Water Requirement of Crops

The water is essential for all the living organisms and plants without water they cannot complete
their life cycles because it constituent about 80-90% part of most plant cells. All metabolic or
biochemical reactions in plant system need water. It plays an important role in respiration,
transpiration and photosynthesis. It activates germination and plays an important role in plant
metabolism for vegetative and reproductive growth. It requires not only for agricultural purpose
but also for industrial purposes, power generation, live stock maintenance, rural and domestic
needs etc. The water is present as a limited resource and we cannot create as per our
requirements. So we should wisely use the water resources for our purpose.

As the above said the crops need water for transpiration and evaporation. The plants extract
water from soil with the help of roots and later it escape to atmosphere as vapour from plant
leaves and stems generally during day time called transpiration. When water is evaporating from
open body surface to atmosphere is called evaporation. The crop needs water for both processes
so combinedly it called “evapotranspiration” and it is usually expressed in mm/day, mm/month
or mm/season.

Fig. Evapotranspiration
The water requirement of crop mainly depends on many factors like:

Climate: a sunny, windy, dry and hot climate crops need more water per day than in a
cloudy and cool climate
Crop type: crops like rice or sugarcane need more water than crops like beans and wheat
Growth The crops grown direct from seeds in main field need more water than crops that
stage: have just been planted.
Soil type Light soils (sandy) require more frequent irrigation then heavy soils (clay).

The water is essential for completing the life cycle of crops so it supplies through rainfall or
irrigation. When rainfall is short of 100 cm then irrigation is essential to fulfill the water needs of
crop throughout the growing period of crops. When the rainfall is sufficient but is not uniformly
distributed during the monsoon months, there is acute requirement of irrigation as a
supplemented irrigation.

What is irrigation?

Irrigation is the artificial application of water to the land for growing crops. Those fulfill the
water requirement of crops by supplementing irrigation. When the soil moisture is deficit and
does not meet the needs of growing crops. Irrigation is essentially a practice of supplementing
the natural precipitation for increasing production of agricultural and horticultural crops.

What is water requirement?

Water requirement is the quantity of water required by a crop or diversified pattern of crops from
its source for its normal growth under field conditions in a given period of time at a particular
place. Water requirement, includes the losses due to evapotranspiration (ET) or consumptive use
(CU) plus the losses during the application of irrigation water and the quantity of water required
for special operations such as land preparation. It may be formulated as follows:

WR= ET or CU + application losses + special needs.

Based on the sources of water supply to meet the water requirement, numerically it is represented
as,

WR=IR+ER+S
i.e., Irrigation water (IR), effective rainfall (ER) and soil profile contribution (S).
Irrigation requirement is the part of water requirement which is supplied additionally as
external input. Hence, water requirement of crop is greater than irrigation requirement as a part
of water is meeting out by rainfall, humidity and soil contribution.

Growing periods:- The water requirement of crops also depends on the length of the total
growing period of crops. There are, for example, rice crops have many varieties like some short
duration (e.g. 90 days) and some long duration varieties (e.g. 150 days). This has a direct effect
on water requirement of rice crop: a rice crop which is in the field for 150 days will need in total
much more water than a rice crop which is only in the field for 90 days. If the daily need of water
is equal for both varieties then also the long duration crop needs more water for longer time
period. The time of the year during which crops are grown is also very important. A certain crop
variety grown during the cooler months will need substantially less water than the same crop
variety grown during the hotter months.

The total growing period of different crops:-

Crop Total growing period Crop Total growing period

(days) (days)
Alfalfa 100-365 Millet 105-140
Banana 300-365 Onion green 70-95
Barley/Oats/Wheat 120-150 Onion dry 150-210
Bean green 75-90 Peanut/Groundnut 130-140
Bean dry 95-110 Pea 90-100
Cabbage 120-140 Pepper 120-210
Carrot 100-150 Potato 105-145
Citrus 240-365 Radish 35-45
Cotton 180-195 Rice 90-150
Cucumber 105-130 Sorghum 120-130
Eggplant 130-140 Soybean 135-150
Flax 150-220 Spinach 60-100
Grain/small 150-165. Squash 95-120
Lentil 150-170 Sugarbeet 160-230
Lettuce 75-140 Sugarcane 270-365
Maize sweet 80-110 Sunflower 125-130
Maize grain 125-180 Tobacco 130-160
Melon 120-160 Tomato 135-180
Critical Stages for Irrigation

Crops Critical Stages

Rice Initial tillering, flowering
Most critical stage: Crown root initiation, tillering,
Wheat
jointing,. booting, flowering, milk and dough stages
Wheat Boot stage; dough stage
Pulses Flowering and podding.
Peas Pre bloom stage.
Berseem After each cutting.
Gram Pre flowering and flowering.
Pigeonpea Flower initiation, pod filling.
Sorghum Initial seedling, pre flowering, flowering, grain formation.
Barley Boot stage, dough stage
Maize Early vegetative, taselling and silking stage.

Water Requirement of Different Crops

The Water Requirement (WR) of crops depends upon many factors like water holding capacity
and movement of water within soil, uptake and movement within plant, evapotranspiration,
effective rainfall, vapour pressure, and energy, all these factors directly and indirectly affect the
water requirements of crops. The WR of crops generally includes all types of losses due to
evapotranspiration, cumulative use of water and losses during application of water in to field
which cannot be excluded.
Irrigation requirement (IR) of a farm means the total amount of water needs for an individual
crop in a particular time period and includes losses of water during application in field
such as seepage, percolation etc. Net irrigation requirement (NIR) is the depth of irrigation water
in field for plant growth which includes soil moisture or ground water and excludes precipitation.
It brings the soil moisture of the effective root zone to field capacity (PC). Thus, there is
difference between FC and soil moisture content in the plant root zone before irrigation.
Irrigation frequency depends on CU of a crop and the amount of available moisture in root zone.
The irrigation should be apply when the soil moisture reach about 50 to 60% of field capacity or
available water in soil. In general, light textured soils (sandy) irrigated more frequently than
heavy textured soil (clay).deep soils. During the crop growth stages critical periods of crop play
important role for irrigation requirement. The irrigation should be applied according to proper
scheduling with aim of getting maximum yield per unit area. In heavy soils, depletion of
available moisture is at a slower rate and in a lighter soil it is at faster rate. The quantity of water
needed for irrigation on different soil types per meter depth of soil profile at 50% of soil
moisture availability is as follows. Sandy soils (25-50 mm), Sandy-loam (45-80 mm), Loam (70-
110 mm), Clay-loam (80-120 mm) and Heavy clay (100-140 mm).

Table: Water requirement of different crops.

Crop Water Requirement (mm) Crop Water Requirement (mm)

Rice 900-2500 Chillies 500

Wheat 450-650 Sunflower 350-500

Sorghum 450-650 Castor 500

Maize 500-800 Bean 300-500

Sugarcane 1500-2500 Cabbage 380-500

Groundnut 500-700 Pea 350-500

Cotton 700-1300 Banana 1200-2200

Soybean 450-700 Citrus 900-1200

Tobacco 400-600 Pineapple 700-1000

Tomato 600-800 Gingelly 350-400

Potato 500-700 Ragi 400-450

Onion 350-550 Grape 500-1200

Source:- (http://agropedia.iitk.ac.in/content/water-requirement-different-crops)

Irrigation Scheduling for different crops:-

A. Paddy
Rice or paddy is the first most important crop of the country and covers about 35% of irrigated
area in the country. Different varieties have been evolved to suit different regions, season and
water availability. The amount of water required for growing rice is varies widely under different
conditions: - 1000-1500 mm- heavy soils high water table, short duration variety, Kharif season.
1500-2000 mm- medium soils Kharif or early spring season. 2000-2500 mm- light soils, long
duration varieties during Kharif, medium duration varieties during summer. For low land rice,
the practice of keeping the soil saturated of submerges of about 5 cm throughout the growing
period is beneficial. Submergence below 5 cm for low land rice has been found to yield low.
Cultural practices like puddling and transplanting reduce percolation losses, weed growth but
increase the availability of plant nutrients and regulate soil and water temperatures. It improves
photosynthesis in the lower leaves due to reflected light from the water surface. These operations
may require about 200 -300 mm of water per hectare.
About 15 to 20 days prior to harvest, irrigations are stopped and water is drained to facilitate
harvesting operations. A recent study has stated that suspension of last irrigation for 14 -17 days
before harvest causes more uniform ripening of the crop and economizes 16 cm of irrigation
water. However, termination of irrigation 3 weeks before harvest may cause marginal yield
decrease, but it will save about 20cm of irrigation water. The critical stages for irrigation in rice
crop are tillering, panicle initiation, flowering and grain filling stage.

B. Wheat
Wheat is the second most important crop of the country and the area under this crop has been on
the increase during the last two decades. It is grown during winter and about 59% of its area
is irrigated. The irrigation is depends on the availability of water to irrigate the crop at its critical
stages. The critical stages for Irrigation are crown root initiation CRI (21DAS) for first
irrigation, tillering (45DAS) for 2nd irrigation, Jointing (65DAS) 3rd irrigation, Boot (75DAS) 4th
irrigation, flowering (85DAS) 5th irrigation, at milk stage (100DAS) provide last irrigation
and dough stage. The crop develops a deep and dense root system unless restricted by an
impeding layer in the profile. Therefore, it can effectively utilize profile-stored moisture,
provided post –sowing irrigations are timed to encourage deeper proliferation of roots.
Generally, 4-6 irrigations are found to yield in maximum productivity at about 40 to 50% of
depletion of available soil moisture.

C. Sorghum
Cultivation of sorghum is mostly confined to tropical and subtropical areas of country. Being the
third important cereal of the country, the crop is planted in a total area of about 16 million
hectares, of which 0.7 million hectares are irrigated. In Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and some
part of Rajasthan, it is mostly grown for forage rather than grain. The main growing season of
the crop extends from March to October.
The water requirement of crop is 450 to 650 mm during its life cycle. It is a drought resistant
crop and can with stand soil moisture depletion up to 75 per cent. Some varieties of sorghum are
of very short duration, adding to the adaptability, and varied soil and water conditions. The
irrigation should be provided during three critical stages of crop, Seeding, flowering and
sometimes milking if it is required and according to the availability of water in case it is raised
as irrigated crop.
D. Maize
Maize is grown in both season as a rabi and kharif in different parts of country for grain
and forage purpose. Maize occupies an area of 5.9 million hectares. The water requirement of
maize is 500- 800 mm throughout its life cycle. The optimum soil moisture range is from 100-
60% in the root-zone, which extends from 40-60 cm on different soil types. In the northern parts
2-3 irrigation are required before the onset of the monsoon. In Karnataka 2, 5 irrigation are
necessary during Kharif and Rabi respectively. At Rajasthan 4 irrigation (500 mm of water) are
required during Kharif.
The critical stage of crop is vegetative (knee high stage), tasselling and silking stages. Thus,
irrigation should be providing during its critical stages. First irrigation should provide at tillering
stage then knee high stage followed by tasselling and silking stage. After dough stage, there is no
need of irrigation. Irrigation should be applied when soil moisture decreases 25% in light
textured soils and 50% in sandy loam to loam soil. Excess water stagnation should be avoid
during early stage of crop. If the draining out of water in case of heavy rains is delayed, 30 to 60
kg N/ha may be added immediately following drainage to retrieve the yield loss.

E. Bajra
Bajra is important millet grown during kharif in warm areas with a seasonal rain of about 15-20
centimeters. Flowering and milking stages are the critical stages of irrigation for bajra crop. The
crop gives the optimum yield with irrigation based on 75% depletion of available soil moisture
from the top 30 cm layer. Bajra is a drought resistant crop. If there is enough rain, kharif crop
does not require irrigation. If there is no rain generally, two irrigations are required, first at
flowering stage and second at the milking stage. If moisture is a limiting factor, irrigation should
also be done at the time of ear head emergence because it is the most critical stage for moisture
stress. Bajra does not tolerate water logging. So, do not allow rain water to remain in the field
for more than a few hours. Proper arrangement for draining out of excess water must be made.

F. Barley
Barley is an important rabi cereal and is also used in brewery industry. It is grown on an area of
only 1.75 million hectares in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar,
Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. The barley require less amount of water if the rainfall is
low. Generally, it requires two to three irrigations to give good yield. One extra irrigation
shall be required to sandy soils. If supply of water is inadequate, its efficiency should be
increased by giving irrigation at critical stages of growth. If only one irrigation is available, it
should be given near active tillering stage (30 -35 days after sowing). When two irrigations are
available, one should be applied at active tillering and the other at flowering stage. On highly
saline and sodic soils frequent light irrigation gives better result than little heavy irrigation.
G. Cotton
Cotton is cultivated primarily as a kharif crop on an area of 8 million hectares of which only 25%
is irrigated. It requires more frequent irrigation in the southern states where the weather is warm
and long season varieties are grown. In the North-west cotton generally needs 2 to 5 irrigations
depending upon the soil type and amount and distribution of seasonal rains. The water
requirement of cotton is 700-1300 mm. In drier and ill-distributed rainfall conditions, the crop
needs 6 to8 irrigations with 50 to 75% soil moisture depletion. Delayed irrigation prevents the
plants from making excessive vegetative growth. The first irrigation should be given 40-45 days
after sowing then apply 2 to 3 weeks interval and subsequent irrigations should be light. During
flowering and fruiting stage crop should not suffer with water stress, otherwise crop yield will
decrease due to excessive shedding of flower buds and young. Cotton during its early growth is
very sensitive to water stagnation for long periods. Therefore, proper drainage should be done.
H. Sugarcane
Sugarcane is an important crop of tropical areas. In India it is grown on an area of about3.19 m.
ha. It is 10 to 18 month long duration crop so high water requirement is 1500 to 2500 mm during
its life span. It has a fibrous root system which can penetrate as deep as 2.5 m in well-drained
soils devoid of any restricting layer and salinity.
Thus, the crop utilizes most of the moisture stored in the root -zone. During pre-
monsoon period the young crop need more frequent irrigation for its development. In the rainy
period, there is less requirement of water due to rainfall. During post- monsoon growth period
crop again needs more frequent irrigation to cover up evapo-transpiration needs and in some
cases to mitigate damage by frost. The life cycle of sugarcane plant is divided into four distinct
phases namely germination phase (from planting to 60th day); formative phase (from 60th to
130th day);
Grandgrowthphase (from 130th to 250th day) and maturity phase (250th to 365th day). The wate
r requirement during formative phase and grand growth phase is maximum. while the
requirement of formative phase (during pre- monsoon period) has to be met through irrigation. In
northern India, autumn cane requires on an average 7 irrigations, 5 before monsoon and 2 after
monsoon. Spring planted crops may be irrigated only six times. In drier climate and light soils,
the crop may require 8 to 10 irrigations. In each irrigation 3 acre inch of water should be applied.
In Tarai areas, 2 to 3 irrigations before and one irrigation after monsoon are sufficient. Drainage
is also equally important in waterlogged areas. Drain excess water from the sugarcane field if
they are flooded during the rainy season. Due to waterlogged condition, the quality of cane
deteriorates greatly. Drainage greatly helps in increasing the yield and sucrose content of the
cane.

Vegetables
For most of the vegetables crops soil moisture should be range between 70-80% of availability in
the maximum root-zone. Onion (350-500 mm) and Garlic (400-500 mm) need very frequent
irrigation at regular interval according to soil moisture and critical stages of crops in summer at 4
to 5 days and rabi after one week interval. About 3 weeks before maturity should be stop
irrigation to enhance the keeping quality of the bulb. Tomato needs irrigation at intervals of 10-
12 days during summer and 15-20 days during winter for optimum growth of crop. The optimum
moisture regime is from 100-50% of the availability in case of cabbage, cauliflower and knol-
khol. The irrigation in cole crops should give at 4to 5 days interval at early stage and after
fruiting require less frequent irrigation. Water-melon and musk-melon need water at intervals of
8-10 days. Other crop of cucurbitaceae family needs irrigation at intervals of 10-12 days during
summer.
Tomato
Tomato is an important fruit bearing vegetable crop. Its water requirement is 600-800 mm during
life cycle of crop. It requires frequent irrigation at 7 to 10 days intervals for optimum yield of
crops. Under Delhi conditions optimum moisture regime was found to be from 100- 60%
availability of soil moisture in 0 -120 cm root zone.

Cauliflower
Adequate moisture is necessary in the top 40 cm of soil all through the growth period. Shortage
of water in the early seedling stage or just after planting or when curds are growing rapidly leads
to physiological disorders. Depletion of more than 25% available soil moisture is deleterious.
However, irrigation at 50% depletion of available soil moisture at 30 cm soil depth is optimum
on sandy loam soil. Two to four irrigations are required depending on the rainfall.

Potato:
Potato is an important vegetable crop not only for India but also for World. Which is growing in
two seasons viz. autumn and spring. Autumn potato is the main crop and sown in September-
October and harvested in December- January. The crop requires frequent irrigations for optimum
growth. A wet moisture regime is conducive not only for adequate water availability to the crop
but also keeps soil strength low which permits better development of tubers. Potato crop requires
frequent and light irrigations at low moisture tension, irrespective of the varieties. For land
preparation about 4-5 cm water is required. Accordingly, the first irrigation should be light and is
given 7 -10 days after planting or even earlier depending upon soil moisture content. The sub
sequent irrigation should be moderate to heavy which should cover 2/3rd to 3/4th heights of the
ridges. The intervals in subsequent irrigations could be about 15 days in heavy soils and 10 days
in light soils. To complete its life cycle, the total water requirement of the crop about is 500-700
mm. Over-flooding results in soil compaction of the ridges which results into the poor aeration
and poor tuber development. The crop should be given light irrigation if the frost is expected.
The most critical stages for irrigation in potato are germination, stolon formation followed by
earthing, tuber bulking which coincide 10 -12, 30 -35 and 55 -60 days after sowing. Moisture
stress at these stages results in drastic reduction of tuber yields.
Sugarbeet
The crop can be suitably irrigated by furrow and sprinkler method of irrigation. Consumptive use
of sugarbeet varies from 800-1000 mm. frequent irrigation at IW/CPE ratio of 0.85 is more
conducive for sugarbeet yield.

Pluses or Grain Legumes

When grown alone, 1 or 2 irrigation would be beneficial. The grain legumes (gram, lentil, pea
and Indian bean) are irrigated 2 or 3 times during their growth.

Oilseeds

The crops are generally grown under rainfed conditions. Groundnut – 8 to 10 irrigation of about
50 mm each are applied at 10-15 days interval during its growth period. Safflower, Mustard and
Linseeds are grown alone are mixed with cereals should receive 3 or 4 irrigation during their
growth.

Spices and Condiments

Important crops are turmeric, ginger, chillis, ajwan, cumin and coriander. Turmeric and ginger
should be irrigated to maintain 100-60% of the available moisture in the maximum root-zone, the
top 50 cm of the soil. Chillies should be irrigated to maintain 100-50% of the available moisture
to about 60 cm in the soil. Coriander, cumin and ajwan need irrigation at intervals of 10-12 days
on light soil and 15-20 days on heavy soils. Coriander and cumin are winter crops need irrigation
at intervals of 10 to 12 days on light soils and 15 to 20 days on heavy soil. The water
requirements of these crops are around 500 to 600 mm.

Orchard crop irrigation management

The depth of root penetration varies from 1 to 9 m depending up on the fruit species. However as
much as 80 – 85% of the available soil moisture is drawn from 0-90 cm layer by most of the tree
fruit species and thus for all practical purposes the amount of water applied should replenish the
water deficit of this layer (0 – 90 cm). During warm period or summer the 90 – 120 cm layer
need to be replenished. Irrigation is most effective if applied before soil moisture becomes
limiting to fruit trees. As a thumb rule, water should be applied when 50 % of the available water
in the root zone has been depleted. If further depletion is allowed, the plants may be subjected to
a level of stress that might cause an appreciable reduction in yield. The available water refers to
total soil moisture held with a water potential between -0.33 bars and -15 bars. Perennial fruit
trees, by virtue of a deep root system, absorb water from deeper soil layers even if water
potential soil layers of the upper layers drops below -15 bars the trees may not show wilting
symptoms. But such a condition adversely affects subsequent growth and fruiting of the trees.

Apple:
Apple trees are particularly sensitive to low soil moisture. Water stress during the growing
season reduces number and size of fruits, and increases June drop. Water stress conditions results
in poor fruit set, heavy fruit drop, low production and poor quality. The most critical periods of
water requirement are April August and peak water requirement is after fruit set. Normally the
orchards are irrigated immediately after manuring in the month of December-January. During the
summer periods, the crop is irrigated at an interval of 7-10 days. After the fruit setting stage the
crop is irrigated at weekly intervals. Application of water during the fortnight preceding harvest
markedly improves the fruit colour. Thereafter till the onset of dormancy, irrigation is given at an
interval of 3-4 weeks.

Papaya
Papaya is a crop of humid tropics. The crop is irrigated at 12 days interval in winter and at 6- 8
days in summer. The crop cannot tolerate water stagnation and well drained condition is
important for good papaya growth. In monsoon drains are necessary to be provided for removal
of excess water and the same is used as irrigation channel during summer. Soil moisture potential
of 0.5 to 0.8 bar seems ideal for papaya crop. The crop needs 120 cm water in 9 months.

Pine apple
Pine apple is mostly grown as a rainfed crop, but supplementary irrigation helps in production.
Irrigation at 75% depletion of available soil moisture is sufficient. Therefore 4-6 irrigations in
hot months at 20-25 days ensure good crop.

Guava
Guava hardly requires any irrigation during rainy season. In the early stage, plants require 8-10
irrigations a year, while fully grown bearing trees require watering from April to June at 15 days
interval to get higher fruit set. Irrigation at early fruit set was also found to be effective in
reducing fruit drop and improving fruit size of winter crop.