Feasibility Evaluation of Pressurized Irrigation in Canal Commands

Abstract

India has one of the largest and most ambitious irrigation programme in the world with net irrigated area exceeding 47 million hectares. However, the overall project efficiency from the headwork to the farmer's field has been quite low which leads to not only poor utilization of irrigation potential created at huge cost, but also aggravates the degradation of soil and water resources and thereby endangers the sustainability of agricultural production system. As the cost of creating additional irrigation potential in terms of financial, human and environmental aspects has increased tremendously, need of the hour is to increase the irrigation efficiency of existing projects and use saved water for irrigating new areas or meeting the demand of non-agricultural sector. The contribution of application efficiency to poor irrigation efficiency is quite high and therefore increasing application efficiency by a shift in application method from surface to pressurized system has potential of vastly improving irrigation efficiency. To evaluate feasibility of this concept, a pilot study was initiated at Water Technology Centre for Eastern Region, Bhubaneswar, on one outlet of a minor irrigation command. The system has been designed in such a way that it provides pipe conveyance and surface irrigation for rice cultivation during monsoon season and pressurized irrigation during post monsoon period through a hybrid system of sprinkler and drip with four outlets for sprinkler irrigating 2.8 ha area and two outlets for drip irrigating 1.9 ha area. The system is also capable of providing irrigation through drip to part of a command during summer for third crop using water stored in service reservoir after the canal is closed in first week of April. To take care of sediment in the canal water, there are three stages of filtration: first by hydrocyclone filter which filters heavy suspended materials viz. sand, silt, etc., then by the sand filter and finally by the screen filter. The filtration at three stages reduces 3018 R.C. Srivastava et al. the turbidity to the desired level. It has been found that three-stage filtration reduced the turbidity to two NTU which is within permissible limit. Considering the cost of water saved, a benefit-cost ratio of the system was found out to be 1.126. This B: C ratio can be further increased by increasing the productivity of the fish and papaya in service reservoir area and better crop management during summer season.

Improving Water Productivity Through Micro‐irrigation in Arid Punjab Regions

“…Kumar et al (2009) found that integration of rainwater harvesting and gravity-fed micro-irrigation systems is an effective method of water management for growing vegetables. Srivastava et al (2010) observed that irrigation efficiency can be increased up to 95% by replacing the irrigation method from conventional (border or furrow) to pressurized irrigation. Micro-irrigation has wide adaptability in semi-arid and arid regions where water supply remains limited (Cetin et al, 2004;Singh et al, 2001Singh et al, , 2007.…”

“…Hence, an auxiliary reservoir becomes an important component in planning of micro-irrigation systems especially when canal water supply is intermittent. An auxiliary reservoir is a storage structure (pond/tank) constructed in the canal irrigated area allowing farmers to store precious canal water and use it more judiciously through micro-irrigation for crop production (Kumar et al, 2008;Srivastava et al, 2010). Sometimes, during a lean period (a period with low demand for canal water) or in the rainy season when canal water is not required for irrigation of crops, it can be easily stored in an auxiliary reservoir for use during critical periods through the microirrigation system (Kumar et al, 2008;Kumar and Singh, 2010;Singh et al, 2010).…”

A Review on Feasibility of Pressurized Irrigation in Canal Command Area

“…Later Shrivastava et al (2010), presented a study on feasibility of pressurized irrigation in canal command area.…”

Investment profitability and economic efficiency of the drip irrigation system: Evidence from Egypt*

“…We used financial discounted criteria such as the benefitcost ratio (BCR), net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR). The current study adopted the following equations to estimate the BCR, NPV and IRR criteria (Srivastava et al, 2010;Patil and Poddar, 2016;Borrego-Marín and Berbel, 2019):…”