Tensiometer for irrigation scheduling in Rice

Rajan Bhatt
Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kapurthala
Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana

During the last four decades, Punjab has witnessed a phenomenal increase in
agricultural production. This has been ascribed to large scale adoption of rice-wheat system,
assured irrigation and high fertilizer use. However, dominance of rice- wheat system has led to
over exploitation of ground water resulting in decline in water table. Ever dwindling water
resources are threatening the sustenance of existing levels of agricultural production. Thus,
there is a need for rational use of irrigation water. The options available to check ground water
decline are recharging of the ground water, diversification of the cropping system including
crops with low water requirements and increasing water use efficiency. Water economizing
irrigation schedules saves water without any yield reduction.

Tensiometer measures soil moisture and helps us in scheduling irrigation in Paddy. It is

an instrument designed to measure the tension or suction that plants roots must exert to extract
water from the soil. This tension is a direct measure of the availability of water to a plant.
Tensiometer consists of two acrylic transparent tubes of specific dimensions. The inner tube is
fitted with the narrow mouth of a porous ceramic cup of diameter equivalent to that of the outer
tube. The upper end of the outer tube is fitted with a silicon cork. Both the tubes and the
ceramic cup are filled with distilled de-aerated water. Before filling the whole tensiometer with
water, the cup is saturated overnight with water. The upper portion of the outer tube is marked
with three colored strips i.e. green, yellow and red which coincide with the different levels of
soil matric potential, based on the water level inside the inner tube.
Working of Tensiometer

The water in the inner tube of the tensiometer equilibrates with the surrounding soil
through the ceramic cup and its level indicates the soil matric tension and hence the water
status of the soil. The coloured strips guide the farmers for scheduling irrigation to the crop.
When buried in the soil the ceramic cup of the tensiometer allows water to move freely in or
out of the tube. As the soil dries out, water is sucked out through the porous ceramic cup,
creating a partial vacuum inside the tensiometer which causes the water to move down. When
the soil is wetted by sufficient rainfall or irrigation, water rises up into the tensiometer tube
because of decrease in vacuum.
Installation of Tensiometer
The number of tensiometer installation sites required will depend on the crops grown
and field conditions. Fewer sites of tensiometers are needed when a single crop is grown in
large blocks of uniform levelled soil.
Remove the silicon cork from tensiometer body and keep the tensiometer cup in a
container filled with distilled water and let it remain as such overnight till the water
level inside the tube is same as that of water outside in the container. Fill the inner tube
of tensiometer with distilled and de-aerated water and keep it as such overnight.
Next day fill both inner and outer tubes of tensiometer with distilled water. Make a hole
in the field with steel iron tube of similar diameter to the depth of 20 cm. The diameter
of the hole should be slightly bigger than that of ceramic cup of tensiometer.
Put the tensiometer into the hole and make slurry of soil and water in the ratio of 1:2
and put this into the hole around tensiometer cup. The remaining portion of the hole can
be filled with soil taken out of the hole.
Fit the silicon cork tightly. Tensiometer reading should be taken in morning hours
around 8.00 a.m. or so.
 When the water level in the inner tube is within the green portion, there is no need to
irrigate the rice field and once it enters the yellow zone, rice field should be irrigated.
Dont let the water level enter the red zone as it may cause stress to crop.
When the field is re-irrigated, the water level in the inner tube will rise. If the water
level in tensiometer tube is less than 3 cm after irrigation, remove the cork and refill the
inner tube of tensiometer.

Irrigation timing with tensiometers

Tensiometers placed at about the mid-point of the main fibrous root system are used to
determine when to irrigate. This is particularly important during the period when the water
requirement of the crop is highest and yields are most sensitive to water shortage. During this
period tensiometers should be read daily. Sufficient amount of water should be applied to re-
wet the root zone. When to irrigate will be determined largely by the amount of water applied
and stored in the root zone at the last irrigation. If only a light irrigation was applied, or a small
section of the root zone is wetted, then the soil will dry faster and a high tensiometer reading
reached sooner as compared with heavy irrigation. Climatic conditions and the leaf
development of the crop will also affect the rate of soil drying.
After the paddy transplanting, keep the water standing continuously for two weeks.
Afterwards, install the tensiometer at 15-20 cm soil depth and irrigates the field according to
tensiometer readings as described above. In this way we can save the irrigation water without
having any adverse effect on yield.
Field demonstrations
To get the farmers familiar with new technique viz. Tensiometer demonstrations were
laid out at the farmers field from year 2006 to 2008 in Kapurthala district. The results clearly
indicated that by applying irrigation as per the reading of tensiometer we can save around 22-
30% irrigations in paddy without adversely affecting the grain yield as is clear from the data
given in table.
Table 1. Irrigation water saving through tensiometer

Number of Varieties Yield (q/ha) Input ( No. of Irrigations

demonstrations irrigations) saved (%)

T1 T2 T1 T2

Year 2006

Two PR-118, PR-111 70.9 71.0 19 27 30.1

Year 2007

Three PAU-201 74.5 74.3 24 33 26.3

Year 2008

Three PR-114, PR-116, 69.0 68.8 13 16 22.1

PR-111

Mean of 8 locations 71.5 71.4 19 25

Where T1 are the irrigations given according to tensiometer readings and

T2 are the irrigations according to farmers practice.