Abstract
Water is the major limiting factor for crop production. A lot of water resources have been exploited for irrigation purpose. Irrigation systems essential to enhance crop productivity in order to meet future food demand and ensure food security. Unscientific and injudicious application of groundwater in this district resulted in depletion of the groundwater table. To achieve effective utilization of the groundwater resources, there is a need to estimate the crop water requirement for different crops at different management levels to accomplish effective irrigation management. Crop water requirements of maize crop in Raya Azebo districts was calculated using FAO Cropwat 8.0 a computer simulation model. The simulation study was conducted with the objectives of determining irrigation water requirement maize. The study was carried out to estimate the crop water requirement of maize by using the climatic data, crop evapotranspiration (ETc) and reference crop evapotranspiration (ETo) for each crop were determined using CROPWAT 8.0. The study shows that crop water requirement of maize with a growing period of 125 days to maturity requires 504.0 mm depth of water on off season and 457.8 mm on main season respectively. The result shows that in off season the crop water requirement of maize was needed more water than the main season, due to the climatic condition and in the main season the effective rainfall is more available than the off season. This study proved that the CROPWAT model is useful for calculating the crop irrigation needs for the proper management of water resources. Keywords: CROPWAT, Model, Crop water requirement, Maize, Eto DOI: 10.7176/JRDM/74-03 Publication date: March 31 st 2021
Highlights
Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the grain crops of the grass family
Estimation of crop water requirements (ETc) is one of the main components used in irrigation planning, design and operation (Rowshon et al, 2013). (Jensen et al 1990), provided detailed reviews of the methods commonly used to determine evapotranspiration and estimated crop water requirements
504.0 and 457.8mm crop water requirement, 36.2 and 122.1mm effective rain fall and 468.3 and 335.7mm irrigation requirement respectively. It shows that in off season the crop water requirement of maize was needed more water than the main season, due to the climatic condition and in the main season the effective rainfall is more available than the off season
Summary
Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the grain crops of the grass family Testing of a model is necessary for its use in a new area while planning water requirement of a crop. CROPWAT facilitate the estimation of crop evapotranspiration, irrigation schedule and agricultural water requirements with different cropping patterns for irrigation planning and management. Penman-Monteith method (Allen et al 1998) has been reported to yield consistently more accurate reference evapotranspiration (ETo) estimates across a wide range of climate condition (Jensen et al 1990; Kashyap and Panda 2001; Irmak et al 2003). Estimation of crop water requirements (ETc) is one of the main components used in irrigation planning, design and operation (Rowshon et al, 2013). (Jensen et al 1990), provided detailed reviews of the methods commonly used to determine evapotranspiration and estimated crop water requirements. One way to determine the crop water requirement is by utilizing software Cropwat 8.0 compiled by FAO (Allen et al 1998)
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