Irrigation Application Methods Research Articles

Integrated water resource management to address the growing demand for food and water in South Asia*

AbstractWith the increasing population and accelerated urbanization, demands for water are rising for different sectors around the world, including in South Asia. Integrated water resource management (IWRM) offers a promising potential to address multifaceted water demands. This study therefore aimed to address this issue by (i) reviewing key issues related to water, land, and food in South Asian countries, (ii) exploring the prevalent irrigation management strategies in those countries, and (iii) examining the IWRM situation based on a Nepalese case study, and it proposes some options to support effective implementation of IWRM.South Asia, the home to 24% of the world's population with only 15% and 7% of the world's arable and permanent crop land and water resources, respectively, is the worst‐affected region in the world from undernourishment. Surface irrigation is the dominant irrigation application method in the region, which incurs high water losses due to the lack of flexible water control structures in canal networks. The Nepalese case study revealed a lack of clear institutional arrangements to implement IWRM and disparate and conflicting views about IWRM. Creation and strengthening of basin‐level water user organizations, technological improvements, and awareness‐raising activities are some potential ways forward to implement IWRM.

How reliable are the evapotranspiration estimates by Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) models for catchment-scale drought assessment and irrigation planning?

Catchment-scale assessment of evapotranspiration (ET) becomes indispensable for evaluating agricultural drought hazard and irrigation water management. As direct estimation of ET is quite intricate under sparse data availability scenarios, the recent indirect ET estimation approaches heavily depend on the water balance-based ET estimates from the popular land surface models, such as, Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC-3L) model or the MOD16A2 satellite product. Along with the land uses, the irrigation application methods of alternate wetting and drying (AWD) could also influence the actual ET (ETact) estimates. This study evaluates the usability of these indirect ET estimation methods with reference to the moisture-stress specific FAO-56 Penman-Monteith (PM) equation for catchment-scale drought and irrigation planning in a real paddy-dominated integrated reservoir-catchment command. The results reveal that the SWAT-derived ET in the non-irrigated paddy fields was consistent with the FAO-56 PM based ET estimates during two crop growing seasons; however, significant overestimation was observed by the VIC-3L, and MOD16A2 products showed a relatively better estimate. The SWAT and VIC-3L derived Standardized Soil Moisture Index (SSI) and Standardized Evapotranspiration Drought Index (SEDI) for the study area revealed that the VIC-3L based drought severity was continuously overestimated or underestimated; whereas the SWAT-derived SEDI indices were almost consistent with the benchmark MOD16A2-ET and ESA-CCI soil moisture derived estimates. Finally, this study endorses to use these indirect catchment-scale drought assessment tools with caution with a need to revise the existing ET subroutines in these hydrological models to deal with the crop dynamics and water management options realistically.

Yield and water use efficiency for zucchini squash under two methods of irrigation water application

Egypt is currently seeking to implement a plan to rationalize water consumption in all sectors. As the agricultural sector consumes about 85% of Egypt's water resources, therefore new irrigation application methods must be searched to rationalize water use by increasing the irrigation efficiency. Field experiment was conducted to compare two water application methods to calculate the requirements of water for squash (Cucurbita pepo, L. var. Hybrid Revera) during the summer of season 2019. Two methods of irrigation water application were used and adapted to conditions of drip irrigation system: (i) method A using estimation of the reference evapotranspiration by using method of weather factors-dependent Penman-Monteith. (ii) method B is the water depletion from the soil, which depends on the water properties of soil. Crop water needs, yield, water use efficiency and the irrigation water amount lost by deep percolation were determined. The results showed that the irrigation method which dependent on the soil water properties has positive effects on the squash production compared to method A. Moreover, the highest value of water use efficiency was obtained by method B which was 5.31 kg m-3, while its value for method A was 4.33 kg m-3. Also, the highest yield was obtained by method B which was 15970.10 kg ha-1, while the productivity under method A was 15492.69 kg ha-1. In addition, the highest values of lost water through deep percolation (14.82 %) were detected with method A. Generally, method of irrigation soil-based was more accurate in calculating the amount of irrigation water added and had clearly positive effects on growth, yield and water use efficiency of squash compared to a climate-dependent irrigation method.

Methods for Strawberry Transplant Establishment in Florida

Florida is the second largest strawberry producer in the United States, with an annual farm gate value of about $300 million. Planting occurs from late September through late October, and high air temperatures pose significant challenges for transplant establishment and thus yield and fruit quality. The primary purpose of this new 4-page publication of the UF/IFAS Horticultural Sciences Department is to provide research-based recommendations on transplant establishment methods for strawberry growers in Florida. The techniques presented are overhead irrigation application methods and practices, strawberry plugs and bare-root transplants, crop protectants, and reflective mulching. Written by Emmanuel Torres-Quezada, Lincoln Zotarelli, Vance M. Whitaker, and Shinsuke Agehara.https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/hs1376

Are Crop Coefficients for SDI Different from Those for Sprinkler Irrigation Application?

HighlightsCrop coefficients for SDI scheduling for grain corn should be reduced by ~10% from those used for sprinkler irrigation.FAO 56 methods to calculate crop coefficients for surface drip irrigation under full-cover plastic mulch were applicable to SDI.A recent drought-resistant corn hybrid appeared to begin rapid leaf area development about 10 days earlier than older hybrids.A recent drought-resistant corn hybrid appeared to finish earlier than older hybrids by about 15 days.Abstract. Subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) has become an important irrigation application method in the U.S. Southern High Plains where pan evaporation exceeds 2,400 mm per year. Early research comparing SDI with spray sprinklers showed that SDI was over-applied when scheduling irrigations using crop coefficients developed using sprinkler irrigation. Thus, crop coefficients developed using SDI may be smaller than those developed using sprinkler irrigation. Grain corn was grown for two years on large, precision weighing lysimeters at Bushland, Texas, with two lysimeters irrigated by SDI and two by mid-elevation spray (MESA) irrigation. Data used in this study were for fields irrigated to replenish soil water in the top 1.5 m of the soil to field capacity, as indicated by weekly neutron probe readings (100% replenishment). Crop coefficients developed for SDI (Kc_SDI) were compared with those developed for MESA (Kc_MESA) using ASCE standardized reference ET equations. The value of Kc_SDI ranged from 0.83 to 0.89 of Kc_MESA for the two years. Values of Kc_SDI remained consistently less than Kc_MESA even after maximum leaf area index was reached, indicating that considerable evaporative loss from the soil surface occurred with MESA irrigation even after full canopy cover. When we shortened the initial period after planting from 30 to 20 d and followed FAO 56 recommendations for surface drip irrigation under full-cover plastic mulch, we calculated basal Kc (Kcb) values (ETo basis) that were reasonably close to our Kc values for SDI for the crop development and early mid-season periods but were greater than our data for the later mid-season and late season periods. Keywords: Crop coefficient, FAO56, MESA, SDI, Sprinkler irrigation, Subsurface drip irrigation.

Corn and Sorghum ET, E, Yield, and CWP as Affected by Irrigation Application Method: SDI versus Mid-Elevation Spray Irrigation

Abstract. Greater than 80% of the irrigated area in the Southern High Plains is served by center-pivot irrigation, but the area served by subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) is increasing due to several factors including declining well yields and improved yields and crop water productivity (CWP), particularly for cotton. Not as well established is the degree to which the reduced soil water evaporation (E) in SDI systems affects the soil water balance, water available to the crop, and overall water savings. Grain corn ( L.) and sorghum ( L. Moench) were grown on four large weighing lysimeters at Bushland, Texas, in 2013 (corn), 2014 and 2015 (sorghum), and 2016 (corn). Evapotranspiration (ET) was measured using the lysimeters and using a neutron probe in the surrounding fields. Two of the lysimeters and surrounding fields were irrigated with SDI, and the other two were irrigated with mid-elevation spray application (MESA). The lysimeter-measured evaporative losses were 149 to 151 mm greater from sprinkler-irrigated corn fields than from SDI fields. When growing sorghum, the lysimeter-measured evaporative losses were 44 to 71 mm greater from sprinkler-irrigated fields than from SDI fields. The differences were affected by plant height and became smaller when plant height reached the height of the spray nozzles, indicating that the use of LEPA or LESA nozzles could decrease the evaporative losses from sprinkler-irrigated fields in this region with its high evaporative demand. Annual weather patterns also influenced the differences in evaporative loss, with increased differences in dry years. SDI reduced overall corn water use by 13% to 15%, as determined by neutron probe, while either not significantly affecting yield (2016) or increasing yield by up to 19% (2013) and increasing CWP by 37% (2013) to 13% (2016) as compared with MESA full irrigation. However, sorghum yield decreased by 15% and CWP decreased by 14% in 2014 when using SDI compared with MESA full irrigation due to an overly wet soil profile in the SDI fields and deep percolation that likely caused nutrient losses. In 2015, there were no significant sorghum yield differences between irrigation methods. Sorghum CWP was significantly greater (by 14%) in one SDI field in 2015 compared with MESA fully irrigated sorghum. Overall, sorghum CWP increased by 8% for SDI compared with MESA full irrigation in 2015. These results indicate that SDI will be successful for corn production in the Texas High Plains, but SDI is unlikely to benefit sorghum production. Keywords: Corn, Crop water productivity, Evaporative loss, Evapotranspiration, Irrigation application method, Sorghum, Water use efficiency, Weighing lysimeter.

Growth, yield, WUE and NUE of maize under various irrigation application methods and nitrogen application timing

Growth, yield, WUE and NUE of maize under various irrigation application methods and nitrogen application timing

Field assessment of surge and continuous furrow irrigation methods in relation to tillage systems

Abstract Surge flow irrigation is one of the irrigation techniques for controlling furrow irrigation. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of surge furrow irrigation on water management compared with continuous irrigation for different tillage systems. An experimental field was treated with various tillage systems (mouldboard plough, chisel plough and rotary plough) and water irrigation application methods (continuous flow, control) in which irrigation water was applied continuously, and surge flow (3-surges, 4-surges and 5-surges) in which irrigation water was applied intermittently until it reached the tail end of the furrow. The results showed that water savings obtained using the surge technique were 18.58, 11.84 and 18.93% lower water use than with continuous flow, for the mouldboard, chisel and rotary ploughs, respectively. The 3-surges treatment with the rotary plough reduced the advance time by 25.36% from that for continuous irrigation. The 4-surges treatment with the mouldboard plough had the highest water application efficiency (88.13%). The 3-surges treatment with the rotary plough had the highest distribution uniformity (85.01%). The rotary plough did not cause as much soil aeration around the root system as the other tillage systems. The field research provided information about surge flow, aimed at reducing advance times and increasing irrigation efficiency.

Irrigation water sources and irrigation application methods used by U.S. plant nursery producers

AbstractWe examine irrigation water sources and irrigation methods used by U.S. nursery plant producers using nested multinomial fractional regression models. We use data collected from the National Nursery Survey (2009) to identify effects of different firm and sales characteristics on the fraction of water sources and irrigation methods used. We find that regions, sales of plants types, farm income, and farm age have significant roles in what water source is used. Given the fraction of alternative water sources used, results indicated that use of computer, annual sales, region, and the number of IPM practices adopted play an important role in the choice of irrigation method. Based on the findings from this study, government can provide subsidies to nursery producers in water deficit regions to adopt drip irrigation method or use recycled water or combination of both. Additionally, encouraging farmers to adopt IPM may enhance the use of drip irrigation and recycled water in nursery plant production.

Effects of irrigation and fertilizer application methods on Dianthus ‘Telstar™ White’ and ‘Telstar™ Red’

ABSTRACTThe objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of fertilizer and irrigation application methods on plant quality of Dianthus ‘Telstar™ White’ and ‘Telstar™ Red’ grown in the greenhouse. Fertilizer treatments of 0, 10, and 20 g of 16 nitrogen (N)-3.9 phosphorus (P)-10 potassium (K) controlled release fertilizer were topdressed or incorporated. Pots were drip irrigated or hand watered. Irrigation interacted with treatment (P = 0.037) and irrigation interacted with cultivar (P = 0.013) for plant survival. Plant survival was greater for both irrigation treatments using 10 g of fertilizer incorporated. Fewer ‘Telstar™ Red’ plants survived with hand irrigation than drip irrigation. ‘Telstar™ White’ plants averaged 53% survival regardless of irrigation method. For all treatments drip irrigated plants had greater height, width, and number of flowers than hand watered plants. For fall greenhouse production of dianthus, irrigation and fertilizer application method, cultivar, as well as leaching fraction should be considered.

Life Cycle Energy and Greenhouse Gas Emission Analysis of Groundwater‐Based Irrigation Systems

AbstractThe reliance on groundwater for irrigation is increasing in Australia and India, which is causing concerns to policy makers about energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Therefore, it is important to quantify the GHG emissions of all components of the groundwater‐based irrigation systems, over the entire life cycle to develop more environmentally friendly groundwater management strategies. This study identified and analysed energy use and GHG emissions associated with different components in the supply chain of groundwater‐based irrigation systems. An existing GHG emissions and energy‐accounting framework was adapted to enhance its capabilities by considering drilling techniques, water distribution and irrigation application methods. The results of this study highlighted that embodied and direct GHG emissions from drilling tube wells were higher in the Musi catchment, India, compared to South Australia. The study also highlighted that GHG emissions associated with water conveyance were higher for concrete and plastic‐lined channels than unlined channels. Drip irrigation systems in both countries were found to have more GHG emissions than gravity‐fed systems. Centre pivot systems were found to be emitting more than the drip systems in South Australia. We conclude that different components of the system have an impact on total GHG emissions and energy consumption for both countries. Any change in the most commonly used methods of drilling bore wells, water distribution in channels, and the irrigation methods, will have distinct impacts on energy consumption rates and GHG emissions. The developed conceptual framework provided a systematic complete analysis of the energy‐consuming and GHG‐emitting components associated with groundwater‐based irrigation systems. Policy makers and decision makers may use the developed framework to compare different system components to develop strategies that have minimal impact on the environment. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

ACCOUNTING FOR RISKS OF USING SHALLOW GROUND WATER FOR SECONDARY CROPS ON LOWLAND PADDY FIELDS IN INDONESIA

Most paddy fields in Indonesia laid on the lowland area and many of them have not sufficient water ply during the dry period. To maximize the use of land, some farmers planted secondary crops using the available low water table along the coastal areas. Some common plants planted during dry period on the lowland paddy fields corn (Zea mais), soybean (Glycine max), groundnut (Arachis hypogaea), chili pepper (Capsicum annum), tomato Lycopersicum esculentum) and mungbean (Phaseolus radiatus). The use of secondary crops on paddy fields using hallow ground water embedded some potential risks that need to be counted. The study conducted to model the risks ction and market risks) associated with the ground water quality and irrigation application methods on the net urns on several crops under different irrigation treatments and application uniformities. Six crops were analyzed to w the potential return under furrow and border irrigation scenarios. Economic reliability measured in terms of scounted Cash Flow performance of each type of crop. The risk analysis reveals that the three type of crops i.e. mato, chili pepper and groundnut shows stochastic dominances over the other three crops means that the crops are less y than to the other three. The model sensitivity analysis performed to show the influence of input variables to the odel outputs and the result shows the commodity prices, inflation and ground water salinity are most sensitive to nfluence the model output.

Performance assessment of irrigation management transfer from government‐managed to farmer‐managed irrigation system: a case study

AbstractThe government of NWFP, Pakistan, established an autonomous body, the Frontier Irrigation and Drainage Authority (FIDA), in 1997 to effectively cope with the emerging challenges in irrigation management. Six distributaries were recently transferred to farmers' organizations under the irrigation management transfer (IMT) for their operation and management. Results of the study revealed that the irrigation supplies are adequate to meet the crop water requirements. The relative water supply (RWS) index varies from 1.66 to 2.02 during summer, whereas in winter it varies from 2.22 to 2.55. The delivery performance ratio (DPR) during summer varies from 0.78 to 0.83 and in winter from 0.73 to 0.63. Irrigation supplies were reliable during both summer and winter seasons. Due to improved irrigation supply, annual irrigation intensity has increased by 25%. There is a prominent increase in yield of maize (40%), sugarcane (55%) and wheat (43%). The irrigation service fee collected was approximately 60% of the fee assessed. Hydraulic committees at each distributary should be established to operate the distributary according to crop demand. Awareness of the farmers should be created regarding the farm irrigation application methods to avoid over‐irrigation and wastage of water. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Microclimate and potential for late blight development in irrigated potato

Application of irrigation water can improve potato growth and tuber yield during periods of deficit rainfall. A variety of water application techniques exist; however, little is known of their relative impacts on potato late blight potential. The effects of sprinkler, sub-surface drip, and surface drip irrigation treatments on microclimate and potential for late blight development were evaluated on Russet Burbank potato over three growing seasons in central Maine. Leaf wetness, air temperature, relative humidity (RH), rainfall and soil temperature were recorded each year. The potential for late blight was assessed with a late blight simulation model. Leaf wetness and RH peaked during night hours, while canopy and soil temperatures were lowest during the same hours. Comparison of observed and simulated blight development revealed a good prediction of potato late blight by the simulation model. The onset of simulated blight severity and final predicted disease level differed among years. Slight differences in simulated disease levels were sometimes observed between irrigated and non-irrigated treatments; however, irrigation application method did not consistently impact microclimatic parameters associated with late blight development. These results indicate that microclimate conducive to late blight development was less impacted by irrigation treatments than by local macroclimatic conditions.

Effect of improved cultural practices on crop yield and soil salinity under relatively saline groundwater applications

The salinity in the root zone increases with the application of relatively saline groundwater. Therefore, a limited water supply coupled with high pumping cost and salinity hazards, makes it more important than ever that irrigation water be used efficiently and judiciously. In the present study, farmer's practices of irrigation application methods (Field 1) were compared with the water saving techniques (Field 2) for crop yield and salinization for two years with maize–wheat–dhanicha cropping pattern. For maize crop, regular furrow method of irrigation was used in Field 1 and alternate furrow method of irrigation was used in Field 2. For wheat experiments, basin irrigation method of water application was compared with bed and furrow method. For dhanicha, basin irrigation was applied in both the fields. The results showed that about 36% water was saved by applying irrigation water in alternate furrows in each season without compromising the maize crop yield. The salt accumulation in root zone in alternate furrow field was less than that in regular furrow field. The salinity level near the surface increased substantially in both the fields. The water saving in wheat crop under bed and furrow was 9–12% in both seasons. The salinization process in both fields during wheat crop was almost same except redistribution of salts throughout the root zone in basin field of wheat. The salinity developed in root zone during two major growing seasons was leached in monsoon.