Vol. 11, Issue 3 (2022)

Author(s):
Abhishek Ranjan and Derrick M Denis

Abstract:
Estimating right amount of crop water requirement is the need for designing, establishing and managing irrigation projects, and scheduling irrigation. The objective of this study was to estimate the seasonal water demand and crop coefficient of wheat for effective irrigation water planning and management. Field experiment was carried out at Harrai village, Prayagraj during wet growing season. Crop coefficient (Kc) was determined for each growth stages as the ratio of ETc to ETo. The ETc and ETo was computed by CROPWAT version 8.0 using the FAO Penman-Monteith equation. The seasonal ETc was found to be 14.1 mm, 48.3 mm, 136.8 mm, and 77.5 mm of water calculated for initial, crop development, mid-season, and late-season stages, respectively. The measured crop coefficient (Kc) values were 0.3, 0.52, 1.14 and 0.68 for the initial, development, mid and late stages, respectively. Some of the Kc values found in this experiment differed slightly from the average of FAO estimation. This indicates that there is a need to develop Kc values for given local climate conditions and cultivars. The maximum plant height and spike length obtained were 97.3 cm and 7.9 cm, respectively. The maximum obtained grain yield and the above- ground biomass yield were 5487.61 and 8780.18 kg/ha, respectively.