DUTY, BASE & DELTA
BASE PERIOD or BASE
• Period in days during which flow is continued for a particular crop
• Usually denoted with the symbol “B”
Eg: water supplied for a crop continuously 10days in January, 15 days in February, 20 days in March
for the maturity. Determine the Base (B) of the crop
B= 10+15+20= 45 Days
DELTA (Δ)
• Total depth of water provided to a crop during the entire period
Eg: For rice crop water is supplied as follows
August 20cm
September 15 cm
October 10cm
November 15cm
December 20cm
Delta of Rice = 20+15+10+15+20= 80cm
DUTY (D)
• Total area irrigated by a unit discharge running continuously during the base
period
• Unit of Duty is area / cumec
• Cumec - a cubic metre per second 1 m3/ s
• Duty reprsent the relationship between the volume of water and the area of the
crop
Eg: 10cumecs are required for Rice crop during its growth period. If crop is cultivated over an area
of 10,000 ha calculate the Duty.
Duty = 10,000/10= 1000 ha/ cumec
Correlation among DUTY(D), BASE(B) and DELTA (Δ)
• Assume: 1 cumec of water running continuously for a period of B days
Volume of water provided
𝑩 × 𝟐𝟒 × 𝟔𝟎 × 𝟔𝟎 × 𝟏 𝒎𝟑 (i)
Amount of water required to flood 1ha of land with a depth Δ m
𝟏 × 𝟏𝟎𝟒 𝒎𝟐 × ∆𝒎 = 𝟏𝟎𝟒 × ∆ 𝒎𝟑 (ii)
Area (in ha) could be irrigated by 𝟏 𝒎𝟑 /𝒔 running for the base period of B days
𝒊 𝑩×𝟐𝟒×𝟔𝟎×𝟔𝟎 ×𝟏 𝑩
Duty (D) = = = 𝟖. 𝟔𝟒
𝒊𝒊 𝟏𝟎𝟒 ×∆ ∆
D – Duty of crop in ha/ cumec
B - Base period of crop in days
Δ - Depth of water in m
Factors affecting Duty
• Base Period - long Base period More water Less Duty
• Rainfall – More rainfall Less irrigation water More Duty
• Evaporation – More evaporation More water Less Duty
• Soil characteristics
Sandy – more percolation More irrigation water Less Duty
Closely textured soil – Can retain more water in root zone More Duty
Topography of the soil, Type of crop, Method of ploughing, Method of irrigation, water tax,
Canal conditions, Maintenance of water courses are also affecting the duty
Factors affecting Duty
• Base Period - long Base period More water Less Duty
• Rainfall – More rainfall Less irrigation water More Duty
• Evaporation – More evaporation More water Less Duty
• Soil characteristics
Sandy – more percolation More irrigation water Less Duty
Closely textured soil – Can retain more water in root zone More Duty
Topography of the soil, Type of crop, Method of ploughing, Method of irrigation, water tax,
Canal conditions, Maintenance of water courses are also affecting the duty
How to improve duty
• Suitable and efficient water application methods
• Canal lining to reduce the seepage losses
• Quick conveyance of water to reduce the evaporation losses
• Reducing the canal idling lengths
• Proper land preparation maintain even crop field
• Crop rotation
• Training farmers
• Taxation of water
Example -1
• Following details have been gathered for Rabi Crop cultivated over 9500 ha. The field has
been fed by a canal and discharge details are as follows
Month Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb
No: of Days 14 28 21 21 14
Discharge 𝒎𝟑 /s 3.5 5 4.5 4.5 3.5
Determine the overall duty and depth of water
• Assume supplied depth of water is Δ in m
• Amount of water required to supply in 1ha of land with a depth of Δm
𝟏𝟎𝟒 × ∆ 𝒎𝟑
Equivalent amount for 9500ha = 9500x 𝟏𝟎𝟒 × ∆ 𝒎𝟑 (i)
Volume of water supplied during the season ( Based on canal details)
= 3.5 × 14 + 5 × 28 + 4.5 × 21 + 4.5 × 21 + 3.5 × 14 24 × 60 × 60 𝒎𝟑
= 427 × 24 × 60 × 60 𝒎𝟑 (ii)
Considering (i) and (ii)
9500 × 104 × ∆= 427 × 24 × 60 × 60
∆= 𝟎. 𝟑𝟖𝟖𝟑𝟒 𝒎
𝐵𝑎𝑠𝑒
𝐷𝑢𝑡𝑦 (𝐷) = 8.64 × ℎ𝑎/𝑐𝑢𝑚𝑒𝑐
∆
14 + 28 + 21 + 21 + 17
𝐷 = 8.64 × ℎ𝑎/𝑐𝑢𝑚𝑒𝑐
0.38834
𝑫 = 𝟐𝟏𝟖𝟎. 𝟑𝟓𝟕 𝒉𝒂/𝒄𝒖𝒎𝒆𝒄
Common Important terms
• Gross Command Area ( GCA)
Area up to which irrigations canals are capable of supplying water
for irrigation purposes
• Culturable Command Area (CCA)
Area on which crops can be grown satisfactorily
• Intensity of Irrigation
Ratio of land at a time in one crop season to CCA
𝑨𝒓𝒆𝒂 𝑪𝒓𝒐𝒑 𝑮𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒏
𝑨𝒓𝒆𝒂 𝑪𝒂𝒏 𝒃𝒆 𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒅
Example- 2
A tube well discharge water at a rate of 90 m3/hours. Assuming this tube well can work
3000hours per year, determine the Culturable area this tube well can command. Irrigation
intensity is 40% and depth of water provided during the irrigation season is 50cm.
𝑩 𝟑𝟎𝟎𝟎ൗ 𝒉𝒂
𝟐𝟒
Duty (D) = = 𝟖. 𝟔𝟒 = 𝟖. 𝟔𝟒 × = 𝟐𝟏𝟔𝟎
∆ 𝟎.𝟓 𝒄𝒖𝒎𝒆𝒄
This implies 2160 ha could be cultivated with 1m3/s discharge
Discharge of the tube well = 90 m3/hours =0.025 m3/s
Area of crop could be grown using tube well water=2160 X 0.025 ha = 54 ha
𝑨𝒓𝒆𝒂 𝑪𝒓𝒐𝒑 𝑮𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒏
Irrigation Intensity= =40%
𝑨𝒓𝒆𝒂 𝑪𝒂𝒏 𝒃𝒆 𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒅
𝟒𝟎 𝑨𝒓𝒆𝒂 𝑪𝒓𝒐𝒑 𝑮𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝟓𝟒
= 𝑨𝒓𝒆𝒂 𝑪𝒂𝒏 𝒃𝒆 𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒅 = = 𝟏𝟑𝟓 𝑯𝒂
𝟏𝟎𝟎 𝑨𝒓𝒆𝒂 𝑪𝒂𝒏 𝒃𝒆 𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝟎.𝟒
