Productivity and Equity of Different Irrigation Schedules under Limited Water Supply
Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 132, Issue 4
Abstract
Some irrigation schemes with limited water supply in Central and Southern India follow the area proportionate water distribution based on assumed uniform characteristics of the command area (planned schedule). However in most cases, this planned schedule is overridden by the practice in which users at head draw more than their share of water (actual schedule) due to human factors and technical limitations of the planned schedule. This practice is highly inequitable as users at tail end do not get any water. This paper considers alternative schedules based on full irrigation or deficit irrigation within the framework of area proportionate water distribution in such irrigation schemes and presents the simulation–optimization technique to develop the corresponding land area and water allocation plan for different allocation units by considering the heterogeneity of the irrigation scheme. This paper further demonstrates the utility of proposed alternative schedules by comparing the productivity and equity of these schedules with planned and actual schedules for one irrigation scheme in Central India. The results show that the actual schedule reduces both productivity and equity greatly and the productivity and equity with the alternative schedules are higher than with the planned schedule. The results also show that deficit irrigation has great potential to increase both productivity and equity of irrigation schemes.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Abernethy, C. L. (1986). “Performance measurement in canal water management: A discussion.” ODI-IIMI Irrigation Management Network, 86/2d, 1–25, Overseas Development Institute, London, U.K.
Allen, R. G., Pereira, L. S., Raes, D., and Smith, M. (1998). “Crop evapotranspiration. Guidelines for predicting crop water requirements.” Food and agricultural organization irrigation and drainage paper 56, United Nations, Rome, Italy.
Borg, H., and Grimes, D. W. (1986). “Depth development of roots with time: An empirical description.” Trans. ASAE, 29, 194–197.
Dastane, N. G. (1974). “Effective rainfall.” Food and agricultural organization irrigation and drainage paper 25, United Nations, Rome, Italy.
Doorenbos, J., and Kassam, A. H. (1986). “Yield response to water.” Food and agricultural organization irrigation and drainage paper 33, United Nations, Rome, Italy.
Doorenbos, J., and Pruitt, W. O. (1984). “Guidelines for predicting crop water requirements.” Food and agricultural organization irrigation and drainage paper 24, United Nations, Rome, Italy.
English, M., and Nuss, G. S. (1982). “Designing for deficit irrigation.” J. Irrig. Drain. Div., 108(2), 91–106.
Gorantiwar, S. D. (1995). “A model for planning and operation of heterogeneous irrigation schemes in semiarid regions under rotational water supply” Ph.D. thesis, Loughborough Univ. of Technology, Loughborough, Leicestershire, U.K.
Gorantiwar, S. D., and Smout, I. K. (1995). “Optimizing the use of water in a multicrop-soil irrigation scheme.” Proc., 26th Congress of the Int. Association for Hydraulic Research, Vol. 4, Institution of Civil Engineers, London, 386–391.
Gorantiwar, S. D., and Smout, I. K. (2003). “Allocation of scarce water resources using deficit irrigation in rotational systems.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 129(3), 155–163.
Gorantiwar, S. D., and Smout, I. K. (2005a). “Multilevel approach for optimizing land and water resources and irrigation deliveries for tertiary units in large irrigation schemes. II: Application.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 131(3), 264–272.
Gorantiwar, S. D., and Smout, I. K. (2005b). “Performance assessment of irrigation water management of heterogeneous irrigation schemes. I: A framework for evaluation.” Irrig. Drain. Syst., 19, 1–36.
Keller, J., Sivanappan, R. K., and Varadan, K. M. (1992). “Design logic for deficit drip irrigation of coconut trees.” Irrig. Drain. Syst., 6, 1–7.
Mandavia, A. B. (1998). “Modernization of irrigation system operational management by way of canal automation in India.” Modernization of irrigation system operations: Proc., 5th ITIS Network Int. Meeting, Aurangabad, India.
Smout, I. K., and Gorantiwar, S. D. (2005). “A multilevel approach for optimizing land and water resources and irrigation deliveries for tertiary units in large irrigation schemes. I: Method.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 131(3), 254–263.
Stewart, J. I., and Hagan, R. M. (1973). “Functions to predict effects of crop water deficits.” J. Irrig. Drain. Div., 99(4), 421–439.
Trimmer, W. L. (1990). “Applying partial irrigation in Pakistan.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 116(3), 342–353.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 132 • Issue 4 • August 2006
Pages: 349 - 358
Copyright
© 2006 ASCE.
History
Received: Dec 17, 2004
Accepted: Jul 1, 2005
Published online: Aug 1, 2006
Published in print: Aug 2006
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.