3rd World Irrigation Forum (WIF3) ST-1.

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1-7 September 2019, Bali, Indonesia W.1.1.01

MICRO IRRIGATION INFRASTRUCTURE ON

CANAL COMMANDS FOR SUSTAINABLE RICE AND WATER
PRODUCTIVITY UNDER DECLINING WATER AVAILABILITY IN
NORTH-WESTERN PLAINS OF INDIA
Neeraj Sharma1, Rakesh Chauhan2, A K Bhardwaj3 and T. Pandiaraj4

ABSTRACT

Rice is a predominant crop of north-western plains of India contributing substantially to

the country’s agricultural growth and food security. Rice cultivation requires extensive
irrigation, which implies dependence on large quantities of canal & ground water. The
Rice crop consumes 3000-5000 liters of water to produce one-kilogram rice, causing
decline in ground water table 40-50cm per annum as conventional methods of water
conveyance and application are highly inefficient. The quality of ground water is also
not suitable for irrigation in most of the parts of North Western plains, so farmers largely
depend on canal water which is also not available at tail end in the dark zones of the
region. To overcome the water crises and to improve rice productivity, the existing
irrigation infrastructure of open channels at field level has been converted into solar/grid
connected pressurized pipe irrigation system in the canal commands, readily available
for installing Micro Irrigation Systems. To motivate the farmers towards Micro Irrigation
Systems in Rice crop an on-farm trial was initiated for two years with three planting
methods i.e. manual and mechanical transplanting in puddled soil and direct dry
seeding of rice (DSR) with three irrigation practices of flood, drip and sprinkler.
Preliminary results revealed that drip irrigation potentially saved 56% and sprinkler
irrigation 50% water in comparison of flood irrigation. The analysis of results indicates
that pressurized irrigation is a viable option for higher rice and water productivity in
canal commands.

Keywords: Rice, Micro irrigation system, Water Use, Yield, Solar/Grid, Canal
Command.

1. INTRODUCTION

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most significant food crops in the world which is
largely grown in Eastern and Southern Asia. It is grown in a wide range of environments
and productive in many situations where other crops would fail. Rice-growing
environments are based on their hydrological characteristics which include irrigated,
rain fed lowland, upland. Water - nature’s gift to mankind is not unlimited and free
forever. The amount of water present in the universe is only about 1520 million cubic
kilometers, 97% is ocean and sea water, 2% is frozen arctic waters and only 1% is
water in lakes, rivers and underground water, which is portable water for direct use to
humans (Shaker, 2004). Rice is an obvious target for water conservation as it is grown
on more than 30% of irrigated land and accounts for 50% of irrigation water.

Worldwide, about 80 million hectare of irrigated lowland rice provides 75% of the
world’s rice production. The north-west Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) of India produces
rice and wheat providing food security to India. Farmers in many rice-growing areas
are likely to have only limited availability of irrigation water and, in future, it is predicted

1
Executive Engineer, Command Area Development Authority (Haryana), India.
2
Chief Engineer, Command Area Development Authority (Haryana), India.
3
Advisor Jain Irrigation System Ltd
4
Assistant Professor, Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, (NDUAT), Azamgarh, UP, India

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1-7 September 2019, Bali, Indonesia W.1.1.01

that in Asia, 17 million ha of irrigated rice areas may experience ‘‘physical water
scarcity’’ and 22 million ha may have ‘‘economic water scarcity’’ by 2025 (Bouman and
Tuong, 2001). Thus, water scarcity threatens the sustainability of irrigated rice
ecosystems since it may no longer be feasible for farmers to undertake wet cultivation
and flood fields to ensure good crop establishment and control weeds (Johnson and
Mortimer, 2005). For example, Jeevandas et al. (2008) estimated a groundwater
depletion rate of 77cm per year in the Amritsar district of Punjab (India). Such an
alarming rate of ground water decline is forcing researchers and farmers to consider
approaches for increasing the water productivity of rice. Furthermore, unavailability of
irrigation is a major cause of yield reduction especially for the late cropping season
from July to October in North-Western plains of India.

About 80% of the agriculture land of the Haryana state situated in different canal
commands including the lift canal commands, but the actual average annual intensity
of canal irrigation in the State is only about 70% (combined for both the crops of Rabi
& Kharif) which undoubtedly reveals the limited availability of canal water (Neeraj et al.,
2018). Large dependence of the State’s agricultural sector on the ground water has led
to overexploitation of this source of water and consequently the water table has
registered a steep decline in the fresh water belts and rise in saline ground water areas
leading to the problems of water logging and soil salinity. The major source of irrigation
is canal commands in the region with good canal network, but have substantial losses
up to 50% in conveyance up to fields resulting in 38 to 40% water use efficiency for
canal and about 60% for ground water irrigation schemes. The quality of ground water
is also not suitable for irrigation so farmers depend mostly on canal water which is not
available at the tail end of canal of the dark zones of the region. Therefore, efficient
irrigation system is necessary for bumper harvest of rice as well as to realize optimum
benefits with mitigation of consequential side effects like water logging in canal head
and no water in the tail end of the canal. In some parts of the world, sprinkler irrigation
facilities are in use but this also amounts to water wastage. To overcome this, Haryana
took rehabilitation of the on-farm field channels by launching a pilot project for
increasing carrying capacity through the pressurized irrigation system. In this,
Solar/Grid Powered Micro Irrigation Infrastructure has been installed in the Canal
Commands by providing community-based water storage tank near outlet head,
Pumping Unit (Grid/Solar Powered), Filtration units, HDPE pipe network/Hydrant/Outlet
assembly, Valves etc. as shown in layout plan Figure 1. Drip/Sprinkler irrigation sets
will be installed by the individual farmers in their farm holdings by availing the benefits
of subsidy. It is proposed to take water from canal outlet through underground pipeline
with gravity and to store the same in the tank of appropriate size for construction of
which the land shall be made available by the WUA of the shareholders of the canal
outlet. Solar/Grid powered pumping system connected through net metering has been
installed nearby the tank with proper filtration systems to avoid any chocking. Water
has been carried to entire area of the chak of the outlet through HDPE pipe line network
under pressure. The entire pipe network has been buried under ground at 3 feet deep
to avoid land acquisition. Water with the requisite pressure for running of the
drip/sprinkler set has been made available to each shareholder at his farm holding
through the common infrastructure to be operated & maintained by the Water User’s
Associations.

Drip irrigation is a more convenient choice of irrigation system as it could provide for
rice growth with water and the nutrients dissolved in the water in a relatively flexible
way. It is possible to establish drip irrigation in-situ as long as there is water source
from a well dug out from underground or from a river nearby. Drip irrigation is
considered as an alternative irrigation approach for better water and fertilizer usage
efficiency (Assouline, 2002; Hanson & May, 2003; Eid et al., 2013). Drip irrigation can
supply water both precisely and uniformly at a high irrigation frequency compared to
furrow and sprinkler irrigation, thus potentially increasing yield, reducing subsurface

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1-7 September 2019, Bali, Indonesia W.1.1.01

drainage, providing better salinity control and better disease management since only
the soil is wetted whereas the leaf surface stays dry (Hanson & May, 2007). However,
there are still many things unclear about the practicability of this irrigation system as to
the water use efficiency on rice plant, the yield ability, impact on environment and the
production cost. Thus, this project is carried out in the canal commands of north
western plains of India aimed at exploring the possibility of growing more and
environment-friendly rice with less water through joint application of water-saving and
pressurized irrigation system with different planting methods.

(Adopted from Neeraj et al., 2018)

Figure 1. Layout of irrigation infrastructure adopted in command area of Haryana

2. METHODS

The aim of this research is to study the rice yield using optimum water by reducing
conveyance loss in canal command regions of North-Western plains of India.
Experimental studies were carried out during kharif season in 2017 and 2018 in the
fields at Kurukshetra region of Haryana state in India. The experimental site is situated
at Latitude 30 7
̊ 5’N and Longitude 76 7 ̊ 8’E at an altitude of 260 m above mean sea
level (MSL). The Soil type of the experimental field is clay loam. Monsoon starts at the
end of June and extends up to September. The annual rainfall of the region is 720mm.
During the cropping period, total rainfall of the study area was 337 and 211mm in 2017
and 2018, respectively (Fig. 2).

The field experiment was conducted using PR 114 variety of rice. In this study, three
different irrigation systems (drip, sprinkler and traditional flood) and three planting
methods (Direct seeding rice, Mechanical transplanting and Manual transplanting)
were used. The irrigation treatments were based on average water requirement of rice
according to soil moisture condition. The irrigation was given through HDPE pipe by
12.5 HP motor from the common infrastructure. The pressure maintained in the system
was 2.5 kg/cm2. From the sub-mains, in-line laterals of 16 mm were laid at a spacing
of 0.6 m with 2.4 lph discharge with emitters placed at a distance of 40 cm. A line
source of sprinkler irrigation system was used for sprinkler irrigation. The sprinkler
heads were located at 10 m intervals on the lateral pipe and total numbers of sprinklers
were 40 with part cycle for one-acre land area. The flood irrigation was maintained at
5.0 cm water depth in traditional method.

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1-7 September 2019, Bali, Indonesia W.1.1.01

140
120

Rainfall (mm)
100
80
60
40
20
0

Standard Meteorological Weeks

Year 2017

Figure 2. Rainfall during the experimental period in the year 2017 and 2018

The urea as nitrogen and muriate of potash (MOP) as source of fertilizers were applied
through fertigation under drip and sprinkler systems whereas Single Super Phosphate
(SSP) and Zinc fertilizers were applied through soil application during the sowing time.
In flood irrigation method, all fertilizers were applied by broadcasting, in which, half
dose of N, full dose of P and K fertilizers were applied through basal application and
remaining half dose of N fertilizers applied through top dressing. Pre-emergence
herbicides of Pretilachlor and pendimethalin at 1.25 kg per hectare were applied in
transplanted rice of mechanical and manual methods and direct seeded rice,
respectively. During the study period, data on water used for irrigation including control
(flood irrigated, puddled) plus monsoon rains received during the crop duration per
hectare yield in kg/ha, water productivity in kg grain per m3, water used for irrigation
calculated for each irrigation and planting systems. The total expenditure incurred on
inputs such as seeds, manure, fertilizers, chemicals, pest’s management, weeds
control, labour used for various operations from land preparation to final harvest,
cleaning etc. and irrigation system costs were recorded and the savings in water and
expenditure over control calculated. The recorded data were subjected to statistical
analysis in the two-factor factorial analysis using WASP Package (Version 2.0)
following the method of Gomez and Gomez (1984).

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Water Use Studies and Their Efficiency

Total water used was highest in flood irrigation method (209.43 ha-cm) when compared
to drip irrigation (91.40 ha-cm) and sprinkler irrigation (103.27 ha-cm) methods (Table
1). According to planting methods, DSR transplanting used higher water requirement
(146.23 ha-cm) followed by mechanical (132.67 ha-cm). The lower water use was
observed in manual transplanting method (89.20 ha-cm). Drip and sprinkler irrigation
systems in manual transplanting method used less water 84.0 ha-cm and 89.2 ha-cm,
respectively. Further the results show that drip irrigation saved 56.18% of total water
required as compared to flood irrigation method. Similar result was also reported by
Rajeev et al., 2018 that water saving by 30.7 and 28.7 per cent in drip and sprinkler,
respectively than flood irrigation under rice ecosystem. In an another study reported by
Bhardwaj et al., 2018 that drip irrigation in rice saved about 51 per cent irrigation water
over conventional flood irrigation method. In case of total water used to produce a unit
of rice grain yield, farmers’ method used more water (Figure 3). In comparison with
planting and irrigation methods, flood irrigation method consumed higher rate in all the

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planting methods particularly in mechanical transplanted rice. In contrast, water used

per unit of rice grain produced was lower in drip irrigation under all the planting
methods. Higher yield with less water was recorded to produce a unit of rice grain yield
(1259 l kg-1) in manual followed by drip in DSR (1464 l kg-1). The less use of water in
drip irrigation system over flood irrigation was mainly due to the controlled water
release near the crop root zone (Punamhoro et al., 2003). Higher yields are due to
higher intake of nutrients by crop due to timely and frequent supplementation of water
and nutrient to root zone leading to decrease in leaching and volatilization losses of
nitrogen. The favourable effect of water and nutrients on crop growth and grain yield in
drip irrigation probably resulted in higher efficiency of water use. These results are in
accordance with findings of Vijayakumar (2009) and Sundarapandian (2012).

3.2 Rice Yield

Data presented in Table 2 illustrate that among the different irrigation methods the
highest grain yield was recorded with drip irrigation (6281 kg ha-1) which was slightly
more than sprinkler irrigation (6057 kg ha-1) method. In case of planting methods, rice
transplanted manually recorded highest grain yield (6402 kg ha-1). Mechanical
transplanted rice was observed to have lower rice grain yield (5466 kg ha-1). These
results indicated that rice yield in drip irrigation increased by 11% over flood irrigation
method. Sprinkler irrigation increased yield by 7.37% over flood irrigation.

Table 1. Various irrigation practices influence on total water use under different planting
methods

The authors recorded considerable increase in yield under drip irrigation as compared
to flood or sprinkler irrigation. Higher grain yield with drip may be due to its superiority
in producing higher productive tillers, panicle length, thousand seed weight and total
number of filled grains panicle with lower percentage chaffyness than the other
treatment. High numbers of productive tillers were due to continuous availability of
water and nutrients resulted in higher production of dry matter under drip irrigation. In
contrast, lower yield resulted for DSR method was due to paddy seed sown in the
period of hot summer (late May month) causes poor germination consequently sparse
plant population. Contradictory, Bhardwaj et al., 2018 reported higher yield associated
with DSR in drip irrigation system. Similarly, Thangjam et al., 2018 reported rice grain
yield of drip irrigation in DSR was increased up to 35.31% over conventional
transplanted rice. Overall reduction of rice yield in mechanical transplanted rice could

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1-7 September 2019, Bali, Indonesia W.1.1.01

be due to improper planting done in the plots caused lower seedling rates per unit area.
These findings are in conformity with the findings of Gururaj (2013) and Soman (2012).

5000
Water used per kg grain

4000
3000
yield

2000
1000
0 Sprinkler

Sprinkler

Sprinkler

Flood/reg
Flood

Flood

Flood
Drip

Drip

Drip

ular
Figure 3. amount of water used to produced one kg grain yield of rice under different irrigation
and planting methods (Two year pooled mean data)

3.3 Economics

The economics of different treatments in planting methods under both micro irrigation
and conventional method of irrigation were worked out and are presented in Table 3.
The micro irrigation system has been found more profitable than surface irrigation due
to higher yield. Among the different irrigation methods the gross returns were higher
when the crop was irrigated with drip system (Rs. 109920 ha-1) these were closely
followed by the treatment with sprinkler. This is mainly due to increase in grain yield as
compared to rest of the treatments. On the other hand, among the different planting
methods, manual transplanted rice was found to be higher gross return (Rs. 112034
ha-1). The lower gross return was observed in mechanical transplanted rice.

Table 2 Various irrigation practices influence rice grain yield under different
transplanting method (two-year pooled mean data)

At the same time, higher net returns (Rs.70956 ha-1) were recorded in rice grown under
drip irrigation system comparing to sprinkler (Rs.68577 ha-1) and flood irrigation (Rs.
62878 ha-1) methods. Similarly, transplanted manual method (Rs. 73431 ha-1) recorded
higher net return than other methods. A combination of drip irrigation and manual
transplanted rice has comparatively given higher net return (Rs. 76829 ha-1) and the
lower return was observed with flood irrigation in mechanical transplanted rice (Rs.
54827 ha-1). Andrianaivo (2002) reported that optimal water use can enhance returns
from micro irrigation with enhanced labour productivity and far higher net income than
traditional methods for the cultivation of rice. The findings of the present study are

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1-7 September 2019, Bali, Indonesia W.1.1.01

consistent with Andrianaivo’s analysis and that of many other studies. These results
were in accordance with the findings of Veeraputhiran et al. (2002), Abdelraouf et al.
(2013) and Richakhanna (2013).

Table 3. Economics and monetary benefits by adopting various irrigation methods

under different transplanting

4. CONCLUSION

The present study found that the adoption of drip irrigation combined with manual
transplanted rice offers substantial agronomic and economic advantages for rice
growing farmers on canal command regions of North-Western India. Plant growth and
grain yield were found significantly higher in drip-irrigated plots. Apart from high yield,
water productivity and water use to produce rice grain yield are far better in drip-
irrigated rice cultivation than with manual transplanted. The evidence assembled and
analyzed here suggests that manual transplanted rice with drip irrigation is a promising
adaptation for reducing the water and energy demand of rice crop in the canal
command area of North-Western parts of India. However, long-term, multi-location
trials will be needed to arrive at percentages of water and cost saving that is achievable
under varied and specific conditions.

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