Scheduling of Irrigation to Crops
Introduction:
Scientific irrigation scheduling is a
technique providing knowledge on correct time
and optimum quantity of water application at
each irrigation to optimize crop yields with
maximum water use efficiency and at the same
time ensuring minimum damage to the soil
properties.
Advantages of Irrigation Scheduling:
a) It enables the farmer to schedule water rotation among the various fields
b) It reduces the farmer’s cost of water and labor through fewer irrigations
c) It lowers fertilizer costs by holding surface runoff and deep percolation
(leaching) to a minimum
d) It increases net returns by increasing crop yields and crop quality
e) It minimizes water-logging problems by reducing the drainage requirements.
f) It assists in controlling root zone salinity problems through controlled leaching.
g) It results in additional returns by using the “saved” water to irrigate non-cash
crops that otherwise would not be irrigated during water-short periods.
Soil water regime approach:
In this approach the available soil water
held between field capacity and permanent
wilting point in the effective crop root zone
depth described in several ways is taken as
an index or guide for determining practical
irrigation schedules.
Feel and appearance of soil
Depletion of the available soil moisture (DASM):
• In this method the permissible depletion level of available soil moisture in
the effective crop root zone depth is commonly taken as an index or guide
for scheduling irrigations to field crops.
• In general, for many crops scheduling irrigation’s at 20 – 25% DASM in the
soil profile was found to be optimum at moisture sensitive stages.
• While at other stages irrigations scheduled at 50% DASM were found
optimum.
Soil moisture tension
Soil moisture tension a physical property of film
water in soil, as monitored by tensiometer at a
specified depth in the crop root zone could also be
used as an index for scheduling irrigations to field
crops.
Climatological Approach
• The potential rate of water loss from a crop is
primarily a function of evaporative demand of the
atmosphere under adequate soil water conditions.
• Thus in this method the water loss expressed in
terms of either potential evapotranspiration (PET) or
cumulative pan evaporation (CPE) over short periods
of time are taken as an index for scheduling
irrigation’s.
Potential evapotranspiration (PET)
• Penmen (1948) introduced the concept of PET and he defined it
as “the amount of water transpired in a unit time by short
green crop of uniform height, completely covering the
ground and never short of water”.
• PET can be estimated by several techniques viz., lysimetric
Lysimeter
methods.
• By isolating the crop root zone from its environment and controlling the processes that are
difficult to measure, the different terms in the soil water balance equation can be determined
with greater accuracy.
• This is done in Lysimeter where the crop grows in isolated tanks filled with either disturbed
or undisturbed soil.
Cumulative pan evaporation
Wheat required 75 to 100 mm CPE at Ludhiana
Sugarcane required 75 mm CPE in Maharashtra
Greengram required 180 mm CPE at Ludhiana
Sunflower required 60 mm CPE at Bangalore
USWB Class A Pan evaporimeter
IW : CPE ratio
Prihar et al. (1974) advocated irrigation scheduling on the
basis of ratio between the depth of irrigation water (IW) and
cumulative evaporation from U.S.W.B. class A pan evaporimeter
minus the precipitation since the previous irrigation (CPE).
An IW/CPE ratio of 1.0 indicates irrigating the crop with
water equal to that lost in evaporation from the evaporimeter.
Crop Optimum IW/CPE ratio
Groundnut 0.75 to 1.O IW/CPE ratio depending on crop developmental
stages in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra & West Bengal
Sunflower 0.5 to 1.O IW/CPE ratio depending on crop developmental
stages at Hyderabad & Kanpur
Wheat 1.O IW/CPE ratio at Ludhiana, Kanpur and Bikramganj
Bengal gram 0.4 IW/CPE ratio at Ludhiana
Mustard 0.4 IW/CPE ratio at Hissar
Maize ¨ 0.75 to 1.0 IW/CPE ratio depending on crop developmental
stages at Delhi & Hyderabad
Sugarcane 0.5 to 1.0 IW/CPE ratio depending on crop developmental
stages at Lucknow
Plant Indices Approach
Visual plant symptoms:
• In this method the visual signs of plants are used as an index for scheduling
irritations.
• For instance, plant wilting, drooping, curling and rolling of leaves in maize is used
as indicators for scheduling irrigation .
• Change in foliage color and leaf angle is used to time irrigations in beans.
• Water stress in some crops leads to appearance of carotenoid (yellow and orange
color) and anthocyanin pigments; shortening of internodes in sugarcane and cotton;
retardation of stem elongation in grapes; leaf abscission and lack of new growth and
redness in terminal growth points of almond, which can be used as indices for
scheduling irrigations to crops.
ling of leaves in maize and change of leaf angle in bea
Soil-cum-sand mini-plot technique
• This method is also referred to profile modification technique
• The principle involved in this technique is to reduce artificially the available water holding
capacity of soil profile (i.e., effective root zone depth) in the mini-plot by mixing sand with it.
• When this is done plants growing on the sand mixed plot show wilting symptoms earlier than
in the rest of the field.
• An area of 1.0 x 1.0m is selected in the field and a pit of 1.0m depth is excavated.
• About 5% of sand by volume is added to the dug up soil and mixed well.
• The pit is then filled back with the mixture and while filling up every 15 cm layer is well
compacted, so that the soil in the pit retains the original bulk density as that of surrounding
soil.
• Crop is sown normally and is allowed to grow as usual with the rest of the field.
• As and when the plants in the mini-plot show wilting symptoms it is taken as a warning of
impending water need and cropped field is irrigated.
Plant population:
• Increase in plant population by 1.5 to 2.0 times that of optimum in some
representative spots of (1 m x 1m area) in the cropped field alternative to mini-
plot technique also serves as a reliable index for scheduling irrigation’s to crops.
• This happens because when more plants are there per unit area, the available
water within that zone is depleted rapidly as compared to other area wherein
optimum number of plants is maintained per unit area.
• This result in drooping or wilting of plants earlier, which can be taken as an
indication of water deficits and accordingly irrigations are scheduled to crops.
Rate of growth
• Fluctuations in the water balance are reflected by parallel fluctuations in the
growth rate of expanding organs.
• Stem elongation is markedly reduced when the available soil moisture level
approaches the critical level, but accelerates again after irrigation.
• In cotton elongation of internodal length by 0.5 to 1.0-cm day-1 indicated the
approach of critical available soil moisture level.
• Likewise in oranges, when the growth rate of fruit circumference falls below 0.2
to 0.3-mm d-1, irrigations have to be scheduled.
Relative water content
• This concept was proposed by Weatherly (1950). It is the actual water content
of the leaf or plant when sampled relative to water at saturation or turgid.
• It is expressed as relative water content (RWC) and is calculated as follows:
• For instance the critical RWC level (below which reduction in growth occurs)
for cotton and sesame was 72% and 75% respectively.
• Whenever the plant exhibits these values, irrigations can be scheduled.
However, the main drawback is it is tedious and time consuming.
Plant water potential:
• This method measures the energy status of plant water analogous to the tension
of film water in the soil
• Plant or leaf water potential can be precisely measured either by a pressure bomb
or pressure chamber apparatus in situ or by the dye method in the laboratory.
• The critical plant water potential values for cotton below which yield reductions
are expected were 1.2 to 1.25 MPa throughout the crop life.
• While for sunflower they were 1.0, 1.2 and 1.4 MPa at vegetative, pollination
and seed formation, respectively.
Canopy temperature
• Plant temperature or canopy temperature adequately reflects the internal water
balance of the plant, and can be used as a potential indicator for scheduling
irrigation to crops.
• It can be measured by several instruments, which are commercially available viz.,
porometer, infrared thermometer etc.
• For maize it is shown that if the canopy temperature rises to more than 0.70C over
ambient temperature during 1330 to 1400 hour’s irrigations need to be scheduled.
• However, tomato showed no sensitivity to water stress with respect to temperature
variations.
Indicator plants
• Some workers have suggested the use of indicator plants as a
guide for scheduling irrigations.
• In wheat, scheduling irrigations on the basis of wilting
symptoms in maize and sunflower gave the highest grain yields.
Critical growth stages
• The crop plants in their life cycle pass through various phases of growth,
some of which are critical for water supply.
• The most critical stage of crop growth is the one at which a high degree of
water stress would cause maximum loss in yield.
