PLANNING OF AN IRRIGATION PROJECT

Abstract

Irrigated agriculture has made a major contribution to food production and food security throughout the world. Population increase and the improvement of living standard brought about by development resulted in a sharp increase in food demand during the last decades. FAO analysis (FAO, 2003) of 93 developing countries expects agricultural production to increase over the period 1998-2030 by 49% in rain fed systems and by 81% in irrigated systems. Therefore, to meet future demands of food for increasing population, scientific planning of water and land resources is important in agriculture sector. Water, the most precious gift of the nature, prime natural resources and is one of the basic tenets of life. No flora or fauna is possible without water. Contrary to general belief that this resource is inexhaustible, in reality it is not giving encouraging picture in a planning horizon of over 50 years, it has become a scarce resource for human being both in quantity as well as quality, causing a concern for the humanity. With projected Indian population of 1.64 billion by the year 2050 A.D., the country will be under water stress even if total available water of 2301 billion cum is taken in to consideration. Coming to present scenario, water is under relentless pressure due to galloping population and consequent rise in demand of water. One of the methods for increasing productivity of water consumed in agriculture is by irrigation planning and management. The study deals with the irrigation planning in Tawa river basin located in Hoshangabad district of Madhya Pradesh, India. The objective of this study is to determine surface water availability, crop water requirement, optimize reservoir yield, optimize net economic return and analyze economic output. Ranking method is used to access the flow availability. Integrated Reservoir Yield Model (IRYM) is used to achieve optimal solution for reservoir yield estimation and optimal net iii return estimation. Standard Annual Worth method, BCR method, and IRR method is adopted in economic analysis. 22 years monthly discharge data and 25 years derived metrological data are used in the study to proceed through the water balance calculation. Other economic and demographic, nutrients data are referenced from INGO, and GO web sites and journals. The maximum annual flow is found 9507 MCM with probability of equal or exceedence of 4.75% while the minimum flow is obtained 1872 MCM with probability of equal or exceedence of 95.65%. Total crop water requirement for Paddy 964 mm, Ground nut 536 mm, Maize 425 mm, Fodder 353 mm, Wheat 325 mm, pulse 295 mm, Vegetable summer 278 mm, Oilseed 218 mm and Vegetable winter 218 mm are achieved. In Net Irrigation Requirement (NIR) Ground nut has highest demand 535 mm and Maize has least 96 mm, Other crops have Fodder 352 mm, Wheat 317 mm, Pulse 286 mm, Paddy 270 mm, Oilseed 217 mm, Vegetable winter 211 mm, and Vegetables summer 116 mm. Annual Gross Irrigation Requirement of Optimal cropping pattern is 1.37 times, and optimal net return cropping pattern is 1.15 times greater than the annual Gross Irrigation Requirement of existing cropping pattern. The optimal water allocation is obtained in 75% water dependability. The optimized annual reservoir yield is found to be 2,567 MCM which can irrigate total crop area of 413,555 ha, 170.36 % in intensity. Reservoir operation table for optimal reservoir. yield cropping pattern demand in monthly time step shows reliability of monthly flow 95.61% and, the reliability of yearly flow 73.68%. The benefit cost ratio in optimal cropping pattern is 3.8 with IRR 31.59% while in optimal net return cropping pattern benefit cost ratio is 5.8 with IRR 33.395% while in existing cropping pattern it is only 2.7 with IRR of 30.01%. From economic indicators it is clear that the project is playing vital role in economic enhancement for the people of the study area.