WATER REQUIREMENT OF SPRING SUGARCANE CROP IN PAKISTAN

ABSTRACT

Ghulam Rasul*

(Received on 15-1-1999 and in revised form 30-12-1999) crop tends to increase lodging, thus leading to reduction in yields and quality of sugar. It is therefore Water-requirement of spring sugarcane crop was very important that water should be applied to the determined by using the climatological approach. The sugarcane crop precisely according to its requirement. Blaney-Criddle method to estimate the reference-crop evapotranspiration (ETo) was employed. Long records Estimating the consumptive use of water from of climatic data of 30 years (1961-1990) were used in climatological and other data has been practiced since computations. The results showed that waterlong. Lowery and Johnson (1942) analyzed the data requirement of sugarcane-crop followed the on consumptive use from irrigated valleys and humid variations, in terms of location and time of the season. water-sheds of wide difference in crops. They found a Water demand during the grand growth phase direct relationship between consumptive-use and remained the highest. High water-demand of the maximum temperture duirng the growing season. Abidi sugarcane crop, studied in comparison with normal and Tilestone (1990) published a bulletin on the expected rainall, showed that sugarcane cannot be irrigation-requirement of some major crops grown in grown under rainfed conditions. It always requires Peshawar valley. Their estimations, which are also substantial amounts of supplementary irrigations. The based on the Blaney and Criddle formula, included water-requirements in the southern belt of Pakistan crops like maize, potato, tomato, tobacco, sugarcane, were higher than for the northern belt in the chillies. In another study, Haider et al (1977) found sugarcane-growing areas of the country. that the consumptive use of wter in sugarcane at Bhalwal was 119.5 cm, 117.6 cm and 111.2 cm, when INTRODUCTION the crop was irrigated at 1,3 and 5 bars of moisturetension, respectively. Sugarcane is an important cash-crop that occupies the field almost throughout the year and is grown on an Previous estimates of water-requirements of this crop area of about one million hectares in Pakistan. Almost have become obsolete, because of introduction of new all of this area is irrigated, which contributes about varieties and change in climate. The present study was 5.5% of total irrigated area in the country. It is generally undertaken to estimate the water-requirement of grown from the southern belt of cultivated heavy soils sugarcane-crop, as precisely as possible, for almost all up to the central irrigated low-elevation agricultural the sugarcane-growing areas of the country, so that plains of the country, where temepratures do not fall scheduling of irrigation could be based on real frequently below 10o C. Among the climatic parameters, requirements. Moreover, on the basis of such low temperatures and less duration of sunshine are the estimations, planning of cropping-policies in the new limiting factors that affect the economic yields of irrigtion-projects can be formulated on scientific sugarcane crop. grounds. The sugarcane crop consumes a considerable part of MATERIALS AND METHOD the irrigation-water available with farmers. In view of the economic importance of this cash-crop, the farmers The water requirement of the crop is the loss of water generally try to irrigate it as luxuriantly as they can, through evapotranspiration and is mainly a function hoping to harvest the high yields. However, over or of climatic factors, such as air temeprature, solar under-irrigation of any arable crop has been known to radiation, relative humidity, wind velocity, and adversely affect the plant-growth and, ultimately, the agronomic factors like stage of the crop development crop-yields. Particularly over-irrigation of sugarcane(FAO 1986). * Pakistan Meteorological Department, P.O.Box No. 1214, H-8, Islamabad.

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Quarterly SCIENCE VISION Vol.5(4) April-June, 2000

WATER REQUIREMENT OF SPRING SUGARCANE CROP IN PAKISTAN

Ghulam Rasul

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

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WATER REQUIREMENT OF SPRING SUGARCANE CROP IN PAKISTAN

Ghulam Rasul

Climatic data of 30 years (1961-90) was used to calculate the reference-crop evapotranspiration (Eto) for 20 meteorological stations in the sugarcanegrowing areas of Pakistan. The location of meteorological stations in sugarcane-growing areas is shown in figure 1. The Blaney-Criddle (1950) equation was applied to compute Eto and then the waterrequirement, on monthly basis, which works out as under:Step-I: Calculation of consumptive-use factor f. It is given as: f = P(0.46T + 8.13), where P is the mean daily percentage total of annual daytime hours, obtained from appendix A for a given month and latitude, and T is the mean daily temperture in o C for the month. Step-II: Estimation of Reference-crop evapotranspiration (ETo) The figure given in appendix C can be used to estimate Eto graphically, using the calculated f-values. The fvalues are given on x-axis and Eto on y-axis. The corresponding Eto to f-values may be estimated by incorporting (i) minimum mean daily relativehumidity (%), (ii) ratio of actual to maximum possible sunshine hours (n/N), and (iii) daytime wind-speed at 2 meter height (m/sec). The values of maximum possible sunshine hours (N) are given in appendix B. Step-III: Selection of Crop co-efficient K c. The crop requires different amounts of water at different stages of its life-cycle. To account for the effect of cropcharacteristics on the crop water-requirement, the cropcoefficient (Kc), to relate Eto to crop water-requirement (ET Crop), was used through the following relationship: Crop water Requirement = Kc. ETo The Crop-coefficient is actually the ratio of maximum crop-evapotranspiration to reference-crop evapotranspiration. The Kc for spring sugarcane crop, at three development phases, is given as under:-

a) In the initial stage of vegetation i.e. when the ground cover is almost less than 10%, the ET (crop) will be only a fraction of refence crop evapotranspiration. Hence, Kc value is a small fraction (0.1 to 0.5); it goes on increasing with the crop development. b) During the grand-growth phase, the water requirement is highest.Hence Kc value reaches its highest value i.e. slightly more than 1. At this stage ET (crop) may be as much as 20% higher than Eto i.e. Kc at this time is 1.2. c) Towards maturity, Kc value decreases gradually, down to 50% or less. A schematic variation of crop-coefficient related to different cropdevelopment stages, throughout the growing season of spring sugarcane, under normal agronomical and atmospheric conditions, is given in Figure 2. The water-requirement of sugarcane was calculated from sowing up to harvesting. The sowing starts from March and continues through April upto May. However, the harvesting is significantly variable. Harvesting generally starts by the end of Novmeber and continues throughout the winter season. This information was extracted from the agricultural cropcalendar issued by Agriucltural Development Bank of Pakistan (ADBP). The water requirements were calculated in millimeters and they can be converted into cubic meters per hectare by the following equation. Amount in mm x 10 = cubic meters per hectare As the latter can be adopted easily in the farming community, therefore, the total water-requirement (WR) of different agroclimatic zones as given in mm can be multiplied by 10 to convert WR into cubic meters per hectare. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The water requiremnt of the crop is the loss of water through evapotranspiration and is mainly a function

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WATER REQUIREMENT OF SPRING SUGARCANE CROP IN PAKISTAN

Ghulam Rasul

of climatic factor, such as air temreprature, solar radiation, relative humidity, wind velocity, etc., and agronomic factors like stage of the crop development FAO (1986). Monthly water-requirement of the spring sugarcane crop from Blaney-Criddle's equation (ETo) has been computed by taking into account the crop characteristics. It is clear from the Table 1 that the crop required different amounts of water at various stages. Normally, most of the plants grow successfully and utilize water from the soil at 50% and above available soil-moisture. If the soil is charged through rains or irrigation-water to the extent that all the water evapotranspired is totally substituted, i.e. P> WR, it marks 100% available soil-moisture. Nett water-demand is given in Table 2, which implies the amount of irrigation required to meet the total water-requirement of the crop. Table 1 indicates the total water-requirement of spring sugarcane is very low during the period of early crop establishment. It reahces the peak during the grand growth phase. It again falls to the lowest values when the crop gains matuirty, which is determined through physiological appearance and sugar contents. During the monsoon season (JulySeptember) although the total crop water-requirement is very high but, due to heavy rains in some areas, supplementary irrigation is not required. This is not the case with all of the sugarcane-growing regions and throughout the monsoon season. Sometimes prolonged dry spells may persist; that is the time when irrigation must be managed to fulfil the crop water-demand. At the vegetative stage and physiological maturity, due to low temperature, moderate humidity and calm conditions, the ETo remain lower than in summer, but in case there is not sufficient rainfall, irrigations are needed to meet the crop water-requirement. Under advective conditions of summer, with hot and windy weather, the ETo values generally shoot up. Often in late summer, ratoon crops and early maturing varieties of sugarcane (at that time) are at the sugar-formation stage; therefore, frequent irrigations are required. For successful growth and effective utilization of water from the soil, the available soil-moisture must be at least at 50% level, which corresponds approximately to 1/2 WR, forming optimum limit. CONCLUSIONS The following conclusions are drawn from the present

study: 1. The Water requirement of spring sugarcane ranged between 130 and 150 cm in the areas above 30 o N latitude, while the lower belt needs170 to 190 cm of water throughout the growing season, irrespective of rainfall contribution. The Water factors, mainly temperature and relative humidity, play an important role in varying the amounts of water needed to grow sugarcane in different agroclimates of the country. If optimum soil-moisture conditions are maintained alongwith a moderate fertility in the soil, a reasonable yield can be harvested. Climatic effects during the grand growth period, i.e. middle of June to September, are critical for spring sugarcane yeilds. Limiting the water-supply may result in severe decline of yield. Excessive moisture resulted in low efficiency of added nutrients.

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REFERENCES
1. Abidi, A.A. and F.M. Tilestone (1960) Irrigatiion requirement & consumptive use of crops. Govt of West Pak, Department of Agricutlure and U.S.A. I.C.A. Lahore. 2. Blaney H.F. and W.D. Criddle, 1950 Determining water requiremnets in irrigated areas from climatological and irrigation data. USDA (SCS) TP-96, 48 p. 3. Crop Calendar, 1990 Issued by Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan showing the month of sowing and harvesting of different crops. 4. Doornbos, J. & W.O. Pruitt, 1984 FAO irrigation and drainage paper, guidelines for predicting crop water requirement, FAO United Nations, Rome (Revised). 5. FAO, 1986. Irrigation and Drainage Paper No. 33 "Yield response to water". 6. FAO, 1986. Plant production and protection paper No. 73. 7. Haider, G.M., M.S. Tabbassum & B. Ahmed 1977 Consumptive use of water Technical Report PARC Islamabad. 61-80. 8. Haider, G.M., M.S. Tabassum & B. Ahmed 1982 Consumptive use of water-Final Technical Report Islamabad-168. 9. Lowery, L.Jr. & A.F.Johnson (1942) Consumptive use of water for agricutlure. Trans Ann Soc.CE No.107:1243-1302. 10. Raman, C.R.V. & B.S. Water availability periods for crop planning (Rep. No. 173), Murthi, 1971India Meteorological Department, Poona. 11. Thornthwaite, C.W. & J.R. mather, 1995. year book of United States Department of Agriculture.

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