ON DEMAND WATER SUPPLY AND WATER USE EFFICIENCY THROUGH BURRIED PIPE SYSTEM- A CASE STUDY

Radhakrishna A. R, Ravikumar A. S

Abstract: Land and water are the two basic needs of agricultural and economic development of any country. According to FAO, about 60 percent of water supplied in surface irrigation course goes unused. Majority of irrigation projects undertaken worldwide indicated that generally low irrigation efficiencies. The main component of water losses in irrigation system may be attributed to water losses in storage, losses in conveyance system, losses in operations and losses in application. Indiscriminate use of water indirectly affects the normal growth and yield of the crop. To strengthen the sustainable agriculture in Karnataka, tank irrigation system was established centuries ago. During the past few decades, due to erratic rainfall and distribution pattern during kharif, the tank filling status was not consistent and probability of available water for irrigation purposes was also not certain. In order to minimize the losses in conveyance of water from the source to the target site, the buried pipe Distributary systems have been designed and developed, which is the first of its kind for tank command irrigation with the adoption of solar pump to lift water from the jack well in order to reduce the dependence on the erratic electric supply at village level. The effect of on-demand water supply on different crops yield during Kharif and rabi/summer 2003 to 2008 indicated that there was a significant change in the yield of crops and cropping pattern in command area due to intervention of on demand water supply.

Keywords: Command area, crop water requirement, buried pipe system, water use efficiency

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2014.0318025