Irrigation Sector Research Articles

Verification of IRRILAB Software Application for the Hydraulic Design of a Micro-Irrigation System by Using IRRIPRO for an Apple Farm in Sicily

In recent years, many studies have been performed to develop simple and accurate methods to design micro-irrigation systems. However, most of these studies are based on numerical solutions that require a high number of iterations and attempts, without ensuring to maximize water use efficiency and energy-saving. Recently, the IRRILAB software, which is based on an analytical approach to optimally design rectangular micro-irrigation units, has been developed, providing the solution corresponding to the maximum energy-saving condition, for any slope of the laterals and of the manifold. One IRRILAB limitation is that, according to its theoretical basis, the rectangular planform geometry and uniform slope of the laterals and of the manifold are required. On the contrary, IRRIPRO software, which is based on the traditional numerical solution, does not have the aforementioned limitations, but requires an important number of attempts, especially when common emitters are used. In this study, the results of a joint use of IRRILAB and IRRIPRO software applications are illustrated, towards the aim to verify the IRRILAB performance in a large number of micro-irrigation sectors belonging to a Sicilian apple farm, which is characterized by a high irregular topography, thus it is suitable for the purpose of this study. First, only five irrigation sectors, for the actual subdivisions of the farm, were considered, showing limited reasonable IRRILAB results. Dividing the farm into a higher number of sectors so as to provide a better uniformity in planform geometry and slope revealed that IRRILAB results improved in terms of emission uniformity and energy consumption, as verified by IRRIPRO applications. The energy-saving provided by IRRILAB (in one step) with respect to that by IRRIPRO (by attempts) resulted higher for common emitters (CEs) (−15% for five sectors and −9% for nine sectors) than for pressure compensating emitters (PCEs) (−7% for five sectors and −6% for nine sectors). In absolute terms, the energy is greater for five-sector subdivision than for nine-sector subdivision. For both software, the use of PCEs always required less energy than CEs, because of the higher range of pressure compensating of PCEs than CEs. However, PCEs are characterized by less durability and by a higher manufacturing variation coefficient, thus they should not be the first choice. In conclusion, IRRILAB software could be recommended because it is easy to use, making it possible to save energy, especially when sectors are almost rectangular and uniform in slopes.

Remote Sensing and GIS Based Comparative study of watershed of different Physiographic Conditions, Wainganga Sub Basin, Maharashtra

The present study carried by a Wainganga river basin is of critical importance for Maharashtra to preserve its watershed, drainage, relief, soil, forests, wildlife, and tribal population dependent on it. Protecting the basin however does not seem to be priority for the state. The very lifeline of the Wainganga River is being subjected to growing pressure. Its flow has already been obstructed at several places with dams and barrages. By 2012 there were as many as 149 dams built in Wainganga basin. The river in its initial reaches flow westwards and thereafter southwards in M.P. State and continues to flow Southwards in Maharashtra State. Several studies related to different aspects of channel cross section and longitudinal profile river have been carried out from different parts of the country and abroad. Recent emphasis is placed on quantitative geomorphology of drainage basin by various methods and measures to establish the interrelationship of cross section and longitudinal profile river and to impact on river morphology. Water is not only for sustains of life but also determines the quality of life. Assessing water quality is important as quantity in water resources planning and management. It may be observed that the existence of human being a lot of serious problem to disturbance of quality and quantity of water. There are several reasons for scarcity of water and most important things to the increasing population and changing environment condition in the local as well as world level. For sustainable development requirement to that fresh water is indispensable for human survival. Water is being transferred to irrigation and urban industrial uses, putting additional stress on the performance of the irrigation sector. Keeping in mind the scarcity of water resources to cater to the multi various needs of the growing population along the Wainganga River with the vagaries of monsoon precipitation and dearth for quality of water. The purpose of the present research work is to describe the physical condition in Wainganga drainage basin as a system unit resulting from the interaction between landuse & landcover and topography, which is an impact of socio economic condition and surrounding area or region.

Reformulating the value proposition of water in agriculture under changing conditions*

AbstractAgri‐water holds the key for many of the world's most profound development issues, if the sector is willing and able to rethink its responses. The sector is far from addressing these challenges and needs to reformulate its metrics of success along broad development objectives in light of the water, jobs, food and climate crises. Sector interventions and reforms need to be placed on a more outcome‐oriented trajectory. This includes sustaining water resources through the irrigation sector, and attuning water services to changing agricultural needs. It requires a fundamental shift towards service delivery as the core focus of institutional reform in large‐scale irrigation, a recognition of, and support to, farmer‐driven irrigation development in diverse circumstances, and an action‐oriented approach to bring this vision into practice at systems level. This paper presents the World Bank water strategy and points of emphasis for action, and calls for programmatic approaches to work towards this vision and transformation of the sector to meet today's and future challenges.

Reanalysis of Water Withdrawal for Irrigation, Electric Power, and Public Supply Sectors in the Conterminous United States, 1950–2016

AbstractAccurately measuring water use by the economy is essential for developing reliable models of water resource availability. Indeed, these models rely on retrospective analyses that provide insights into shifting human population demands and adaptions to water shortages. However, accurate, methodologically consistent, empirically authentic, and spatiotemporally comprehensive historical datasets for water withdrawals are scarce. Herein, we present a reanalysis of annual resolution (1950–2016) historical data set on irrigation, electric power, and public supply water withdrawal within the conterminous United States (US) at the county‐level, and, for power plants, at the site‐level. To estimate electric power water use, we synthesized a historically comprehensive list of generators and historic patterns in generation across fuels, prime movers, and cooling technologies. Irrigation water use estimation required building a crop‐demand model that utilized historical information on irrigated acreage for crops and golf courses, stage‐specific crop water demand, and climate information. To estimate public water supply use, we developed a random forest model constructed from information on population, infrastructure, climate, and land cover. These estimates generally agree with total county and state water use information provided by the US Geological Survey (USGS) water use circular and estimates generated from independent studies for specific years. However, we also observed discrepancies between our estimates and USGS data that appear to be caused by inconsistencies in the methods used by the USGS's primary data sources at the state level over decades of data collection, highlighting the importance of reanalysis to yield spatiotemporally consistent and intercomparable estimates of water use.

Farmer-led institutional innovations in managing smallholder irrigation schemes in KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape Provinces, South Africa

Farmer-led institutional innovations have been touted as the key to improving the management of water resources in irrigation schemes. However, little is known about them in South Africa. This study documents institutional innovations by 28 farmer groups located on four irrigation schemes in KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape provinces, South Africa. Induced institutional innovation theory, Ostrom’s eight design principles, and thematic analysis of interview transcripts were used to analyse the data. The study results show that 21 groups engaged in institutional innovations, indicating high levels of farmer-led innovative activity among these irrigators. Examples of innovations include, among others, the introduction of a secret voting system to improve participation of marginalised people in decision-making processes, designing daily rotation rosters to reduce conflicts, as well as using an attendance register for participation in group activities, and rewarding members according to their participation levels. The majority of these innovations were designed to improve the graduated sanction mechanism (22.2%), enhancing the penalty system for non-compliance; improving collective action arrangements (27.8%); monitoring attendance of group meetings (18.5%); democratising decision making; and ensuring equitable water distribution. These innovations focused mainly on addressing challenges, rather than exploiting opportunities, and were mostly incremental (94%), involving an adjustment or reinterpretation of rules and regulations. Radical institutional innovations constituted only 6%. The innovative groups were smaller in size and experienced less conflict than the non-innovative groups. Both groups had low levels of education and were mostly dominated by female farmers. The study recommends that the government should build on the agency of the irrigators to improve the effectiveness and legitimacy of institutional arrangements in irrigation schemes. The study’s findings suggest that small groups should be actively promoted, while tailored training should be offered based on the groups’ specific needs, to improve institutional innovations in the smallholder irrigation sector in South Africa.

Improving Energy Efficiency of Irrigation Wells by Using an IoT-Based Platform

The irrigation sector has undergone a remarkable transformation in recent decades due to the application of pressurized water distribution technologies, improving the management of limited water resources. As a result of this transformation, irrigation has become, together with agricultural machinery, the primary consumer of energy within the agri-food sector. Furthermore, the energy cost of operating pumping equipment during a farming season represents 30–40% of the crop’s total cost. For this reason, one of the most interesting challenges in this scope is that of improving energy efficiency and reducing economic costs so that productive work become more and more competitive. Energy audit makes possible to determine the efficiency of installations, and enables to determine energy saving protocols (requirements), for this reason the aim of this article is to carry out these by using IoT-based systems. The proposed system improves decision-making on agricultural pumping management by classifying wells’ efficiency and integrating the data sets that determine their efficiency into a single information model. The system monitors energy efficiency according to different parameters such as: infrastructure, energy consumption, electric rates, manometric height or type of installation, making it possible to enhance each pumping operation’s decisions. This solution has been deployed in an irrigation community in southeast Spain whose results have warned about the lack of efficiency in two of its wells: in one of them it is proposed that they be replaced, due to the high cost of pumping water, and in the other, hydraulic mechanisms are implemented to improve the water-energy binomial.

Thermo power plant “Kosovo B”– a pollution source for Sitnica River

Kosovo’s waters are unevenly distributed in time and space. Kosovo is water scarce, and it also has the low level of water resources development and storage. In particular Iber basin is water stressed, but in the next 20 years it is expected that all Kosovo’s basins will be water stressed [1]. This is due to population and general economic growth, and resource variability. The anticipated revitalization of the irrigation and mining sector and additional demands from the energy sector will increase pressure on new water demands. For these reasons, the water quality of existing resources will become an ever-growing problem if not addressed now.

Influence of Farmer Capacity Building in Institutional Linkages on Performance of Smallholder Irrigation Projects in Migori County, Kenya

The smallholder irrigation sector in Kenya is considered inadequately developed. The study views unawareness of critical success factors in the smallholder irrigation sector as contributing to poor performance of smallholder irrigation projects. Consequently, the study investigated influence of farmer capacity building in institutional linkages on performance of smallholder irrigation projects in Migori County, Kenya. The study embraced a pragmatic view of philosophy, and used cross sectional and correlation research design. The target population was 2815, and comprised farmers drawn from fifteen smallholder irrigation projects that receive water from River Kuja through Lower Kuja Project. The sample size was 341. The study used systematic random sampling procedure to draw the sample, and collected data using questionnaire. Data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The study established that farmer capacity building in institutional linkages has a significant influence on performance of smallholder irrigation projects (r = 0.803, R2 = 0.645, F (5, 331) = 120.254 and p < 0.000 < 0.05). Thus, the study recommends that Migori County Government come up with policies that link smallholder irrigation projects in Lower Kuja Project to institutions that provide land ploughing services, certified seeds and fertilisers, control of crop pests and diseases, transportation of farm produce and marketing of farm produce.

Comparative Assessment of Physico-Chemical Parameters of Lotic and Lentic Zone of River Betwa in Jhansi (U.P.), India

Water is the most precious natural gift given by God to human race. Its purity is also important for everyone. For the present study two sampling stations, Baratha village and Parichha dam head were selected for comparative assessment of physico-chemical parameters of lotic and lentic zones on Betwa river. Both these sampling stations are located at Jhansi (UP) India. Samples were collected regularly for one complete year from July 2018 to June 2019. Eighteen water parameters and four hundred thirty two samples were analysed. The overall mean ranges of these parameters at Baratha village and Parichha dam head were notified as electric conductivity (518.66±43.47) and (528.75±59.65), pH (8.09±0.36) and (8.14±0.26), water temperature (24.37±4.14) and (23.78±4.12), transparency (54.91±4.97) and (41.61±3.83), turbidity (30±12.38) and (35.25±16.38), TDS (265.33±16.74) and (267.66±25.42), TSS (66.5±12.52) and 69.83±14.45), TS (331.83±28.76) and (337.5±39.04), DO (6.76±0.68) and (6.72±0.86), total alkalinity (141.58±22.74) and (142.25±29.37), total hardness (150.08±22.70) and (153.66±20.55), Ca (29.04±2.32) and (29.84±5.38), Mg (13.51±2.01) and (14.32±2.20), chloride (24.77±3.29) and (26.85±3.99), BOD (4.08±0.71) and (4.15±1.16), COD (11.64±1.02) and (12.82±1.20), NO3 (1.64±0.37) and (1.93±0.59), PO4 (0.46±0.21) and (1.33±0.29). All these findings concluded that the lentic zone (Parichha) is more polluted than the lotic zone (Baratha). However all the observed values are in the range of permissible limits, so both zones can be used for irrigation and fisheries sector.

Irrigation water pricing policies and water resources management

AbstractAs water is a state subject in India, an enormous variation of irrigation water pricing across the states is noticed. Revenue collection under irrigation water charges of the states is not encouraging. The present paper reviews the structures of water pricing mechanism in different states of India and suggests a way to achieve sustainable water resources management in India. Various reports, water policy documents, and major recommendations of the irrigation commission were reviewed and analyzed. It was observed that low revenue collection is mainly due to the low rate of water taxes, no periodic revision, and flaws in the current revenue collection mechanism across the states. The water regulatory authority should be made a statutory body to manage various water uses and their fair pricing. A volumetric pricing system can be implemented in wells and tube-well-irrigated areas and for surface irrigation, and this requires considerable investment in irrigation water supply infrastructure and development of operational plans. Until a well-developed volumetric system comes into practice, the current system of revenue assessment and collection must be rationalized and simplified. An appropriate power tariff policy for rural areas and inclusion of the irrigation sector in a ground water conservation fee is required.

Anthropogenic Activity Effects on Canals Morphology, Case Study: Nile Delta, Egypt

Waterways are usually contaminated with wastes from industrial, domestic or irrigation sectors. Organizations in charge have adopted solutions to eliminate this problem; however, the adopted solutions contribute indirectly to modifying canal morphology during maintenance. These are examples of anthropogenic activity, as well as randomly implemented dredging, which expand the canal cross-sections. Egypt is a country which depends on surface irrigation through a huge network of canals. The majority of canals in Egypt are subject to anthropogenic activity which affects their efficiency. This study aims to assess the impact of conjugated instances of anthropogenic activity and dredging on canal morphology and capacity. Five canals were selected in the current study in the Nile Delta, Egypt. These canals are highly affected by two associated factors: anthropogenic activity by users and dredging by the government. The study also aims to determine the effects of a newly adopted policy for saving surface water through restoration of the canals’ originally designed cross-sections. The results showed a clear change in canal morphology, which has increased the volume of water in the affected canals. In some cases, the volume of water has increased by 59%, which could have negative consequences for Egypt’s water resources. Sustainable management of water resources in Egypt requires saving each water droplet, and canal rehabilitation is expected to save about 6.56 million m3/year by the year 2022.

ORGANIZATIONAL DYNAMICS OF COMMUNITIES FOR WATER USERS (Case in Cihea Irrigation Area, Ciranjang District, Cianjur Regency, West Java)

Growth in food demand caused by population growth exceeded food growth, encouraging the development of irrigation in the colonial era to the present. The solution offered is to intensify agriculture, along with the emergence of new varieties that are responsive to water, and fertilizer, in such a way that production goes up. Therefore water management at the farm level is very much needed. In the Cihea irrigation area, irrigation management (its management authority) has been handed over to farmers, starting from the Submission of Small Irrigation (PIK) program, PKPI (Renewal of Irrigation Management Policy) and WISMP (Water Resource and Irrigation Sector Management Program). Of the 90 P3As that are still developing, only 10% are still running. The non-functioning of the P3A still seems to be a problem in the process of institutionalization of P3A. The purpose of this study is to obtain an overview of the organization’s movements. This research is a quantitative study, with descriptive survey techniques. From the results of the study, P3A Titaguna is a dynamic P3A, because it is supported by a philosophy that prioritizes togetherness, structurally the highest decision is on the members, and in the process of coordination and clarification is prioritized.

El riesgo de disponibilidad de agua en la agricultura: una aplicación a las cuencas del Guadalquivir y del Segura

La agricultura es un sector clave en la economía rural y constituye un motor de crecimiento en regiones del sur de España capaces de desarrollar un regadío competitivo de alto rendimiento. Este es el caso de determinadas comarcas de la Cuenca del Guadalquivir y del Segura, que no obstante afrontan los problemas derivados de la escasez creciente de agua y de un riesgo de sequía cada vez más acusado. Para responder más efectivamente a estos problemas, se han aprobado recientemente una serie de Planes de Sequía que pretenden ofrecer una respuesta planeada y anticipada que sustituya a la gestión de emergencias del pasado. En este trabajo se estudia el impacto previsible de las reglas de decisión de dichos Planes de Sequía (aprobados sin ningún estudio previo sobre las repercusiones económicas de su aplicación), con el objetivo de evaluar si estos contribuyen o no a la sostenibilidad del regadío y por lo tanto de la economía rural y regional que se sustenta sobre esta actividad económica. Se desarrolla un modelo estocástico para evaluar las pérdidas económicas derivadas de la aplicación de los Planes de Sequía en el sector agrario, concluyendo que tales planes no suponen un avance en la sostenibilidad del regadío ni en la garantía de suministro para usos prioritarios.

Irrigation Sector Development: Agro- Economic transformation and Social change in Colonial District Multan (1849-1901)

The aim of this research is to analyze the historical process of continuity and change that led to the socio-economic transformation associated with irrigation sector development in nineteenth-century Multan, thus supplying a missing piece in South Asian Regional economic history and it became unplanned revolution and modernization as happened with colonial Multan. The introduction of the perennial canal system and the commercialization of agricultural crops provided a real opportunity for the economic development of this region. What were the socio-cultural impacts of regional economic policies, and how it penetrates as processes of continuity and change? This research derives its frame of reference by mixing historical, qualitative and quantitative methods of research. The selected data is analyzed from a dialectical rationale approach to critical discourse. This research is based on original, unpublished official reports from British Indian Library London, Punjab Civil Secretariat Lahore.

Solar Energy Application in Indian Irrigation System

The electricity deficit and high diesel costs influence the pumping needs of urban water supply and irrigation; hence, the use of solar power for water pumping is a viable alternative to traditional water pumping systems dependent on grid power and diesel. In recent decades, attention has been given to clean and renewable energies from the vast majority of countries’ priorities in the environmental and economic sectors. Agricultural sector is backbone of Indian economy as population increases demand of water also increases. Extract and transfer of water to agriculture and drinking is equals high-energy consumption. One of the best solutions is to use of an abundant and almost free solar energy to supply energy in all sectors, especially the irrigation sector. In the growth period of crops, when irrigation is often required, there are a high of solar radiation comes from the sun. This study shows that in India, like many other developing countries, the weakness of using this important source, the program of converting solar energy, and photovoltaic pumping systems use. This paper summarizes solar energy development and its application in the irrigation system and comparing them with the conventional diesel pumps. The expected results of this paper are to encourage the politicians, statesmen, and professionals to planning and policy-making the use of the green energy industry in the water sector that could pump water to the villages and agriculture and jump in the energy sector to the economic and Sustainable development.

Key Developments in Indian Irrigation Sector

Key Developments in Indian Irrigation Sector

Analysis of issues in sustainable water management of irrigation systems: case of a developing country

PurposeSustaining the irrigated agriculture, while conserving the natural eco-system, are the two main objectives of sustainable water management (SWM) in irrigation. Achieving both the objectives simultaneously is a complex task in most developing countries. This requires a holistic approach of understanding the issues in irrigation water management (IWM) from social, economic and environmental perspectives. Therefore, this paper aims to analyse the issues towards the SWM of irrigation systems in Sri Lanka to help maintain a stable relationship between the aforementioned two objectives.Design/methodology/approachQualitative interview survey was selected as the research strategy to achieve the research aim. 16 semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts in IWM sector to collect data in the Sri Lankan context. Data were analysed using code-based content analysis, based on directed approach.FindingsFindings revealed the issues in SWM in terms of efficiency of irrigation infrastructure; equity of water distribution; environmental integrity and economic acceptability. Most of the issues were related to the inefficiency towards SWM of irrigation systems. Conflicts among water users, especially the people in downstreams aggravated the problem of equity of water sharing. Depletion of groundwater and waterlogging were the major issues towards environmental integrity. Loss of water happened due to the issues in different irrigation infrastructure components hindering economic acceptability.Originality/valueTheoretical contribution includes an analysis of issues in IWM from a sustainability perspective. Practical implications include an overview of deficiencies in the SWM to generate appropriate strategies to achieve sustainability for decision-makers such as policymakers in the irrigation sector in developing countries similar to Sri Lanka.

Analyzing the Performances of Water User Associations to Increase the Irrigation Sustainability: An Application of Multivariate Statistics to a Case Study in Italy

Benchmarking techniques are useful and simple tools to analyze the performance of the collective irrigation in the Water User Associations (WUAs) towards an increase in service sustainability. Several benchmarking techniques have been proposed to process and predict performance indicators. Instead, some meaningful statistical techniques based on the distance of data samples, which overcome the limitations of the traditional benchmarking techniques, have never been applied to the collective irrigation sector. This study applies Permutational Multivariate Analysis of Variance (PERMANOVA), Multidimensional Scale Models (MDS), and Distance-Based Linear Models (DISTLM) as benchmarking techniques to evaluate the technical and financial performances of 10 WUAs in Calabria (Southern Italy). These benchmarking techniques revealed that the significant differences in the irrigated areas and financial self-sufficiency of the WUAs, shown by PERMANOVA, depend on the large variability of the remaining performance indicators. Both the MDS and DISTLM demonstrated that a higher number of associated users and larger irrigation service coverage allows an increase in the irrigated areas; this enlargement is facilitated if the water price and the size of the personnel staff decrease. The WUAs’ self-sufficiency is mainly influenced by the number of workers and the maintenance, organization, and management costs, while the impacts of the due service fees and water price are more limited; it is also convenient to increase the number of the associated farmers since this increases the economy of scale and the gross revenues of the irrigation service. Overall, from the analysis carried out for the regional case study, these benchmarking techniques seem to be powerful and easy tools to identify the problems of the irrigation service and help in planning the most suitable policies to improve the sustainability of the collective irrigation at the regional scale.

A satellite-based ex post analysis of water management in a blueberry orchard

In the scenario of current water scarcity caused by climate change and increasing water demand for food production, farmers must adapt their water management practices by shifting from supply-driven water management to demand-driven water management, considering trade-offs among quality, quantity and costs. Thus, agricultural practices must take full advantage of technology, research and development and adapt to local requirements. Nowadays, remote sensing is a useful tool for estimating crop water demand (evapotranspiration) as well as mapping their spatial and temporal variability. In this work, we present a new methodology that allows the user to audit (ex post) the irrigation strategies of a blueberry field in central Chile using a decision support system for irrigation decision called AquaSat® as the main tool. This tool combines satellite information with field data and provides spatially distributed information on crop water use for managing irrigation at a farm scale. The main contribution of this work is to detail a new approach for irrigation management through the comparison of volume of applied water, against evapotranspiration and potential demand. This procedure allows the user to audit current irrigation management and to determine the impacts on productivity.From our results, we can conclude that the applied water levels used at the farm during both seasons throughout of the irrigation sector were insufficient to reach the potential blueberries yield.

Implications of storage state behaviour of village tanks in adaptation to climate change, Sri Lanka

Abstract Following Decision 1/CP.21 of the Conference of the Parties, Sri Lanka has identified Nationally Determined Contributions for adaptation to climate change. Restoration and rehabilitation of all abandoned tanks is one such contribution in the irrigation sector. The country has around 13,600 working village tanks of ancient origin. These restored tanks provide irrigation and other water needs at different degrees while a large number of tanks remain abandoned. However, regional storage behaviour of the restored tanks is not adequately understood due to the non-existence of a methodology for storage data collection and assessment. The study presents a statistical approach to assess regional storage behaviour of the tanks with data collected using five storage states method. The storage data of 573 working village tanks in southern Sri Lanka covering three years were analyzed, and revealed a high temporal variation of storage behaviour and low resilience to recover from either dryness or failure for providing irrigation water issues. However, higher time-reliability of water-existence below sluice sill level indicates their potential for providing social and environmental needs. Such assessments facilitate identifying real-time management measures and reviewing policy on restoration of similar reservoirs as an adaptation option for climate change in any region.