Irrigation Scheduling: A Smart Method of Water Management
Mousumi Malo
Dept. of Agronomy, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, West Bengal (741 252), India
DOI: NIL
Keywords: Agriculture, Irrigation, Scheduling, Water
Abstract
One of the most crucial issues prevailing in agricultural sector is to meet the rapidly growing food demand of burgeoning population throughout the globe in context of limited water and arable land resources. The main objective of irrigation based farming is efficient water management to sustain crop growth and development to avoid water stress in plants. Improper irrigation scheduling can lead to unpleasant consequences like under irrigation resulting lower yields while over irrigation may cause the wastage of water, energy, and reduced soil quality and create water logging problems. Therefore, enhancing water use efficiency and maintaining its sustainability is the major challenge in water management in agriculture. Some of the ways for achieving this goal include improvement in crop water productivity through efficient irrigation, reduction in water losses through soil and improving soil moisture retention capability through better and sustainable soil and water management practice like irrigation scheduling.
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Reference
FAO, Reforming water resources policy - A guide to methods, processes and practices - FAO irrigation and drainage paper 52, 1995.
USDA, 2004. Farm and Ranch Irrigation Survey (2003). United States Department of Agriculture/ National Agricultural Statistic Service Washington, DC. Available <http://www. nass.usda.gov>. Accessed 12 Dec. 2004.