Assessment of Available Water and Crop Water Requirements of Major Crops in Nagarjuna Sagar Right Canal Command Area, Andhra Pradesh, India

The mean water releases at head section of 11 years of Nagarjuna Sagar Jawahar right main Canal, Andhra Pradesh, India is found to be 128.13 TMC (3,627.71 MCM). The mean surface water availability was estimated as 2,229 MCM. For the efficient utilization of groundwater, the quality plays a major role in terms of selection of crop variety for sustainable agriculture. The ground water quantity of the command area available was estimated 1385 MCM and the mean annual conjunctive use of command area was 3,614 MCM (128 TMC). The crop water requirement for paddy, cotton, chilies, millet and pulses were estimated in the command area by using CROPWAT model. The crop water requirement for paddy in NSRC command area of Guntur district for black soils was 848.2 mm. The irrigation water requirement was 638.9 mm and for red soils, crop water requirement for paddy and irrigation water requirements were 848.2 mm and 624.5 mm respectively. Similarly, computed for all the crops and overall crop water demand for both (Guntur and Prakasam) districts of NSRC command area for different soils and different crops per annum was 4,456 MCM without considering cattle and domestic water use. Based on the research, it was concluded that the available water is not sufficient and it is suggested to choose alternative crops for bringing entire area into cultivation

Irrigation Performance Assessment in Krishna Western Delta Using Remote Sensing and GIS

Satellite provides a convenient platform to observe earth features, capable of giving spatial data, which is continuous in nature. Satellite imageries at regular intervals are useful in generating information on the status of irrigation commands at different time intervals for performance evaluation. The present study was carried out in Krishna Western Delta (KWD), with the data of IRS P6 (Resource Sat-I) LISS III to evaluate the overall performance of irrigation during Kharif 2005 in Modukur command using performance indicators and comparing with historical values using Earth Resource Data Analysis System (ERDAS) 9.0 and Model Crop Irrigation Water Requirement (CRIWAR). Irrigation performance assessment was judged by arriving at different performance indicators like uniformity of water application index (2.11-3.26) indicating highly non-uniform water distribution and wate

Assessment of Variability of Rainfall and Canal Water under Telugu Ganga Project Command in Andhra Pradesh

The present study was conducted to make a detailed assessment of the variability and relationships of rainfall (mm) received, canal water (Mcum) supplied and the yield (kg/ha) of major crops viz., paddy, groundnut, sugarcane, sorghum and cotton crops attained under the Telugu Ganga Project (TGP) command area in Andhra Pradesh during 1997 to 2021. The crop productivity would always be influenced by the water resource available to a crop. Accordingly, linear and quadratic regression models of yield were calibrated to predict the yield of crops through canal water supplied in different years. The regression models were assessed based on the significance of coefficient of determination (R2) and magnitude of prediction error (PE) of the yield over years. The canal water released in different years was found to significantly influence the yield of paddy, groundnut, cotton and sugarcane crops under the TGP command area. The quadratic regression models gave higher and significant values of R2 compared to the linear regression models calibrated for different crops. The predictability of yield was found to be 0.725 under quadratic model compared to 0.605 under linear model for paddy, while it was 0.458 under quadratic model compared to 0.406 under linear model for groundnut. In case of sugarcane, the predictability of yield was found to be 0.488 under quadratic model compared to 0.431 under linear model. The models were found to be useful for prediction of yield of crops through varying levels of canal water released in different years. This will greatly help to efficiently utilize the canal water resources with regard to the quantity and frequency of water to be provided for irrigation of crops. Since the canal water released under TGP command area is highly assured,we recommend that the farmers could efficiently utilize the available canal water by growing less water requiring crops and attain maximum yield and profit by adopting the improved agricultural technologies of different crops grown under the TGP command area