflows to a region, all outflows from the region and the change in water storage in the region during a chosen time interval. On annual basis, the subsurface inflow and outflow may balance each other. This assumption is not valid if the water balance equation is to be used for shorter time period, say one season. Evaporation and evapotranspiration Evaporation is measured by filling a standard evaporation pan with water and noting down the decline the water level at specified time intervals, usually 1 day. Evapotranspiration is determined in lysimeters. A lysimeter is a tank made of metal (weighing type lysimeter) or other constructional material (non-weighing lysimeter), containing soil with plants growing over them, which are irrigated from time to time. In weighing type lysimeter, the reduction in weight of the lysimeter after irrigation is due to evapotranspiration loss. In non-weighing type lysimeter, the loss of water due to evapotranspiration is calculated by soil moisture sampling from the lysimeter soil. Conducting lysimeter studies is expensive and time consuming. Instead, one may use a suitable empirical relation from a large number of developed relations for estimating evapotranspiration (See section on Crop Water Requirement later). A somewhat detailed and fundamental discussion and simple calculations presented above about the hydrologic cycle and its components is useful in understanding the nature of the water resources, their development and utilization for irrigation of agricultural lands. Assured water to the crops ensure better production. Under monsoon climate over India, the occurrence of natural rainfall is highly erratic in time and space. Even within the monsoon, there may be long rain breaks, which put the standing crop under water stress. Under stressed condition, the plant roots are unable to extract nutrient from the soil. The purpose of water resources development for irrigation is, therefore, to timely supply the water needed by the crop plants.

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Water Resources of India Surface water resources of the major river basins of India are given in Table 2 and natural drainage network (River system) is depicted in Fig. 9. Table 2. River basins of India and their surface water resources. River system Basin area km2
51882

Regions/states

Origin

Outfall Average Present annual water flow use 3 km km3

Bay of Bengal Bay of Bengal 28.5 4.8

BrahmaniBaitarani BrahmaputraBarak Brahmaputra

194413 (in India)

Jharkhand, Madhya Keonjhar Pradesh, Orissa Bangla Desh, Tibet (China) Bhutan, India, Tibet (China), In India: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim, Manipur Hills West Bengal Bangla Desh, India, Mayanmar, In India: Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura Karnataka, Kerala, Talakaveri, Tamil Nadu Western Ghats, Karnataka Bangla Desh, China, Gangotri Glacier, as India, Nepal. In Bhagirathi. India: Bihar, Delhi, Alaknanda joins Haryana, Himachal at Devprayag Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland, and then known as Ganga Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bangal Andhra Pradesh, Nasik, Karnataka, Madhya Maharashtra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa Mansarovar, Afghanistan, India, Tibet (China) Pakistan, Tibet (China). In India: Chandigarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan Andhra Pradesh, Mahabaleshwar, Karnataka, Western Ghats Maharashtra Bihar, Madhya Raipur, Madhya
15

Barak

41723 (in India)

Bay of Bengal

Together: 585.6

1.1

Cauvery

87900

Bay of Bengal Bay of Bangal

21.4

18.0

Ganga

1086000

525

37.8

Godavari

312812

Bay of Bengal

110.5

41.0

Indus

1165500 321289 (in India)

Arabian Sea

73.3

40.0

Krishna

258948

Bay of Bengal Bay of

78.1

50.0

Mahanadi

141589

66.9

17.0

River system

Basin area km2

Regions/states

Origin

Outfall Average Present annual water flow use 3 km km3

Bengal Arabian Sea Arabian Sea Bay of Bengal Arabian Sea 11.0 2.5

Mahi

34482

Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan Gujarat. Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka Gujarat, Rajasthan

Pradesh Viddhyas, Madhya Pradesh Amarkantak, Madhya Pradesh Chenna Kesava Hills, Karnataka Aravalli Hills, Rajasthan

Narmada

98796

45.6

8.0

Pennar Sabarmati

55213 21674

6.3 3.8

5.0 1.8

Source: MoWR River Basin Maps.

Fig. 9. Major rivers and their tributaries. As has been mentioned earlier, the entire generated surface water resources in the form of runoff and then as stream and river flow cannot be utilized due to various constraints. The last column of Table 2 reflects this, as it is seen that the current utilization is far below the average annual flow in many cases. There are several ongoing water resources development
16

projects at various stages of completion. Besides, new irrigation projects are also coming up. When all these are completed, the surface water utilization scenario will improve. It is estimated that the irrigation potential of the utilizable water resources, when fully developed, will be about 140 million hectares. From the pre-plan period till the year 2002, the irrigation potential created was 116.5 million hectares through major, medium and minor irrigation projects. It may be noted that the major and the medium projects are surface water based and the minor projects are both surface and groundwater based. Considering groundwater alone, the created potential is over 35 million hectares. There is, however, a gap between the irrigation potential created and the irrigation potential utilized in actual irrigation. This gap occurs, as it takes time to make the entire irrigation command area ready to receive water after the creation of the water resources through construction of reservoirs and barrages. Making the land ready for receiving irrigation implies completing the entire water distribution network in the command area from main canals to the water courses, including the large number of water flow control and diversion structures in them. Also, land is not fully ready till it is properly leveled and developed for irrigation water distribution. In view of these constraints, the irrigation potential utilized stands at about 102.6 million hectares against the created potential of 116.5 million hectares. There is a constant endeavour to bridge this gap. In the above figures of created and utilized irrigation potentials, the contribution of decentralized small community based water resources development effort through the construction of ponds and water harvesting structures and the privately owned tube wells and dug wells, which are used for irrigation water lifting are not included. Groundwater plays a very important role in irrigation in India. Besides irrigation, groundwater is also used for many other purposes such as supplying drinking water, to meet industrial requirement, to augment canal water supply, for water table control, to lay foundation of large structures when they are to be constructed in shallow water table areas, etc. As a water resource, shallow groundwater directly contributes to meet crop water requirement partially thereby reducing the need for irrigation. The source of groundwater is the rainfall, which directly or through storage structures such as reservoirs, lakes, ponds and through irrigation canals and flowing natural streams continuously infiltrate. Part of this infiltrated water, after satisfying the soil moisture storage capacity joins the water table and becomes a part of groundwater reservoir. Groundwater continuously moves from higher elevation to lower elevation. The utilizable groundwater potential in a region is considered as 85 per cent of the long-term average groundwater recharge from rainfall and other sources such as irrigation conveyance network, subsurface flow from higher reaches, etc. Usable groundwater potential is created by commissioning tube wells or other types of wells, ready to support pumping of water through a pump-prime mover (diesel engine or electric motor) combination. Irrigation potential created so far from groundwater is over 35 million hectares. Groundwater resources development shows a picture of tremendous variation among the various states, from 1.8 per cent in Jammu & Kashmir to 175 per cent in Punjab. These are the percentage of annual replenishment from rainfall and are average values for the state. Within a state, there may be tremendous variation in its availability. For example, the 175 per cent exploitation in Punjab is a feature of central, eastern and northern regions where the groundwater quality is good. In south-west Punjab, there is little exploitation of groundwater, as the water is brackish and cannot be used in irrigation or for other purposes. When in a region, the annual groundwater extraction is less than 65 per cent of the annual groundwater recharge, the region is called white and further groundwater extraction is possible. If the extraction is between 65 and 85 per cent of the recharge, the region is called grey and further groundwater extraction must be made with caution. If the extraction is between 85 and 100 per cent of the recharge, the region is called black, implying that no further withdrawal of groundwater should be made. If the extraction exceeds 100 per cent of
17

recharge, the region is called overexploited. Overexploitation causes groundwater table to continuously decline and results in increasing pumping cost, drying up of shallow wells, exposure to brackish water aquifer that may lie at deeper depths, etc. Over exploitation takes place where the groundwater is sweet (i.e., of good quality) and the crop water demand cannot be fully met from the developed surface water resources and rainfall. Currently, the annual groundwater extraction in the states of Punjab and Haryana as a whole is more than the annual replenishment. In Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, it has exceeded 80 per cent of the annual replenishment and in many states such as Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, West Bengal and all north eastern states the annual groundwater extraction is 50 per cent or lesser than the annual replenishment. Considering the country as a whole, the irrigation potential of the utilizable groundwater is about 64 million hectares, the potential created is over 35 million hectares and the level of groundwater development is about 55 per cent. The Central Ground Water Board monitors the groundwater status all over the country district-wise and down to block level. Analysis of such data reveals that even in those states where the current groundwater extraction is less than 50 percent for the state as a whole, there are a number of blocks where the groundwater is over exploited. Thus, though the states of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Karnataka and in some others the groundwater extraction is less than 50 per cent, yet there are several blocs in these states which are over exploited. Declaration of utilizable groundwater potential on the basis of aquifer and water table information of a region may sometimes be misleading, unless the declared potential has good possibility and demand for its use in the region. Unlike surface water, which can be transported from one basin to another, transport of groundwater from a surplus region to a deficit region is not feasible. Space-time Variability of Water Resources The monsoon climate over India causes complete reversal (a change by 1800) in the direction of wind flow from land to sea and from sea to land between summer and winter. The large land mass of India surrounded by a large water body (comprising Arabian sea, Indian ocean and Bay of Bengal) and the presence of several hill ranges acting as barriers to air flow give rise to drastic change in the atmospheric temperature and humidity between summer and winter. This is briefly the cause of great variation of rainfall over space and time over India. However, from other aspects such as soil, temperature, sunshine hour, etc., which are relevant for agriculture, cultivation of diverse crops are possible over India throughout the water. This is in contrast to many of the countries at higher latitudes where the land may be covered with snow for several months in a year or the countries with desert climate, which is too harsh to support crop activity. Thus, despite having a well developed natural river and tributary network, as shown in Fig. 9, the nature of monsoon climate make them overflow with water for a few months and practically have no flow at all for several months, except the large rivers and those which are also fed by snow melt. During such periods, water is the sole constraint for agricultural production. This is irrespective of the total rainfall received in a year, whether low or high. The nature of rainfall variability is explained through Table 3. In Table 3, Machilipatnam, Ongole and Mysore have two distinct monsoons namely, southwest and north-east and due to this, the variability is somewhat lower in these places. In all other cases, from a very high rainfall region to a very low rainfall region, the variability of monthly rainfall is very high. The inter-month variability of rainfall would be low if the rainfall is well-distributed in the year, such as in Tokyo, Japan, where the mean annual

18

rainfall is 1563 mm and the coefficient of variability of monthly rainfall is 45.5 per cent, much lower than any of the places of India indicated in Table 3. Like surface water resources, groundwater availability also varies over space and with time. Within a year, the time variation is temporary. On a long term basis, however, the variation may be substantial. Alarming water table decline due to excessive pumping and alarming rise in water table in many irrigation command areas and also in areas with poor quality groundwater are common in India. Space-wise, the annually replenishable groundwater varies from as low as 1.82 billion cubic meter in the Subarnarekha river basin to as high as 171 billion cubic meter in the Ganga river basin. Correspondingly, the utilizable groundwater is also the lowest at 1.7 billion cubic meter in the Subarnarekha river basin and the highest at 156.8 billion cubic meter in the Ganga river basin. In Rajasthan, of the total area of 34.2 million hectares, the area underlain by saline groundwater is 14.1 million hectares (41.2 per cent). On the other hand, in Uttar Pradesh, of the total area of 29.44 million hectares, the area underlain by saline groundwater is only 0.136 million hectares (0.46 per cent). Some other states where considerable area overlies saline groundwater are Haryana (25.9 per cent), Gujarat (12.4 per cent), Delhi (9.4 per cent), Punjab (6.1 per cent) and Karnataka (4.6 per cent). Table 3.Variability of monthly rainfall in monsoon India with varying annual rainfall. Place Number of distinct monsoons
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1

Annual rainfall mm
3930 3640 2967 1928 1730 1611 1552 1454 1393 1286 1184 1013 843 762 607 531 465 447 392

CV of monthly rainfall %
135 105 84 99 141 103 121 96 129 85 168 74 99 76 97 125 125 103 126

South Canara, Karnataka (Coastal) Mornai, Assam Karumady, Kerala (Coastal) Patashpur, West Bengal (Coastal) Kotdwara, Uttar Pradesh Kausani, Uttar Pradesh Uttar Kashi, Uttar Pradesh Chinsura, West Bengal Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh Parvatipur, Andhra Pradesh Barna, Madhya Pradesh Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh (Coastal) Ongole, Andhra Pradesh Mysore, Karnataka Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh Sonepat, Haryana Firozpur, Punjab Faridkot, Punjab Bhatinda, Punjab

CV = Coefficient of variability = (Standard deviation/Mean) x 100.

The presence of saline groundwater in a region implies that groundwater cannot be used for irrigation or to be used with caution and only after mixing with good quality surface water in such a proportion that the resulting water has salt concentration that is not harmful for the crop plants. Saline water in shallow aquifers undergoes changes in salt concentration seasonally, being less saline during and after the monsoon season and more saline during the dry season. Irrigation requirement is high during the dry season when surface water availability is less. Many farmers, therefore, are compelled to draw upon groundwater for
19

irrigation to save the crops. If the groundwater quality is bad, in many occasions it has been found to destroy the crop rather than saving it. Quantification of Water Resources For planning and construction of irrigation reservoirs, barrages, and small water harvesting structures and also for planning groundwater extraction to meet irrigation demand, the availability of water resources is to be ascertained through measurement or estimation. It is to be noted that the water resource available for use is a part of the rainfall resource that is transformed into surface flow or groundwater recharge. It is recommended to plan water resource development on watershed basis. For small water harvesting structures, the watershed size may be from 500 to 1000 ha. It may be smaller also. For large reservoir based irrigation projects, the watershed size is much larger and may be 100 km2 or larger. When the stream flow at the outlet of the watershed is measured with respect to time, the measurement data is represented through a graphical relation called a hydrograph. An example of a simple hydrograph (that has a single peak) is given in Fig. 10. In a large watershed there may be a dry weather flow even without an immediate past rainfall, as shown during the first 18 hours in Fig. 10. Rainfall over the watershed causes runoff, which passes through the outlet of the stream that is being gauged (flow is being measured). Runoff rate gradually increases, as more and more of the watershed area contributes to runoff, it reaches a peak and then declines when the rainfall ceases. After separating the base flow, the area under the hydrograph (now called direct runoff hydrograph) represents the direct runoff, which is generated by the causative rainfall (see the rainfall bar in Fig. 10). In Fig. 7, the direct runoff is 32.3 mm, from a rainfall of 49.5 mm (= 15 x 198/60). The balance 17.2 mm is the sum of interception, depression storage, infiltration, etc., which are not available as surface water resource. In this example, runoff works out as 64.6 per cent of rainfall. The percentage of rainfall appearing as runoff varies depending upon wetness of the watershed soil, seasonal variation in land cover, particularly over agricultural land, the watershed size, the intensity and duration of rainfall and the direction of rainfall movement whether from outlet towards the upstream or from upstream towards the outlet, as governed by the wind direction. An example of this variation recorded for three agricultural watersheds of 1, 5 and 25 ha area in Madhya Pradesh is given in Table 4. The modulating (or smoothening) effect of watershed on rainfall variability can be seen in Table 4 from the gradually reducing coefficient of variability of runoff, as the watershed area increases. Table 4. Variation of runoff percentage of rainfall in a few contiguous small agricultural watersheds in the Tawa Command area of Madhya Pradesh.
Year Rainfall mm 1 ha watershed Runoff Runoff, mm % of rainfall 29.9 53 44.0 72 43.8 85 12.6 76 28.5 84 6.2 46 17.8 76 9.6 71 15.1 67 8.4 51
20

1997

57.0 61.5 51.3 16.5 34.0 13.5 23.5 13.5 22.5 16.5

5 ha watershed Runoff Runoff, mm % of rainfall 22.0 39 30.6 50 28.5 56 7.3 44 14.7 43 3.1 23 12.5 53 6.8 50 7.7 34 5.3 32

25 ha watershed Runoff Runoff, mm % of rainfall 17.2 30 29.6 48 24.5 48 2.5 15 12.4 37 2.1 16 9.2 39 4.8 36 4.9 22 3.0 18

Year

Rainfall mm

1998 1999

Mean Standard deviation Coefficient of variability, %

21.4 12.6 81.0 30.6 38.7 17.8 32.1 13.5 12.1 44.5 59.9 31.18 20.95 67.19

1 ha watershed Runoff Runoff, mm % of rainfall 10.8 51 7.7 61 56.2 69 23.2 76 24.9 64 2.4 14 25.9 81 2.6 19 4.1 34 27.1 61 38.9 65 20.94 61 15.33 20 73.21 32.79

5 ha watershed Runoff Runoff, mm % of rainfall 13.1 61 7.5 60 28.7 35 18.4 60 7.6 20 1.4 08 21.0 65 2.7 20 3.5 29 19.1 43 34.5 58 14.10 42 10.23 0.16 72.55 38.10

25 ha watershed Runoff Runoff, mm % of rainfall 7.1 33 1.5 12 27.1 34 8.7 28 4.0 10 0.4 02 10.8 34 1.9 14 0.7 06 4.4 10 14.0 23 9.09 24.5 8.83 0.135 97.14 55.10

Source: Anonymous, 2000, 2001.

Assessment of the surface water resources through hydrograph analysis like the one explained in Fig. 10 is cumbersome and time consuming. Besides, the runoff variability (see Table 4) makes it extremely uncertain as to which of the hydrographs may be considered for water resource assessment. One may get what is called a design hydrograph, which is the hydrograph generated by the design rainfall of a chosen recurrence interval. The recurrence interval for the design rainfall is 5 or 10 years in case of small size works executed over agricultural lands and may be 1000 years for large multipurpose dams and reservoirs, which cater to and also affect much larger area and the corresponding population by producing hydroelectric power, providing irrigation and drinking water, inundating large area, releasing large volumes of water for dam safety when the inflow is large than anticipated, etc. Hydrographs such as the one shown in Fig. 10 are, therefore, useful in deciding the dimensions of a spillway, the capacity of a small farm pond storing runoff water for life saving irrigation, design of drains, etc.

Fig. 10. A simple hydrograph for the 97.5 km2 Nagwan watershed in Upper Damodar Valley, Jharkhand.
21

For large works also, hydrographs are used for water resource assessment but there it shows the relation of mean monthly flows with the months. In the relation, the mean monthly flow is often substituted by the monthly flow of various per cent dependence such as 90 per cent dependable flow or 70 per cent dependable flow and the like. The area under the hydrograph so obtained is the total volume of flow available in a year. A 90 per cent dependable flow implies a flow that is expected 90 per cent of the time or 9 out of 10 years or 18 out of 20 years and so on. Dependable flows on a monthly basis are, nevertheless, obtained by summing up the daily flows over a month and subjecting the resulting data to probability analysis. Thus, stream gauging is an important prerequisite for generating the data base, which is processed to obtain the surface flow volume at the outlet of a watershed at desirable recurrence interval. Examples of the type of hydrograph used for planning large works is given in Fig. 11 A and B.
2000 Mean monthly flow, mm/month A: 1600 Total hydrograph

1200

800

400

0 May Mar Jun Feb Oct Aug Nov Dec Sep Apr Jan Month Dec Jul

1800 Mean monthly flow, mm/month 1600

B:

Direct runoff hydrograph

1200

Hydrograph area represents 2 4495.5 mm of runoff from 84 km watershed (equivalent to 377.4 million cubic meter of water during May through November.

800

400

May

Jun

Oct

Aug

Month

Fig. 11. Surface water resource assessment through hydrograph analysis of an 84 km2 watershed.
22

Nov

Sep

Jul

A shows the total hydrograph drawn between mean monthly flows expressed in millimeter over a watershed of 84 km2 area and the time expressed in month. To do this, the daily flows, usually recorded in cubic meter per second, were converted to cubic meter per day, were added up for all the days in a month and then averaged for the month. The monthly mean flow was then converted to millimeter per month from cubic meter per month by dividing the latter by the watershed area, expressed in consistent units. The base flow (also called the dry weather flow) was deducted from the total hydrograph and the resulting hydrograph, the direct runoff hydrograph, was plotted in Fig. 11 B. The area under the direct runoff hydrograph represents the total flow of runoff water at the outlet of the watershed (more correctly, at the location where stream gauging was done). In the present case, the direct runoff volume was 4495.5 mm, which is equivalent to 377.4 million cubic meter. This much water was obtained during May December. If this water were to be stored in a reservoir and if the reservoir capacity was not possible to keep above 200 million cubic meters due to site constraint, much of the balance 177.4 milliom cubic meter of water would have to be safely passed through spillways. The remaining would be taken care by seepage and evaporation. There are many empirical relationships expressing runoff as a function of certain parameters one of which is invariably the rainfall over the watershed (Raghunath, 1985 and Varshney, 1986). Some of these formulae are: i. For Nilgiris: R = (1.511 P1.44 ) /(Tm1.34 A 0.0613 ) ii. Inglis formula for Bombay Deccan catchment Ghat areas: R = 0.85 P + 30.5 Plain areas: R = {(P 17.8) P} / 254 iii. Lacys formula for Indo-Gangetic plains: R = [P /[1 + {340.8 (F / S)} / P] iv. Khoslas formula for north India: R = P (Tm / 3.75) v. Chambal river basin (Rajasthan): R = 120 P 4945 vi. Ganga basin: R = 2.4 P 0.64 vii. Yamuna basin: R = 0.14 P1.1 viii. Rihand basin (U.P.): R = P 1.17 P 0.86 ix. Tawa basin (M.P.): R = 90.5 P 4800 x. Tapi basin (Gujarat): R = 435 P 7200 (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11)

(1)

In the above formulae (where applicable), R is the annual runoff, cm; P is the average annual rainfall, cm; A is the watershed area, km2; Tm is the mean annual temperature, 0C; F is a monsoon duration factor varying between 0.5 and 1.5 and S is the catchment factor varying from 0.25 for flat areas to 3.45 for hilly areas. A dam constructed at the outlet of a watershed impounds water in the reservoir behind it. The reservoir water is taken through conveyance network by gravity flow to the downstream areas for irrigating crops. With respect to an irrigation reservoir, the area upstream to it is called the watershed or more commonly, the catchment area and the area downstream to it is called the command area (see Fig. 4). When certain portions of the command area are at a relatively higher elevation, water from the reservoir may not flow under gravity. In such cases, a
23

smaller modulating reservoir is constructed in the vicinity of the elevated portions of the command area but at a level where water from the main reservoir can flow under gravity. Water is pumped from the smaller reservoir to take it to higher elevation of the command area. If this is not feasible, then certain portion of the earlier defined command area remains out of command. Many a time, water is lifted by pumping directly from the river when it carries sufficient flow to irrigate lands at a higher elevation. This is done during the monsoon season when the river flow is high. For irrigation by surface water gravity flow from reservoir to the land to be irrigated is preferred, as pumping involves consumption of energy, which is expensive and its supply is uncertain in many states. The Central Water Commission under the Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India regularly monitors the flow in all the major rivers at certain specified locations through stream gauging. This data base is utilized in working out the river basin-wise surface water availability. However, the best location of constructing a dam may not be the locations where stream flow is monitored. At different locations along the stream, the flow varies, gradually increasing from upstream to downstream. For example, if the dam shown in Fig. 4 were to be constructed at A instead of the location shown, the reservoir storage would be less and if it were to be constructed at B, the reservoir storage would be more. The reservoir design in such cases may be based on the data of nearest stream gauging station or the information from similar watershed and rainfall features may be assumed to apply, and where recorded data are not available, by estimating the runoff through empirical relationships or methods, or by applying hydrologic models to predict runoff based on recorded data of rainfall and watershed features. Interlinking of rivers is an important concept of water resources development in India. The Ministry of Water Resources has plans to link some of the rivers of the water surplus basins with those in the water deficit basins. Availability of groundwater depends upon aquifer characteristics and the annual replenishment, which again depends upon rainfall, land surface and subsurface features. An aquifer is an underground water bearing stratum that can be pumped to extract water. Crop Water Requirement Plants need water to live, grow and produce yield. Water dissolves the nutrients in the soil, either naturally present or applied externally and the plant roots take up the nutrient solution from the soil and supply to other parts of the plant. While nutrients are used up by the plant while it is growing, most of the water taken up by the plant roots transpires to the atmosphere through the leaves. Transpiration is an essential physiological process of plant growth. Nutrients and water supports vegetative growth of the plant through thickening and lengthening of the stem, development of the root system and increase in the number and size of the green leaves. These green leaves in the presence of sunlight and atmospheric carbon dioxide prepare the plant food through a process called photosynthesis. As a result of this process, the plants produce yield such as rice, wheat, maize, sorghum, pearl millet, groundnut, tapioca, fruits, vegetables, etc. In the entire process of plant growth and production of useful yields, water is an essential component. Right quantity of water is needed at the right time during the development of plants. To enable this, crop water requirement is to be known Crop water requirement is the sum of evapotranspiration, some unavoidable losses and water required for special needs such as while puddling rice field, for leaching of salts, etc. The unavoidable losses are relevant in most surface irrigation methods drawing water from the canals, which are scheduled to release a fixed quantity of water at a certain time interval though at the initial stages of plant growth, the water actually needed by the plants is less. Similarly, in clay soils, some of the applied water is lost through the cracks that form on

24

drying of the soil between successive irrigations. The losses that occur due to inefficiency of irrigation method are not counted in crop water requirement. The major sources of meeting crop water requirement are irrigation, rainfall and contribution from soil moisture storage. Different crops have different water requirements. The same crop grown in climatically different regions also requires different amounts of water. Crop water requirement is governed by the physiological features of the plant, the soil characteristics and atmospheric parameters such as temperature, relative humidity, wind velocity, duration of sunshine hours and the net radiation received from the sun on the earth surface. Since out of the total crop water requirement, some portion may be supplied by effective rainfall and contribution from soil moisture storage, Irrigation water demand, therefore, equals the crop water demand minus the sum of effective rainfall and the moisture contribution from the soil profile. Effective rainfall is that part of total rainfall, which is stored in the soil profile and which can be taken up by the plant roots. Of the total crop water requirement, the major component is the evapotranspiration, which can be measured and also estimated. Measurement of evapotranspiration Either non-weighing type or weighing type lysimeters are employed to measure evapotranspiration. Lysineters are large containers as much deep as the effective root zone depth of the plants. Crops are grown in the lysimeter keeping it within the cropped area to ensure a similar environment to the lysimeter crops as the crops elsewhere in the field. They are irrigated along with the surrounding field and moisture increase due to irrigation and the moisture depleted between two irrigations are monitored by soil moisture sampling. Nondestructive methods of soil moisture sampling using tensiometer, neutron moisture probe, TDR meter, etc. are preferred in the lysimeter in lieu of gravimetric method in which every time moisture sampling is done, some soil is lost from the limited volume of soil and that might affect the uniformity of the soil in the lysimeter and the surrounding. Lysimeters also have a constructional feature to monitor the deep percolation loss of water beyond the root zone. Analysis of the soil moisture data monitored over the cropping season enables one to calculate total water lost through evapotranspiration from the water applied in irrigation. Wieghing type lysimeters are more sophisticated in their construction and the soil moisture changes in it are monitored through the change in mass of the lysimeter as a result of irrigation application and subsequent drying of the soil. For this, the lysimeter container is mounted on a platform balance. Besides using lysimeters, evapotranspiration can also be measured through water balance studies conducted in the field. In water balance, a complete accounting is done of all the water that is input to the soil-crop system and all the water that is out put from the system. In the field, it is difficult to measure all the components accurately. Hence, field experimental results are not as accurate as the lysimetric experimental results. Estimation of evapotranspiration (ET) Since, lysimeter experiment is time consuming, cumbersome and expensive, and field experiments based on water balance concept is inaccurate, evapotranspiration for irrigation planning is more often estimated than measured. The various terms representing evapotranspiration are: Consumptive use (CU), Potential evapotranspiration (PET), Pan evaporation (Epan), Reference crop evapotranspiration (ET0), actual evapotranspiration (AET), etc. CU is the sum of evaporation from soil surface, transpiration through the plant and the water needed for the metabolic processes in the plant. The water needed for the plant metabolic activities is very small as compared to PET or ET0 and hence, many times, CU is not considered or calculated separately, as PET or ET0 is considered to take care of the small amount needed for plant metabolic activity. PET and ET0 are synonymous and is the

25

maximum rate of evapotranspiration by reference crop when the water supply is unlimited. Reference crop is not a specific crop but is used as a standard. Epan is the evaporation from Class A pan of US Weather Bureau. AET is the actual evapotranspiration by a crop under a given set of climatic and water supply conditions. A simple approach is to estimate ET is by using an evaporation pan of 120 cm diameter and 25 cm depth , made of 20 gauge galvanized iron sheet, painted white and mounted on a wooden platform such that air may circulate below the pan also. The pan is filled with water to a depth of 20 cm and water surface reading is taken daily. The evaporation, as recorded from the daily decline of the water surface in the pan is multiplied by 0.7, which is assumed as the pan coefficient, to give an estimate of daily evaporation from open water body. In using the pan evaporimeter, the depth of water in the pan should be maintained at or close to the initial value of 20 cm by adding water to the pan. The estimated open water body evaporation is multiplied by a crop coefficient (Kc) to estimate crop ET. The crop coefficient (also called crop factor) depends on foliage features, stage of crop growth, climate and location and is to be determined experimentally for a given crop and for a given region. There are many well established formulae based on climatic parameters for estimating evapotranspiration. Many of them require referring to various Tables and graphs for their solution. For them, only the names and the formula will be mentioned in this text. Some of the important ET determination formulae are: i. Blaney-Criddle formula: U = K. F = u = K c . t. P / 100 (12) where, U = Seasonal ET of water for a given period, inches, u = Monthly ET, inches, K = Empirical crop coefficient for the growing season of the crop, P = Sum of monthly ET factor (f) for the growing season, Kc = Empirical crop coefficient for the month (= u/f), f = t.P/100, where, t = mean monthly temperature, 0F and p = monthly day light hours expressed as percentage of day light hours of the year. Blaney-Criddle formula is expressed in F.P.S. system of units and the result is obtained in inches. For the result to be compatible for use with rainfall, irrigation, soil moisture, etc., which are expressed in cm or mm, the Blaney-Criddle result is to be multiplied by 2.54 to get the result in cm. Dastane (1972) has given the monthly crop coefficient values for some of the important crops grown in India. These values vary from a minimum of 0.5 for maize in the month of October to a maximum of 1.3 for rice in the month of July. Also, U.S.D.A. (1962) has prepared Tables of monthly percentage of day light hours of the annual day light hours for regions of different latitudes and for different months. Using these information in the Blaney-Criddle method, the procedure of calculating ET may be explained as follows: Month: February; Crop Wheat; Location: Delhi (Lat: 28.40N); Mean temperature in February t = 15.80C = 60.40F; Monthly crop coefficient Kc = 0.7; Per cent day light hours p = 7.02; u = ktp/100 = (0.7) (60.4) (7.02)/100 = 2.97 inches = 7.5 cm. Using this procedure and considering the active growing season of wheat in Delhi is spread over from November to March (5 months), the ET for these five months can be calculated.

26

ii. Thornthwaite formula: e = 1.6 (10 t / I) a

(13)

where, e = uncorrected ET, cm/month (assuming a month of 30 days with 12 hours of day light each day), t = mean air temperature, 0C, I = annual or seasonal heat index, a = empirical constant The uncorrected e is corrected by multiplying with a correction factor determined by considering actual day light hours. Tables of correction factor have been prepared corresponding to month of the year and latitude of the place. iii. Christiansen formula: E v = (0.473)(R )(C t )(C w )(C h )(C s )(C e )(C m ) (14)

where, Ev = computed pan evaporation, R = extra terrestrial radiation expressed in the same unit as that of Ev, the C terms are, respectively, linear or non-linear functions of temperature, wind speed, relative humidity, per cent of possible sunshine, elevation of the place above mean sea level and a monthly coefficient varying between 0.9 and 1.1 according to the latitude of the place. iv. Penman formula: ET0 = C[( Q n + E a ) /( + )] (15)

where, ET0 = Reference crop evapotranspiration, mm/day, C = an adjustment factor, which is a function of relative humidity, short wave radiation, day time wind speed and the ratio of day time wind speed and night time wind spee (numerically, C varies in the range of 0.27 to 1.33), = slope of the curve drawn between saturation vapour pressure (millibar) and temperature (0C) evaluated at mean air temperature, Qn = net radiation converted to equivalent mm of water, = psychrometric constant and Ea = an aerodynamic term and is a function of saturation vapour pressure of air (millibar), actual vapour pressure of air (millibar), wind speed at 2 m height from the ground surface (km/day). v. Hargreavess formula: PET = (0.0023) (R A ) (TC + 17.8) (TD ) 0.5 where, (16)

PET = potential (or reference crop) evapotranspiration, (mm/day), RA = extraterrestrial radiation equivalent evaporation (mm/day), TC = average of daily maximum and minimum temperature (0C) and TD = difference between daily maximum and minimum temperature (0C). (17)

vi. Ramdas formula: PET = (0.6) (E pan )

where, PET = reference crop evapotranspiration (mm/day) and Epan is the evaporation from Class A pan of US Weather Bureau (mm/day). The evapotranspiration formulae estimate the open pan evaporation (Epan) or the reference crop evapotranspiration (PET or ET0). These are multiplied by pan coefficient and/or crop coefficient to get the actual crop evapotranspiration (AET). Having determined or estimated the AET, the crop water requirement is obtained as the sum of the ET, the unavoidable losses, and the water needed for special purposes, as mentioned earlier. The reference crop evapotranspiration, as mentioned earlier also, does not refer to a specific crop but is used as a standard parameter. Currently, use of the term potential evapotranspiration is discouraged. In lieu, it is recommended to use the term Reference crop evapotranspiration (ET0). Irrigation Water Demand Irrigation water demand being the crop water requirement minus the sum of effective rainfall and moisture contribution from soil profile, there should be a mechanism to evaluate the last two components to know irrigation requirement. Effective rainfall is the directly or indirectly
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(from the soil) utilizable rainwater locally where the rain falls and is a function of the intensity, duration and amount of rainfall, the land slope and cover and the soil texture. Considering monthly rainfall as the criterion, the monthly effective rainfall is taken as 90, 85. 75, 50, 30, 10 and 0 per cent of the monthly rainfalls of 25, 50, 75, 100, 125, 150 and greater than 150 mm, respectively. Thus if the rainfall in a month is 50 mm, the effective rainfall will be (50)(85/100) = 42.5 mm. If the crop ET for the month were 100 mm, there was no special need of water and the unavoidable losses were 10 mm, the crop water requirement would be (100 + 10) = 110 mm. Irrigation water demand IR would be IR = (110 42.5) = 67.5 mm, assuming that the water table at the place is deep and does not contribute water from capillary rise to meet a part of the crop water need. This amount is the net irrigation requirement or demand. The gross irrigation demand, which must be applied to the crop land to satisfy the net demand is the net demand divided by the irrigation application efficiency, expressed in fraction. Thus, if the irrigation application efficiency were 70 per cent, the gross water demand would be (67.5/0.7) = 96.4 mm in one month (or, 100 mm in a month.). This amount of water may be applied in two irrigations of 50 mm each. Another way to determine irrigation water demand is based on soil moisture depletion. This concept was discussed in the section: Soil Moisture Storage. There, we found that for a loam soil of certain specific soil-water properties, 9 cm of water would be needed to bring back the soil to field capacity moisture content. If there is no rainfall or c0ontribution from soil moisture storage, all of this net requirement of 9 cm must come from irrigation. The gross amount of water required, for an irrigation application efficiency of 70 per cent, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, will be 9/0.7 = 12.7 or about 13 cm. To adopt this method of calculating net and gross water requirement, one should either have the soil moisture depletion data or a good estimate of crop evapotranspiration to ascertain when 50 per cent of available water is depleted and apply irrigation then of an amount by which the ET has taken place. This amount is to be divided by the irrigation application efficiency to know the gross depth of water application. Irrigation Water Supply Irrigation from surface sources In large reservoir based or diversion based irrigation system, water from the source is supplied through a network of canals to the crop land. At the top of the network hierarchy, there is the main canal, usually two of them, one taking off from the right side of the reservoir and the other from the left side. Accordingly, they are called right main canal and left main canal, respectively. In a large command area there are crop lands far away from these main canals. Therefore, to convey water to those areas, the main canal branches into distributaries, minors and water courses. The entire command area cannot be irrigated simultaneously. Hence, water is released in the various branches of the network following a certain schedule. For this, control structures are built on the canal at the required places to regulate and divert the flow. The schedule and the rate of flow are decided before the irrigation season and attempts are made to follow the schedule so that the cultivators know before hand when they will receive water. Some differences do take place between the prepared schedule and the schedule that is actually followed due to less than anticipated storage in the reservoir if the rainfall was below normal in the catchment area of the reservoir, due to maintenance requirements, due to unauthorized withdrawal of water by some users, etc. In the canal network, substantial quantity of water is lost due to seepage. Seepage has three main repercussions. First, it reduces the irrigation water supply, secondly, it causes waterlogging in the vicinity of the canal and thirdly, it recharges the groundwater reservoir. Though groundwater recharge is desirable, but that is not the primary aim of expensive

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irrigation development. Seepage losses are reduced by lining the canal. However, due to high cost, only a small length of the canal network is lined leaving a very large total length unlined. Waterlogging and reduced irrigable area due to seepage loss is a common feature of large canal irrigated regions in India. Irrigation from groundwater sources The size of groundwater based irrigation works is much smaller and hence, the canal net work is small and does not have the various hierarchical order of canals, as in the reservoir based large irrigation systems. Efficiency of groundwater use is in general, higher than the surface water, as it is available on demand at the point of use requiring little conveyance. Most of the groundwater development and use for irrigation is restricted to the shallow aquifer zone within 50-meter depth and by individual irrigators. Development of deeper (50 to 300 meters below ground level) aquifers is under public sector or done in community irrigation projects. Shallow groundwater structures are dug wells, dug cum bore wells, shallow tube wells (both cavity type and strainer type), bore wells, etc. The deeper structures are deep tube wells and bore wells. A dug well is a large diameter well lined with brick or stone masonry, or with concrete or baked clay collars placed one above the other. A dugcum-bore well consists of a dug well and a tube well at its base to enable drawing water from deeper depth to which the dug well cannot be constructed. Tube wells are commissioned by driving down hollow steel or strong rigid PVC pipes usually of 10 cm to 20 cm diameter to the desired depth where water is available for pumping. Percussion method or drilling machines are used for this purpose. In a strainer type tube well, slotted pipe is used for the length that matches with the thickness of the aquifer (water bearing formation below the ground). In cavity type tube well, the pipe is taken down to the top of the aquifer puncturing through a stiff and thick layer of heavy and compact soil. In both this types of wells, after installation, they are initially pumped at a high rate for 48 to 72 hours to wash out finer parcels in the aquifer making water available freely when pumped later at a normal rate. In strainer type tube well, the initial pumping creates a coarse zone with good water transmission property around the slotted pipe. In cavity type tube well, the initial high rate of discharge removes some aquifer material, forming a cavity below the pipe end to store and supply water when the tube well is pumped normally later. Wells constructed in the hard rock regions of the country are mainly of two types namely, large size, usually rectangular in cross section dug wells, which tap the rainwater stored in the top weathered zone of the soil and bore wells, which are drilled through hard rock and intercepts water in the cracks and fissures in the rock. Bore wells do not require a hollow pipe as the tube well because the rock is strong and stable and the bore stands on its own. Water availability from bore wells in the hard rock regions is low and uncertain. Formation characteristics The supply of water from groundwater structures depends much upon the characteristics of the geological formation below the earth surface through which the well has been constructed. There are broadly three types of geological formation namely unconsolidated, semi-consolidated and consolidated. The unconsolidated formation comprise about one-third of the total land area but account for about 50 to 60 per cent of the total usable groundwater resources. The lithology includes zone of sands, gravel, pebbles etc., which store large quantities of groundwater and have good water transmission characteristics favouring groundwater extraction. The semi-consolidated sandstone formations are next in importance but hardly cover about 5% of the total land area. The lithology is generally favourable for groundwater storage and extraction. The major part of the peninsular region consists of consolidated formations. The rocks in these formations have no primary pore spaces and hold limited quantities of groundwater contained in the weathered and the fractured zones.
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However, siezable quantities are available at some locations in Vescicular lava flows, intertrappean beds and caverneous lime stone. Different types of water bearing formations A water bearing formation is called aquifer. An aquifer may be unconfined, semi-confined or confined. It is unconfined when the top surface of the groundwater table is under atmospheric pressure and it is confined when water in the aquifer is under greater than atmospheric pressure due to the load of overlying impermeable stratum. A semi-confined aquifer is one where the aquifer is neither fully confined nor fully unconfined. The water yielding capacity of an aquifer is determined by pumping test. The water availability though pumping is governed by aquifer parameters namely, transmissivity (or, coefficient of transmissibility), specific yield and coefficient of storage. Transmissivity indicates the rate of water flow through the aquifer and the higher is its value, the more will be the availability of water. Specific yield applies to unconfined aquifer and it is the volume of water released from 1 square meter of the aquifer per meter drawdown (decline in water table). Coefficient of storage applies to confined aquifer and is the volume of water released from 1 square meter area per meter decline in the pressure head. When a well is pumped, the water level in the well starts declining. The surrounding aquifer supplies water towards the well and in the aquifer also, water table falls. The fall is more near the well and less as one moves away from the well and becomes negligible at a certain distance away from the well. The distance from the well where the fall in the water table due to pumping from the well becomes negligible, is called the radius of influence of the well and the fall in the water table is called drawdown. In good transmissive aquifers, the drawdown is less but the radius of influence is more, as compared to an aquifer, which is poorly transmissive. A poorly transmissive aquifer may have the coefficient of transmissibility of the order of 100 m3 per day per meter depth of the aquifer whereas as good transmissive aquifer may have a coefficient of transmissibility of 1000 m3 per day per meter depth of the aquifer. In a place where one well exists, the second well, if needed, should be drilled at a distance at least equal to double the radius of influence of the first well to avoid interference between the two wells while being pumped. Well interference reduces the discharge of the pumping wells. Recording and interpretation of water table data The Central Ground Water Board and their state counterparts record and maintain water table data of a very large number of wells throughout the country up to the block level. Analysis of such data reveals if the groundwater table is declining over the years due to excessive withdrawal or is rising due to less use of groundwater and also due to recharge from the irrigation conveyance system and the irrigated fields, in addition to the natural recharge that takes place from rainfall. Assuming that the post-monsoon water table will be shallower than the pre-monsoon water table depth, a comparison between the two reveals contribution of rainfall in replenishing the groundwater reservoir. A study of the water table depth at a specific time of the year, such as pre-monsoon or post-monsoon or a specified month, for a large number of years reveals whether over time, the groundwater reservoir is depleting, not changing appreciably or gradually building up. A declining trend of the water table implies more withdrawal of groundwater that replenishment, a fluctuation within a narrow range implies a balance between groundwater withdrawal and replenishment and a rising trend of the water table implies less groundwater withdrawal than replenishment. Groundwater pumping India is self sufficient in its requirement of pumps and prime movers to meet various pumping requirement of groundwater. The most common pump used for groundwater pumping for irrigation is the centrifugal pump, which can be run either by a diesel engine or
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an electric motor. Centrifugal pumps can lift water when the water table is not deeper than about 9 meter from the pump axis. If during pumping the water table goes deeper, the pump stops lifting water. Where the water table routinely goes down during pumping or in the dry season, the centrifugal pump is lowered to meet the limitation of water table depth. Dug-cumbore wells are suitable for such lowering of centrifugal pumps. For deeper water table situations, submersible pump or turbine pump is used. In submersible pump, the motor and the pump impellers are placed in to the tube well bore and sufficiently deep under water so that even after drawdown, the motor-pump assembly remains submerged. A turbine pump has its motor on or above the ground but its impellers are placed deep into the tube well to remain always under water. The motor and the impeller are connected by a shaft. If electric connection is not available, turbine pump can also be run by a diesel engine. There are situations where the source of water for pumping is an open water body such as a pond or a canal or a natural stream. If the depth to water from the pump in such cases does not exceed 2 meters, axial flow pumps (also called propeller pumps) operated by electric motor or diesel engines are used. Such pumps are also used for dewatering a crop land, as is commonly done in the rice fields of the Kuttenad region of Kerala, to permit land preparation and drainage of excess water for paddy cultivation. In Assam and north Bengal tea gardens, where huge quantities of water is to be pumped out during the monsoon to save the tea bushes from inundation, mixed flow pumps are used. The most common prime mover for irrigation water pumping using a centrifugal pump is a 3 to 4 kilowatt electric motor or a 3 to 5 horse power diesel engine. For submersible, turbine and axial flow pumps, which pump out at a high rate, or from a great depth, prime mover of higher power rating is used. Looking into the poor situation of energy availability in India, the government of India had supported manufacturing, research and use of pumps that can run on alternate energy such as wind energy and energy from sun light, namely, wind mill pumps and solar photovoltaic pumps, respectively. While they were found to be technically feasible to operate, but certain operational difficulties such as low discharge of such systems, wear and tear, lack of repair facilities etc., posed difficulties in their adoption and generally, they are not used for irrigation water lifting. Pressurized irrigation A high level of scientific water management in the field is possible when the cultivator has control over water availability, conveyance and application. In this regard, drip and sprinkler irrigation systems are important. In these methods, water is conveyed through pipe line from source to the field under pressure and application to the plants is through drip emitters or through sprinkler nozzles. The required pressure is obtained by using centrifugal pump. In these methods, the water application rate can be controlled to suit the soil infiltration characteristics and plant water need. Thus, seepage losses, conveyance losses and runoff losses from irrigation water are avoided. The government of India has initiated an ambitious programme to cover large areas under pressurized irrigation system in several states of the country. The water used in these systems must be free from suspended materials, which clog the drip emitters and the sprinkler nozzles. Therefore, tube well water is more suitable for use with these systems. Drip system, however, requires filters even for tube well water before letting the water into the drip prime and emitter network. Though highly advantageous, the total area under pressurized irrigation in India is a small fraction of the total irrigated area. Demand based and supply based irrigation In the system of demand based irrigation, the available water resource is applied to the crops, as and when they require it. It is possible when the irrigator has control over the water resource and adopts an irrigation method that permits giving variable quantity of water in

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accordance with crop growth stage, water holding capacity of the soil and climatic demand of water. For optimum crop production with efficient use of inputs such as water and fertilizer, the demand based irrigation is ideal. If a cultivator has his own tube well or dug well and the sustained water availability of them have been established, he can plan his crop accordingly. Crop planning involves identifying the type of crops to be grown and the area on which each crop is to be grown. Demand based irrigation can be made more efficient with pressurized irrigation system when the application of water can also be controlled. Majority of irrigation in India is supply based and the cultivator has no control over the time and quantity of water release to the crop land. In a supply based irrigation system, there is some uncertainty of the water availability, as the crop development progresses. For example, area under rice, which is grown during the kharif (monsoon) cultivation season, usually during June to October, may be fixed in a command area of a reservoir based irrigation project based on the assumption of certain flow in the irrigation network. However, the reservoir storage and hence the water availability depends on the monsoon behaviour during June to October. If the reservoir has not been filled up to the design level due to scarcity of rain in the catchment area, water will not be released in accordance to the assumed plan and some rice area will suffer due to lack of water. If the cultivator has some alternate water source such as a tube well, it is pressed to use to save the crop. It is prudent to note that a large reservoir based irrigation project is designed for a certain water allowance, which usually varies from 450 to 500 mm of water over the command area in one year. It is assumed that this water is uniformly available over the entire command area for irrigation. During actual water release, however, this uniformity is never maintained due to various reasons. The important reasons are incompleteness of the construction of irrigation water conveyance network, unauthorized withdrawal of water by influential cultivators located at the head end (initial stretch) of the command area, more than anticipated loss of water due to seepage, etc. Besides, if wheat is a crop grown in the region, it will consume about 300 mm of water. As wheat is grown in the rabi (winter) cultivation season usually from November through March when rainfall is meager, the wheat cultivators will depend on the canal water. After wheat, the amount of water left in the reservoir will be too little for growing high water requiring crops such as rice or sugarcane. It is well known to the irrigation planners that irrigation facility is not for meeting the entire water demand of all the crops that the cultivator may like to grow. Therefore, a scientific crop plan is worked out for the command area indicating how much area may be put under which crop such that the major water requirement of them can be met. If some cultivators wish to deviate from this plan by growing crops according to their desire, they must arrange for additional water, which usually comes from groundwater through pumping. Joint use of surface water and groundwater for irrigation is called conjunctive water use and it is recommended for practice by the cultivators, as it controls some of the ill-effects of canal irrigation, particularly water table rise and consequent waterlogging. However, for conjunctive water use to be successful, the groundwater has to be of good quality and energy should be available to operate the pumps. Summary Rainfall is the only source of freshwater on the earth. At a macro-scale, India receives good rainfall. However, its extreme variation in space and time does not allow its full use and much of the rainwater is lost through runoff and stream flow towards the seas and the ocean. The disposition of water is explained through hydrologic cycle. To harness the wasteful water resources, irrigation projects are planned and constructed either in the form of reservoirs or barrages. Scientifically, irrigation water can be applied to the crops when their water requirements are known. The water applied through irrigation is stores as soil moisture and
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the plant roots take up this water to supply to different parts of the plant. Along with water, the roots also take up dissolved nutrients in the soil water. If the water in the soil is in deficit, the roots cannot take up water or nutrients and the crop production suffers. There are various methods of measurement or estimation of crop water requirement and hence, work out the irrigation requirement. Irrigation water is distributed over the command area through a network of canals of different capacities. In canal irrigation system, the cultivator has no control over the time and quantity of water release. Such irrigation systems are called supply based irrigation systems. On the other hand, in a demand based irrigation system, the cultivator can apply irrigation in time and quantity as governed by crop, soil and climate parameters. For this to occur, the cultivator must have his own irrigation source such as a tube well. Adoption of pressurized irrigation system further improves upon the efficiency of irrigation and ensures better crop production in quality and quantity. Pressurized irrigation is usually meant for sparsely growing crops such as fruits and vegetables and other high value crops. Groundnut and sugarcane has also been successfully irrigated using pressurized irrigation system. However, it is not used for most of the cereal and grain crops such as rice, wheat, sorghum, pearl millet, etc. Currently, the area under pressurized irrigation in India is a very small fraction of the total irrigated area. Suggested reading: Anonymous, 2006. Handbook of Agriculture. Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi. pp. 185, 196. CWC Pocket Book, 2005. http://cwc.nic.in/pocket%20Book%20on%20water%20Data% 202005.pdf Michael, A.M. 2003. Irrigation Theory and Practice (2nd. Ed.). Vikas Publishing House, Masjid Road, Jangpura, New Delhi. MOWR. 1999. Report of the National Commission for Integrated Water Resource Development Plan. Ministry of Water Resources, GoI, New Delhi. Raghunath, H.M. 1985. Hydrology Principles, Analysis, Design. Wiley Eastern Ltd., New Delhi. Varshney, R.S. 1986. Engineering Hydrology. Nem Chand and Bros. Roorkee, U.P. References 1. Anonymous, 2000, 2001. Annual Progress Report of the ICAR Coordinated Project on Agricultural Drainage (1999-2000). Zonal Agricultural Research Station. Powerkheda, Distt. Hoshangabad, M.P. 2. Anonymous, 2006. Handbook of Agriculture. Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi. pp. 185, 196. 3. Bhattacharya, A.K. and Michael, A.M. 2003. Land Drainage Principles, Methods and Applications. Konark Publishers Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi. pp. 151-160. 4. CWC. 2005-2006. Annual Report 2005-2006 of the Central Water Commission, Ministry of Water Resources, GoI. http://cwc.gov.in/AR-CWC-05-06-Final.pdf 5. CWC Pocket Book, 2005. http://cwc.nic.in/pocket%20Book%20on%20water%20Data% 202005.pdf 6. Dastane, N.G., Vamadevan, V.K. and Saraf, C.S. 1972. Review of techniques employed in determining the water requirement of rice in India. Proc. International Rice Commission Meeting. Lousiana, U.S.A.

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7. IMD, 1958. Instructions for the use and care of ordinary raingauge 127 mm(I.S. Circular No. 11) and natural siphon recording raingauge (I.S. Circular No. 6). India Meteorological Department, Pune. 8. MoWR. River Basin Maps of India. http://www.wrmin.nic.in/riverbasin/river.htm. 9. NIH, 1990. Hydrology in Ancient India. National Institute of Hydrology, Jal Vigyan Bhawan, Roorkee. 103 p. 10. Raghunath, H.M. 1985. Hydrology Principles, Analysis, Design. Wiley Eastern Ltd., New Delhi. 11. Ray, S.B. and De Rajat. 1983. On farm water management with special reference to arid areas. Paper presented at the seminar on Irrigation in Arid Lands, Nov. 24-25, New Delhi. pp. 31-45. 12. U.S.D.A. 1962. Determining Consumptive Use and Irrigation Water Requirements. United Stahes Department of Agriculture, Agriculrural Research Service. Technical Bulletin: 1275. 59 p. 13. Varshney, R.S. 1986. Engineering Hydrology. Nem Chand and Bros. Roorkee, U.P.

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