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Irrigation and Water Management

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 Irrigation
and
Water Management

C. George Thomas
Former Professor and Head (Agronomy) &
Associate Dean, College of Horticulture
Kerala Agricultural University
Thrissur, India

Ane Books Pvt. Ltd.

New Delhi ♦ Chennai
 Preface

This book is primarily meant for undergraduate and postgraduate students of

agriculture, horticulture, forestry, and agricultural engineering. It would also be
useful for agronomists, irrigation engineers, agricultural engineers, ecologists,
agricultural meteorologists, agricultural officers, and all others working in the
field of water management. In short, the book has been moulded with two major
objectives, to serve as a textbook for teaching “irrigation and drainage” or “water
management” and to serve as a handbook for those involved in research and
extension activities related to water management in agriculture. The stress is,
however, directed towards small holder irrigation in the tropics.
Agricultural water management is an interdisciplinary subject wherein
agronomists, irrigation engineers, agricultural meteorologists, and soil physicists
interact. Those who works in water management sector must have a basic
understanding of all these subjects, and this aspect has been considered well while
formulating the outline of the book. Special attention has been given to update and
make contemporary several concepts, which have undergone substantial changes
in the recent decades in tune with international trends. I have tried to discuss
the subject matter as simple as possible so that it is comprehensible to a broad
spectrum of students and other stakeholders.
A course on water management or irrigation agronomy must provide a broad
introduction to the edaphic, climatic, physiological, and environmental aspects
of water balance in a farm unit. Adequate knowledge on these aspects is required
to describe the soil- plant-water-atmosphere relationships logically. The first four
chapters of the book have been devoted to describe these basic aspects. Efforts
were also made to discuss some emerging topics like water foot print, virtual
water, water security, and integrated water resources management.
The students and other stakeholders must be clear about the modern concepts
of crop water use and irrigation water requirement. They must also be able to
explain the theory behind irrigation scheduling and compute irrigation water
needs of crops at the field level along with depth of irrigation and interval of
irrigation. These aspects have been discussed in the chapters on “crop water use”
and “scheduling irrigation to crops”. Various methods of irrigation are dealt at
length in two chapters. More emphasis has been given to small-scale irrigation
technologies such as micro irrigation as these technologies can improve the
livelihoods of poor farmers in regions where water is scarce. A chapter has been
devoted to describe various aspects of the quality of irrigation water along with
relevant management options to cope with low quality water. The concept of water
productivity has been discussed in a separate chapter considering its worldwide
importance. Water management recommendations for major crops of India have
been provided in two chapters.
When the issue of drainage and problems of wet soils are discussed, one
should also look at the status of wetlands, a much valued but often neglected
ecosystem. A chapter has been exclusively set apart for discussing various aspects
of wetlands in addition to a chapter on agricultural drainage.
Appropriate worked out examples have been provided wherever required.
Illustrations include diagrammatic sketches and photographs for easy understanding
of the subject matter. The units followed in the book are SI, but certain popular
non-SI units are also included along with their SI equivalents. The bibliography
comprises of literature cited as well as additional reading consulted mostly for
preparing the narrative, the common knowledge part of the book.
While finalizing the manuscript, I have considered suggestions from students
and colleagues as well. I should particularly mention some of my former graduate
students— Dr Indulekha V.P, Dr Syama S. Menon, Dr Savitha Antony, and Dr
Sindhu P.V (presently, all of them are Assistant Professors in KAU) who are very
resourceful with ideas and suggestions. My thanks are also due to Dr P. Prameela
and Dr Meera V. Menon, my former colleagues in the Department of Agronomy,
for their assistance and cooperation. I also express my appreciation to Sri. Praveen
K.P. for the elegant cover design. It is my pleasure to acknowledge the earnest
efforts of Mr Jai Raj Kapoor, Mr Sunil Saxena, and all at Ane Books, New Delhi
for bringing out the book neatly and beautifully.
I hope that the subject matter covered in the book is useful to all the stakeholders
in agricultural water management, which may lead to improvement in both crop
and water productivity.
C. George Thomas
 Contents

1. Water Resources Management 1

1.1 Irrigation, Drainage, and Water Management 1
1.2 Role of Water in Soil and Plants  5
1.3 The Hydrologic Cycle 6
1.4 Precipitation: The Primary Source of Water  8
1.5 Rainfed Agriculture and Irrigated Agriculture  14
1.6 World Water Availability and Withdrawal  16
1.7 Water Resources for Irrigation 17
1.8 Groundwater Resources 22
1.9 Ground Water Extraction  25
1.10 Conjunctive Use of Water 29
1.11 Integrated Water Resources Management  31
1.12 The Virtual Water and the Water Footprint 33
1.13 Food Security and Water Security  39
2. Soil Properties Influencing Water Relations  43
2.1 Soil Profile 44
2.2 Soil Depth  46
2.3 Particle Size Composition of Soil  47
2.4 Soil Texture  49
2.5 Soil Structure  54
2.6 Soil Consistence  55
2.7 Bulk Density and Particle Density  56
2.8 Pore Space  60
3. Nature of Soil Water  63
3.1 Polarity of Water  63
3.2 Soil Moisture Content 65
3.3 Soil Moisture Tension 65
3.4 Soil Water Potential 67
 3.5 Soil Moisture Constants 71
3.6 Soil Moisture Characteristic Curves  75
3.7 Classification of Soil Water 78
3.8 Soil Moisture Deficit 80
3.10 Mechanism of Water Movement in Soils  87
3.11 Measurement of Soil Moisture 91
4. Soil-Plant-Water Relationships 97
4.1 Plant Structure and Water 98
4.2 Effective Root Zone Depth 99
4.3 Moisture Extraction Pattern 101
4.4 Diffusion, Osmosis, and Water Movement 102
4.5 Absorption of Water by Plants  104
4.6 Water Potential in Plant Cells 107
4.7 Water Movement Along Soil-Plant-Atmosphere Continuum  110
4.8 Measurement of Plant Water Potential  114
4.9 Moisture Stress and Plant Response 117
5. Crop Water Use  121
5.1 Evaporation and Transpiration  121
5.2 Consumptive Use  124
5.3 Potential, Reference, and Crop Evapotranspiration  127
5.4 The Concept of Crop Coefficient  130
5.5 Consumptive Use by Lysimeters 136
5.6 Estimation of ET From Pan Evaporation 141
5.7 Estimation of ET Using Empirical Formulae 147
5.8 Penman-Monteith Equation 150
5.9 Field Plot Technique 153
5.10 ET From Water Balance Method  156
5.11 Effective Rainfall  157
5.12 Capillary Contribution 162
5.13 Water Requirement and Irrigation Requirement 163
5.14 Base Period, Duty, and Delta  167
5.15 Crop Water Budgeting  169
6. Scheduling Irrigation to Crops 171
6.1 Planning for Irrigation 171
 6.2 Principles of Irrigation Scheduling  173
6.3 Plant Available Water  174
6.4 Allowable Depletion Volume of Water  175
6.5 Depth of Irrigation  177
6.6 Criteria for Scheduling Irrigation 181
6.7 Scheduling Irrigation Based on Soil Moisture Status 182
6.8 Scheduling Irrigation Based on Climatic Variables 186
6.9 Scheduling Irrigation Based on Critical Stages 195
6.10 Scheduling Irrigation Based on Plant Indices  197
6.11 Supplemental Irrigation and Deficit Irrigation 199
7. Methods of Irrigation 201
7.1 Surface Irrigation Methods  202
7.2 Subsurface Irrigation 211
7.3 Overhead Irrigation 212
7.4 Hose Irrigation 213
7.5 Sprinkler Irrigation 215
7.6 Components of a Sprinkler System  216
7.7 Major Sprinkler Systems  220
7.8 Selecting an Irrigation Method 223
8. Micro Irrigation 227
8.1 Drip Irrigation  228
8.2 Components of a Drip Irrigation Unit 229
8.3 Planning and Designing a Drip Irrigation System 236
8.4 Layout of Drip Irrigation 243
8.5 Bubbler Irrigation  247
8.6 Micro Sprinklers  247
8.7 Pitcher Irrigation 249
8.8 Fertigation 250
8.9 Plastic Mulching  252
9. Quality of Irrigation Water 255
9.1 Dissolved Salts in Water  255
9.2 Criteria of Irrigation Water Quality  257
9.3 Leaching Fraction and Leaching Requirement 261
9.4 Management Practices to Cope with Low Quality Water 263
 10. Water Management of Major Crops other than Rice  269
10.1 Cereals and Millets  269
10.2 Pulses 274
10.3 Oil Seeds  275
10.4 Sugar and Starch Crops  281
10.5 Cotton 284
10.6 Spices and Condiments 285
10.7 Beverages and Stimulants  287
10.8 Fruits  289
10.9 Vegetables 292
10.10 Fodder Crops 294
11. Water Management in Rice 297
11.1 The Rice Environment  297
11.2 Life Cycle and Growth Stages of Rice Plant  298
11.3 Water Balance in Rice Fields 300
11.4 Water Requirement of Rice  303
11.5 Good Water Management Practices for Rice 305
11.6 Managing Water Scarcity in Rice Fields 307
12. Measurement of Water  311
12.1 Volume and Flow Rate of Water  311
12.2 Direct Measurement of Water Flows 314
12.3 Velocity-Area Methods 314
12.4 Water Flow Measuring Structures 318
13. Increasing Water Productivity 325
13.1 Irrigation Efficiencies  325
13.2 Water Use Efficiency and Water Productivity  330
13.3 Water Productivity  331
13.4 Increasing Water Productivity  332
14. Agricultural Drainage 337
14.1 Flooding, Ponding, and Water Logging  337
14.2 Causes of Water Logging  340
14.3 Benefits of Drainage 340
14.4 Natural Drainage Classes of Soil 342
14.5 Drainage Requirements  343
 14.6 Drainage Systems  346
14.7 Surface Field Drainage Systems 348
14.8 Subsurface Drainage 353
14.9 Other Drainage Systems 358
15. Wetlands and their Management 361
15.1 Nature of Wetlands 362
15.2 The Ramsar Convention  363
15.3 Classification of Wetlands 366
15.4 Ecological Functions of Wetlands  370
15.5 Threat to Wetlands  373
15.6 Managing and Protecting Wetlands 374
Literature Cited 377
Additional Reading 385
Index  387

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