Irrigation and its
Development
UNIT-I
Types of Irrigation
• Surface Irrigation
• Flow Irrigation
• Perennial Irrigation
• Flood Irrigation
• Lift Irrigation
• Sub-surface Irrigation
• Natural Sub-Irrigation
• Artificial Sub-Irrigation
Techniques of Water
Distribution in the Farms
• Free Flooding
• Border Flooding
• Check Flooding
• Basin Flooding
• Furrow Irrigation
• Sprinkler Irrigation
• Drip Irrigation
Free Flooding
• In this method, ditches are excavated in the field, and they may
be either on the contour or up and down the slope.
• Water from these ditches, flows across the field. After the water
leaves the ditches, no at-tempt is made to control the flow by
means of levees, etc.
• Since the movement of water is not restricted, it is sometimes
called wild flooding.
• Although the initial cost of land preparation is low, labour
requirements are usually high and water application efficiency is
also low. Wild flooding, is most suitable for close growing crops,
pastures, etc., particularly where the land is steep.
• Contour ditches called laterals or subsidiary ditches, are
generally spaced at about 20 to 50 metres apart, depending
upon the slope, texture of soil.
Border Flooding
• In this method, the land is divided into a number of strips, separated by low levees
called borders.
• The land areas confined in each strip is of the order of 10 t0 20 metres in width, and
100 to 400 metres in length.
• Ridges between borders should be sufficiently high to prevent overtopping during
irrigation.
• To prevent water from concentrating on either side of the border, the land should be
levelled perpendicular to the flow.
• The water flows slowly towards the lower end, and infiltrates into the soil as it
advances. When the advancing water reaches the lower end of the strip, the supply
of water to the strip is turned off.
• The size of the supply ditch depends upon the infiltration rate of the soil, and the
width of the border strip. Coarse textured soils with high infiltration rates will require
high discharge rate and therefore larger supply ditch, in- order to spread water over
the entire strip rapidly, and to avoid excessive losses due to deep percolation at the
upper reaches.
• On the other hand, fine textured soils with low infiltration rates, require smaller
• Check flooding is similar to free flooding except that the
water is controlled by surrounding check area with low
and flat levees.
• Levees are generally constructed long the contours with
vertical interval of 5-10cm.
• The confined plot area varies from 0.2 to 0.8 ha.
Basin Flooding Irrigation
• This method is a special type of check flooding and is adopted specially
for orchard trees.
• One or more trees are generally placed in the basin, and the surface is
flooded as in check method, by ditch water.
Furrow Irrigation
• In flooding methods, water covers the entire surface; while in furrow
irrigation method only one fifth to one half of the land surface is
wetted by water.
• It therefore, results in less evaporation, less pudding of soil, and
permits cultivation sooner after irrigation.
• Furrows are narrow field ditches, excavated between rows of plants
and carry irrigation water through them.
• Spacing of furrows is determined by the proper spacing of the plants.
Furrows vary from 8 to 30 cm deep, and may be as much as 400
metres long.
• Excessive long furrows may result in too much percolation near the
upper end, and too little water near the down-slope end.
• Deep furrows are widely used for row crops. Small shallow furrows
called corrugations, are particularly suitable for relatively irregular
Sprinkler Irrigation
The conditions favouring the adoption of this method, are :
• When the land topography is irregular, and hence unsuitable for surface
irrigation.
• When the land gradient is steeper, and soil is easily erodible.
• When the land soil is excessively permeable, so as not to permit good
water distribution by surface irrigation ; or when the soil is highly
impermeable.
• When the water table is high.
• When the area is such that the seasonal water requirement is low, such
as near the coasts.
• When the crops to be grown are such (a) as to require humidity control,
as in tobacco (b) crops having shallow roots ; or (c) crops. requiring high
and frequent irrigation.
The advantages of sprinkler irrigation are enumerated below :
• Seepage losses, which occur in earthen channels of surface irrigation methods, are
completely eliminated. Moreover, only optimum quantity of water is used in this method.
• Land levelling is not required, and thus avoiding removal of top fertile soil, as happens in
other surface irrigation methods.
• No cultivation area is lost for making ditches, as happens in surface irrigation methods.
It, thus, .results in increasing about 16% of the cropped area.
• In sprinkler system, the water is to be applied at a rate lesser than the infiltration
capacity of the soil, and thus avoiding surface runoff, and its bad effects, such as loss of
water, washing of top soil, etc.
• Fertilisers can be uniformly applied, because they are mixed with irrigation water itself.
• This method leaches down salts and prevents water-logging or salinity.
• It is less labour oriented, and hence useful where labour is costly and ,scarce.
• Upto 80% efficiency can be achieved, i.e. upto 80% of applied water can be stored in the
root zone of plants.
The limitations of sprinkler irrigation are also enumerated below :
• High winds may distort sprinkler pattern, causing non-uniform spreading of water
on the, crops.
• In areas of high temperature and high wind velocity, considerable evaporation
losses of water may take place.
• They are not suited to crops requiring frequent and larger depths of irrigation,
such as paddy.
• Initial cost of the system is very high, and the system requires a high technical,
skill.
• Only sand and silt free water can be used, as otherwise pump impellers lifting
such waters will get damaged.
• It requires larger electrical power.
• Heavy soil with poor intake cannot be irrigated efficiently.
Drip Irrigation
Irrigation Water Quality
Parameters need to be considered
• Sediment concentration in water .
• Total concentration of soluble salts in water
• Proportion of sodium ions to other cations
• Concentration of potentially toxic elements present in water
• Bicarbonate concentration as related to the concentration of
calcium plus magnesium
• Bacterial contamination.
Sediment
• When fine sediment from water is deposited on sandy soils, the
fertility is improved. On the other hand, if the sediment has
been derived from the eroded areas, it may reduce the fertility
or decrease the soil permeability.
• Sediment water creates troubles in irrigation canals, as it
increases their siltation and maintenance costs.
• In general, ground water or surface water from reservoirs, etc.
does not have sufficient sediment to cause any serious
problems in irrigation
Total concentration of soluble salts
• Salts of calcium, magnesium sodium and potassium, present in the
irrigation water may prove injurious to plants. When present in
excessive quantities, they reduce the osmotic activities of the plants,
and may prevent adequate aeration, causing injuries to plant growth.
• The injurious effects of salts on the plant growth depend upon the
concentration of salts left in the soil. The concentration of salts in water,
may not appear to be harmful to the plants, but the concentration of
salts which remain in the soil after the saline water is used up by the
plants is much more than the first, and may prove to be harmful.
• In other words, at the beginning of irrigation with undesirable water, no
harm may be evident, but with the passage of time, the salt
concentration in the soil may increase to a harmful level,
Proportion of sodium ions to other cations
• Most of the soils contain calcium and magnesium ions and small
quantities of sodium ions.
• The percentage of the sodium ions is generally less than 5% of
the total exchangeable cations.
• If this percentage increases to about 10% or more, the
aggregation of soil grains breaks down. The soil becomes less
permeable and of poorer tilth. It starts crusting when dry and its
pH increases towards that of an alkaline soil. High sodium soils
are, therefore, plastic, sticky when wet, and are prone to form
clods, and they crust on drying
Concentration of potentially toxic elements.
A large number of elements such as boron, selenium, etc. may be toxic to plants.
Traces of Boron are essential to plant growth, but its concentrations above 0.3
ppm may prove toxic to certain plants. The concentration above 0.5 ppm is
dangerous to nuts, citrus fruits and deciduous fruits.
Bicarbonate concentration as related to concentration of calcium plus magneisum
High concentration of bi-carbonate ions may result in precipitation of calcium and
magnesium bicarbonates from the soil-solution, increasing the relative proportion
of sodium ions and causing sodium hazards.
Bacterial contamination
Bacterial contamination of irrigation water is not a serious problem, unless the
crops irrigated with highly contaminated water are directly eaten without cooked