Development of Crop Water Demand Based Water Delivery Schedule for a Canal Command

Abstract

Crop water demand-based canal water delivery schedule was developed using geospatial tools and CROPWAT model for the Jhajjar distributary of Western Yamuna Canal Command in Haryana, India. The geospatial database of different soil, water and crop parameters in the command area were developed and analyzed using the Geographic Information System (GIS) tool. Further, the geospatial data were used to work out the irrigation schedule of different crops using CROPWAT model. It was observed from the analysis that the gross irrigation water requirement of wheat was 363.4 mm and that of rice was 1386 mm with effective rainfall depths of 55.8 and 461.8 mm during the wheat (rabi) and rice (kharif) growing seasons, respectively. The crop water demand driven protocol developed in this study estimated that about 25.5% of area under the Jhajjar distributary could be supplied with adequate irrigation, considering the operational canal release roster of the distributary. Nontheless, it could be recommended to modify the existing roster as per the crop water demand estimates, or use of ground water resource in area of deficit canal supply to match the crop water demand in the entire canal command.