CROP WATER REQUIREMENTS

Consumptive Use: It is the quantity of water lost in evaporation from the

soil and water surface, transpiration by the vegetations grown on the soil and
that used in metabolic activity. Water used in metabolic activity is very less
(usually less than 1% of evapotranspiration). Thus, in usual sense, the term
consumptive use is taken as evapotranspiration, ETcrop.

Water Requirement: It is the water needed for raising a crop in a given

period starting from seedling to harvest. It includes consumptive use and
other unavoidable losses and also the water required for special operations
like land preparation, transplanting and leaching.

Evapotranspiration: It is the total amount of water lost by the evaporation

from the soil and water surface and transpiration by the vegetations. It
depends on the crop types, its coverage amount and management and
cultural practice of the crop.
 Soil Water/Soil Moisture

The soil profile lying below the soil surface up to the impervious
strata/bed rock can be divided in to (i) zone of aeration (also
called as unsaturated zone) and (ii) zone of saturation.
Soil water is defined as the suspended water in the zone of
aeration. It includes
Gravitational water,
Capillary water and
Hygroscopic water.
Classification of soil moisture
 Zone of aeration is important from the point of view of
plant growth. Zone of aeration comprises of
(i) soil water belt,
(ii) intermediate belt
(iii) capillary zone.
Soil water belt refers to the zone of water adjacent to the
ground surface consisting of top soil and the sub soil
Gravitational water is the water in the unsaturated zone in
excess of hygroscopic & capillary water which moves out of
the soil under favourable drainage condition.
Water held in the capillary spaces by surface tension is
called as capillary water. This water moves freely under the
influences of capillary forces and is available to the plants.
Hence the capillary water is also called as available water.
Hygroscopic water is the water held in static state with the
atmospheric water vapour. It is not capable of any
movement by gravity or capillary forces and hence, is not
available for use to plants.
Saturation and Maximum Water Holding Capacity

In a soil sample, some space is occupied by water & rest is

occupied by air. When soil gets wet either because of rainfall
or irrigation, macro & micro pores gradually get filled with
water & volume of air in soil decreases.
When all pores are filled with water, the air content in void
space becomes zero. Under such cases, soil is said to be fully
saturated (sometimes simply called as saturated). Degree of
saturation of a fully saturated soil is 1.0 (100%).
Thus, for a perfectly dry soil sample there is. zero degree of
saturation. At saturation, soil moisture potential is maximum
i.e. zero & moisture held by the soil is also maximum.
Capacity of the soil to hold moisture at saturation is called as
maximum water holding capacity.
 Field Capacity
Field capacity (FC) is defined as the amount of water held by the
soil after excess water has been drained away by gravity. At FC,
the rate of downward movement of water has been materially
decreased to negligible value which takes place two to three days
after irrigation.
At FC, the macro pores are filled with air whereas micro pores are
filled with water.
FC is the upper limit of available water (0.33 bar).
When crops are to be irrigated, care should be taken such that the
soil moisture content comes to FC level and any addition of water
beyond FC is a loss since it is drained out to the layer below the
crop effective root zone & adds to percolation.
 Permanent Welting Point (PWP)
PWP refers to the lowest limit of available SMC below which
water extraction by a given plant is not sufficient to meet the ET
requirement of the plants.
Irrigation to crops is to be provided before this stage reaches. It is
to be remembered that PWP is not a fixed point on soil moisture
potential curve; rather it refers to a range.
Crops start wilting at matric potential of wilting point varying from
-12 to -23 bars. For most of the mesophytes (considering their
growth and development), PWP refers to the matric potential of -
15 bars.
 Available Soil Moisture (ASM)

As stated earlier, soil water at FC(potential = 0.33 bars) is the

upper limit of available soil moisture for the plants. Similarly,
soil water at PWP (potential = -15 bars) is the lower limit of
available soil moisture. The soil moisture between these two
values is called as ASM.
 Readily Available Soil Moisture

Readily available soil moisture sometimes also called as

relatively available moisture is that portion of available
soil moisture that can be easily extracted by the plants.
It varies from 75-80% of the available moisture.

ASM of different soils are given in Table below.

 Methods to Estimate Crop Water
Requirement:
Most important component of water requirement of crop is its
evapotranspiration. There are several methods used to determine the crop
evapotranspiration. Broadly they can be classified as:
•Direct measurements and
•Estimation method.
The direct measurement method comprises the followings:
•Lysimeter experiment
•Field experimental plots
•Soil moisture depletion studies and
•Water balance method
Estimation of evapotranspiration can be achieved by:
•Aerodynamic method
•Energy balance method
•Combination method and
•Empirical method
 Lysimeter Method

Lysimeter studies involve the growing of crop in large

containers (lysimeters) and measuring their water loss &
gains. Mainly there are 2 types of lysimeters
Weighing type
Drainage type

Weighing type
Weighing type lysismetrs give more accurate results
compared to drainage type. To get more accurate & short
period results, weighing type lysimeter can be used.
Soil & crop conditions of the lysimeters should be close
to natural condition.
Weighing Type Lysimeter
 Weighing Type Lysimeter
 In weighing type lysimeter, water balances parameters like water added,
water retained by the soil & water lost through all sources-evaporation,
transpiration and deep percolation are measured.

 The techniques yield measurement of total water loss & is useful as an

indicator of field water loss.

 The precautions needed in this case is that the tank must be

permanently buried in the ground and surrounded by a large area of crop
with same height as crop.

 Water table is maintained as specific depth in the tank by connecting it

to a supply tank provided with float mechanism which has an arrangement
for receiving excess water that tends to build up in the tank. Water is
applied in measured amount to the lysimeter as irrigation is applied to the
crops in the fields where lysimeter is set up.

 Water received either from reservoir or precipitation excluding outflow,

constitutes water used by the crops.
Drainage type Lysimeter
 Soil Moisture Depletion Studies
In this method, soil moisture within the crop effective root zone before &
just after irrigation & also within each irrigation cycle is measured. SMC
from different profile layers within the crop effective root zone are
measured & then these values are used to compute total SMC in the entire
crop root zone.
Water use from crop root zone is given as:

n ( M 1i  M 2i )
u  
i 1 100
. Ai . Di  ER  DP

where, u = water use from crop root zone for successive sampling periods or
within one irrigation cycle, mm; n = number of soil profile layers in crop
effective root zone D; M1i = SMC, % at the time of 1st sampling in the ith
layer;
M2i = SMC, % at the time of the second sampling in the ith layer;
Ai = apparent specific gravity of ith layer and Di = depth of the ith layer, mm,
ER = effective rainfall, mm & Dp = percolation from effective root zone, mm.
 Field Experimental Plots

( M bi  M ei
n
. A
WR  IR  ER   i . Di
i 1 100

where, WR = seasonal water requirement, mm; IR = total

irrigation water supplied, mm; ER = seasonal effective
rainfall, mm; Mbi and Mei = soil moisture percentage at the
beginning and end of the season in the ith layer of the soil,
respectively and other terms of equation are as discussed
above.
 Water Balance Method:

• The water balance model of a crop field (generally non-paddy)

under unsaturated phase is expressed (B. Panigrahi, 2001) as:

S w,i  S w,i 1  Ri  I s ,i  ETcrop i SR i  S i  Di

where, R = rainfall; Is = supplemental irrigation, ETcropi =

evapotranspiration of the crop; SR = runoff from the crop field;
D = percolation loss in the crop field, S = seepage loss from the
crop filed and Swi and Swi-1 = SMC on ith and (i-1)th day,
respectively. The term i of the above equation refer to the day
which may be taken as 1 day.
 Estimation of Evapotranspiration:

ETcrop = Ks.Kc. ETo

where, ETcrop = crop evapotranspiration or simply
evapotranspiratuion; Kc = crop coefficient, Ks = Crop stress
factor (1 for adequate SMC) and ETo = reference crop
evapotranspiration or potential evapotranspiration.

Kc = FAO 24
Ks = FAO 56
Estimation of ETo by Pan Evaporation Method
 Estimation of ETo by Pan Evaporation Method

ETo = Epan Kp
Where, Epan = Pan Evaporation & Kp = Pan coefficient

Question: Calculate the reference crop evapotranspiration value

(ETo) as measured by class A open galvanized pan in a given site
under the following conditions with data measured as:
Water level in the pan on previous day at 7 A.M. is 18.5 cm &
that measured after 24 hours at the same time is 20. 5 cm. There
is 7.0 cm rainfall in between 24 hours. Assume Kp = 0.75
 Solution:
• There is 7 cm rainfall within the two consecutive day’s
readings of water measurement.
• Water level readings on previous day = 18.5 cm
• Water level reading on day after 24 hours = 20.5 cm
• Hence, the value of Epan = 18.5 +7.0 – 20.5 = 5 mm/day.
• Kp = 0.75
• Hence, ETo = Epan Kp
• = 5 x 0.75 = 3.85 mm/day.
 Crop Coefficient (Kc) for Estimating Actual
Evapotranspiration:

• The values of Kc for a particular crop at a location should be

determined experimentally. If the values of Kc for particular
crop and place are not available then the Kc (FAO 24/FAO 56)
may be used.

• Values of Kc during initial and maturity stage of crop are less

and so ETo is less.

• During Crop development and Mid season stage KC is high and

so ETo is high.
Trend of Kc values of crops
 Certain Important Definitions:
Gross Commanded Area (GCA):
It is the total area, bounded within the irrigation boundary of a
project. The boundary of GCA is usually defined by the drainage in
either side across which irrigation cannot be expanded
economically.
Cultivable Command Area (CCA):
It is that part of the gross command area in which cultivation is
possible. It is less than the gross command area. The area under
small drainage, ponds, abadies, reserve forest roads, railways, hills
etc. is excluded from the gross command area to get the
cultivable/culturable command area.
Intensity of Irrigation:
It is the percentage of CCA which is irrigated annually or
seasonally. It varies with the type of irrigation, climate of the area,
water management practice of the crops, rainfall and its
distributions etc.
 Area to be Irrigated:
It is the area to which irrigation is provided. It is to be
remembered that not all the CCA are the irrigated areas.
Paleo Irrigation: Sometimes, in the initial stage before the
crop is sown, the land is very dry. This particularly happens in case
of Rabi crops when it is sown when the soil is too dry to be sown.
In that context, the field is irrigated to moisten the soil so as to
help in sowing the crops. This irrigation is called as Paleo
irrigation.
Kor-watering: The first watering given to a crop when the crop
is a few cm high is called as kor-watering. It is usually the
maximum single watering followed by other waterings at usual
intervals.
Crop Period: It is the time taken by a crop from
sowing/planting till harvesting. The crop period varies with the
types of crops and also for the same crop, it varies with the type
of varieties.
 Gross Commanded Area (GCA):
It is the total area, bounded within the irrigation boundary of a
project. The boundary of GCA is usually defined by the drainage in
either side across which irrigation cannot be expanded
economically.
Cultivable Command Area (CCA):
It is that part of the gross command area in which cultivation is
possible. It is less than the gross command area. The area under
small drainage, ponds, abadies, reserve forest roads, railways, hills
etc. is excluded from the gross command area to get the
cultivable/culturable command area.
Intensity of Irrigation:
It is the percentage of CCA which is irrigated annually or
seasonally. It varies with the type of irrigation, climate of the area,
water management practice of the crops, rainfall and its
distributions etc.
 Base Period:
It is the time period between the first watering of a crop at
the time of sowing to its last watering before harvest.
Duty:
It is the relation between the area irrigated, or to be
irrigated, and the amount of water used, or required to irrigate
the crop for the purpose of its growing. When applied to a
channel, it is the area irrigated during a base period divided by
the mean supply used in cumecs. It may be defined as the area
irrigated by unit discharge that means the number of hectares
under a particular crop brought to maturity by a constant supply
of one cumec flowing continuously for the base period. Duty
based on discharge (discharge calculated at the head regulator)
passed through the outlet and excluding all losses in the canal
system is called the outlet discharge factor and is usually
represented by symbol D
 Delta:
It is an expression used in the irrigation practice to mean the
depth of water that would result over a given area for a given
discharge for a certain length of time. It is a term equivalent to
duty of irrigated water when the latter is expressed in water
depth units. Delta is the total depth of water in cm needed by a
crop for its growth.
 Relationship Between Duty and Delta:
Let D be the duty of water in hectares/cumecs; B be the base
period in days and ∆ be the delta of water in metre.
Volume of one cubic metre of water flowing in one day
= 1 x 24 x 60 x 60 = 86, 400 m2 = 8.64 ha m.
Volume of one cubic metre flowing for B days = 8.64 B ha m.
By definition of duty D, one cubic metre = 10,000 D m2 of water
supplied for B days matures D hectares of land.
Total depth of water applied in the land = volume/area = 86400
B/10000 D. = 8.64 B/D m.
Now delta is the total depth of water, ∆ = 8.64 B/D m which
gives

D = 8.64 B/∆ m and ∆ = 8.64 B/D m = 864 B/D cm.