On-Farm Water Management

Practices in Punjab-A Case Study

H. S. Gulati, Harjinder Singh,
Samanpreet Kaur
Deptt. of Soil and Water Engg.
PAU, Ludhiana

Introduction
Water is one of the most valuable resource. But
farmers of our country are making irrational use of
water and level of utilization of water at farmers field
is poor.
Irrigation projects are operating at a low efficiency in
the range of 30-40% thereby losing 60-70% of
irrigation water during conveyance and

application

Farmers practices need to be critically observed and

modified taking into view the perceptions, concerns
and constraints of the farmers in adopting better tools
and techniques.

Objective
To evaluate water management practices
in terms of skills and instrumentation in the
existing practices of land preparation, water
application,
flow
regulation,
irrigation
scheduling.
To identify gaps in water management
technology to enhance water use efficiency at
field level.

Methods and Materials

A case study was conducted in two villages of Punjab
(under NATP project) to determine irrigation practices
followed by farmers in Rice-Wheat cropping system.
Selection of Villages- Ramgarh in Patiala district was selected
which is only tubewell-irrigated area while the other village Bargari
in Faridkot district falls in canal command area.

Selection of Farmers- In both villages, 15 farmers from each

village (5 each of small, medium and large holdings) were selected.

Participatory Rural Appraisal Survey- was conducted to

determine the Socio-economic and technical status of water
management practices followed in the villages.

Development of performas -To collect the general information

about the water management practices followedin terms of mode of

water conveyance, flow regulation, water measurement, irrigation
scheduling, water application etc.

Results and Discussion

Soil type- In Ramgarh village 50% farmers have
sandy loam, 39% loamy sand and 2% loam soil and in
Bargari village 50% loam, 40% farmers have sandy
loam and 10% other soil types.

Cropping pattern - During Kharif season in village

Ramgarh 84% of the area of selected farmers was

under rice, 14% under fodders and 2% under other
crops. During Rabi season 85% under wheat, 10%
under fodder and 5% under other crops where as in
village Bargari, during Kharif season 73% area was
under rice, 12% under fodder, 8% under sugarcane
and 7% under cotton and during Rabi season 81%
under wheat, 9% under fodder, 8% under sugarcane
and 2% under other crops.

 Water conveyance method -Farmers are mainly

using earthen channels for water conveyance in both
the villages.

Water measurement devices- None of the selected

farmer is using any water measuring device

Water control devices -All the selected farmers in

both the villages are using only spade for water control.

Irrigation Scheduling - All the selected farmers are

following irrigation scheduling based on personal
judgment depending upon soil and crop conditions.

 Particulars of tubewells installed -In Ramgarh village

all the tubewells are filter type. 32 percent tubewells wee
having excessive suction lift of 6.0 meters and 76 percent
tubewells consisted of short radius bend. In village Bargari
most of the tubewells are cavity type. 20 percent tubewells
wee having excessive suction lift of 6.0 meters and 67 percent
tubewells consisted of short radius bend.

Water quality- All the tubewells in Ramgarh village have

good quality water. But in Bargari village tubewell water was
of marginal quality

Border (Kiara) sizes Border (Kiara)sizes kept according

to their convenient and not according to the hydraulic
principles.

Gaps in Technology & Recommendations

A. SOURCE OF IRRIGATION
Tubewells- Farmers do not care about the location of
tubewell on their farm. Farmers do not follow the
guidelines about the proper selection, installation
and maintenance of pumping sets for enhancing their
operational efficiency. No farmer know the discharge and
efficiency of their tubewell.
Canals- Almost no farmer know the name, number and
discharge of their canal outlet.
B. CONVEYANCE
Farmers have no awareness about the quantity of water
being lost during conveyance from source to field. Farmers
do not care about the orientation of earthen channels.

c. FLOW REGULATION- No farmer has the awareness about

the importance and technique of water measurement. Some
water measurement device can be installed at least at each
tubewell to know the discharge

D. IRRIGATION SCHEDULING-Farmers have no awareness

about the importance and any device that can be used for
irrigation scheduling.

E. FIELD AND PLOT SIZES-Farmers make field and plot

size just arbitrarily without falling any scientific hydraulic
principles. This can cause low application efficiency and nonuniform distribution of water.

F. No PRECISION LEVELING
G. SAVING OF PRE-SOWN IRRIGATION-By encouraging
the farmers to use No-Till drill and Strip-Till drill technology in
left over moisture content of the paddy field, one pre-sown
irrigation can be avoided

H. USE OF BED SOWING TECHNOLOGY IN

WHEATI.
DISCOURAGE EARLY PADDY
TRANSPLANTING
J.
ENCOURAGE INTERMITTENT
SUBMERGENCE OF PADDY
K. CONSTRUCT OPTIMAL BUND HEIGHT FOR
RAINWATER CONSERVATION

H. USE OF BED SOWING TECHNOLOGY IN

WHEAT
I.

DISCOURAGE EARLY PADDY

TRANSPLANTING

J. ENCOURAGE INTERMITTENT
SUBMERGENCE OF PADDY
K. CONSTRUCT OPTIMAL BUND HEIGHT
FOR RAINWATER CONSERVATION