Ingeniería de Sistemas de Riego y Drenaje

Study on Water Requirement of Selected Crops under Tarikere Command Area using CROPWAT

Abstract

Nithya KB and Shivapur AV

A study was carried out to determine the crop water requirement of few selected crops for the command area in Tarikere taluk in Karnataka state, India. The crops include areca nut, coconut, and cotton, banana for two seasons, sweet pepper, onion, potato, rice, pulses, mango, and cotton, sugarcane and millet (ragi). Crop water requirement for each crop was determined by using 30-year climatic data in CROPWAT. Reference crop evapotranspiration (ET0) was determined using the FAO Penman Monteith method. For all the crops considered, three decades: decades I, II, and III and seven crop growth stages: nursery, nursery/land preparation, land preparation, initial stage, development stage, mid-season and late season stage were considered. The study shows that reference evapotranspiration (ET0) varies from 2.5 to 3.36 mm/day for the area under study. The gross water requirement was 342.42 mm/year with an application efficiency of 70% and hence the entire crop area of 4466 ha requires 16 MCM. Thus the dam can conveniently supply the water required for irrigation in the area.