Sept 10 – 16 2006, PWTC, Kuala Lumpur

DESIGN OF MICRO IRRIGATION SYSTEM FOR HILLY

TERRACED LAND

K.N.Shukla, P.K.Singh, K.K.Singh and P.K.Pandey

Irrigation and Drainage Engineering Department,
G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology,
Pantnagar – 263145 Uttaranchal, India

ABSTRACT

Water is a critical input for sustainability of agriculture, which consumes about 80 percent
of available water but irrigation efficiency continue to be only about 40 per cent. Need for
enhancing the efficiency of irrigation have been emphasized time again to safeguard the
interest of farmers and avoid water crisis. The microirrigation system is one of the most efficient
methods of water application. However, efficiency of water application under this system at
number of locations in field condition suffers from nonuniformity of water distribution caused
due to faulty design. The design of microirrigation system must be in accordance with the
crop demand, soil type and agro climatic characteristics of the place, for achieving the
maximum productivity of quality produce including the conservation of precious water and
land resources. Design of drip irrigation system depends on several parameters including
topography, soil type, and crop to be irrigated, weather conditions, technology and financial
resources. Different criteria are available for designing the drip irrigation system for widely
spaced row crops such as orchard and vegetables for supplying water to the individual plants
with the help of a single or a set of drippers based on the rooting pattern and canopy area
of the plants. In this situation there is no need to apply water to the entire land area and the
laterals are generally placed along the plant rows. For closely spaced field crops the entire
land area needs to be wetted and the drip system needs to be designed on the basis of meeting
the water requirement of the total cultivated area. Relationship between dripper discharge,
operation time, horizontal and vertical movement of soil moisture under drip irrigation provides
superior criteria for designing efficient and economic drip irrigation and fertigation system
for closely spaced field crops. In the present article attempts have been made to present various
issues for the design of micro irrigation system suited for various crops grown in hilly terraced
land.

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 7th International Micro Irrigation Congress

DESIGN OF MICRO IRRIGATION SYSTEM FOR HILLY

TERRACED LAND
K.N.Shukla, P.K.Singh, K.K.Singh and P.K.Pandey
Irrigation and Drainage Engineering Department,
G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology,
Pantnagar –263145 Uttaranchal, India

ABSTRACT

Water is a critical input for sustainability of agriculture, which consumes about 80 percent
of available water but irrigation efficiency continue to be only about 40 per cent. Need for
enhancing the efficiency of irrigation have been emphasized time again to safeguard the
interest of farmers and avoid water crisis. The microirrigation system is one of the most efficient
methods of water application. However, efficiency of water application under this system at
number of locations in field condition suffers from non- uniformity of water distribution caused
due to faulty design. The design of microirrigation system must be in accordance with the
crop demand, soil type and agro climatic characteristics of the place, for achieving the
maximum productivity of quality produce including the conservation of precious water and
land resources. Design of drip irrigation system depends on several parameters including
topography, soil type, and crop to be irrigated, weather conditions, technology and financial
resources. Different criteria are available for designing the drip irrigation system for widely
spaced row crops such as orchard and vegetables for supplying water to the individual plants
with the help of a single or a set of drippers based on the rooting pattern and canopy area
of the plants. In this situation there is no need to apply water to the entire land area and the
laterals are generally placed along the plant rows. For closely spaced field crops the entire
land area needs to be wetted and the drip system needs to be designed on the basis of meeting
the water requirement of the total cultivated area. Relationship between dripper discharge,
operation time, horizontal and vertical movement of soil moisture under drip irrigation provides
superior criteria for designing efficient and economic drip irrigation and fertigation system
for closely spaced field crops. In the present article attempts have been made to present
various issues for the design of micro irrigation system suited for various crops grown in hilly
terraced land.

INTRODUCTION

The hill regions of the country are endowed with the rich biodiversity and varying agro-
climatic conditions with a great potential of growing a number of horticultural and plantation
and other high value cash crops. The climatic conditions prevailing in the region is suitable
for cultivation of various types of fruits, vegetables, flowers, medicinal, aromatic and other
crops including tea and coffee. Apart from these some spices like ginger and turmeric have
great export potential to other parts of country and the world. The potential of growing these
horticultural and floricultural crops in these regions on commercial basis has been realized
by the government as an alternative to increase income of farmers in more environmental
friendly way.
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7th International Micro Irrigation Congress

Hill constitutes one of the most complex agro-ecological systems, as there is tremendous
variation in physiographical conditions of land, and water resource availability for growing
agricultural and horticultural crops. The land in the hills is characterized by varying degree
of slopes, depth of soil and level of fertility. On several mediums to high altitude lands, a
variety of orchards, specially apple has been grown without irrigation. To have irrigated
agricultural for vegetable, medicinal and aromatic plants, important cash crops and newly
established tree crops and to improve productivity of existing old orchards, it would be
necessary to develop irrigation water resources and properly application of irrigation water
as per the demand of the crop.

The development of irrigation water resources in the hills is possible through the
taping/harnessing of rainwater and runoff, water flow in streams, nalas and springs of
different dimensions. Taping of natural existing springs in hills several low discharges
natural springs exists. The discharge of these springs varies with the season. These
natural springs have good potential of water for domestic and irrigation purposes. The
natural spring constitutes promising water resources.

To increase the irrigation potential in hills, it is utmost necessary that existing

water resources in the uplands such as springs, streams, and surface/subsurface runoff
should be exploited. By storing water in tanks, the low discharge springs/streams can be
used to provide assured irrigation round the year while the surface runoff stored in the
pond can be used for supplemental irrigation during summer through the efficient water
application techniques such as drip and micro sprinkler irrigation.

Water requirement of hill horticultural crops

Adequate soil moisture is required for optimum growth and production of fruit
and other hill horticulture crops. Research has shown that the effect of irrigation on a
number of horticultural crops can be dramatic. The cost of energy for irrigation has been
rising steadily. Applying the proper amount of water at the right time is important for
reducing costs and maximizing profits. It is essential, therefore, that there be a scientifically
sound method for determining when to irrigate and how much water to apply for optimum
crop response and efficient use of resources.

Good irrigation management using a well-designed irrigation system is critical for

sustained production of high yields of good quality product. Traditionally, irrigation
scheduling has been based on past experience of crop performance, with little reference
to scientific method. Adoption of better methods will save water and reduce costs. To do
this you need to know when to irrigate and how much to apply. Correct irrigation
scheduling depends on an understanding of soil type, climate, plant size, varietals requirements,
and water quality and irrigation system performance. There are two main ways to schedule
irrigation, by using evaporation replacement or by the use of tensiometers or other moisture
monitoring instruments. The irrigation, level of moisture and spray requirement to attain the
better yield and fruit quality of various fruit crops generally grown in hilly regions is presented
in Table 1.

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Table 1. Irrigation depth, level of moisture and spray requirement of various fruit crops

Irrigation methods for hill horticulture

Undulating terrain, rolling topography and hilly slope (Fig 1) can not be easily irrigated by
surface method of irrigation, though water may be available. Such areas are accessible to
drip irrigation without any investment on land leveling. This system is specially suited for
plantation and fruit crops. The water can very conveniently be conveyed by pipe network
distributing water in a small amount, which not only saves the labour of transporting water
in bucket up and down but also economize scarce water available in hills for better agricultural
use.

Drip irrigation design factors for hilly terraced land

The parameters such as number of drippers, system capacity required to irrigate the given
area, percentage wetted area, emitter spacing ,average daily peak transpiration rate,
maximum depth per irrigation, emission uniformity, gross depth per irrigation, gross volume
of water required per plant per day, average emitter pressure head and application rate were
considered for the design of drip irrigation.

Theoretical investigation and design procedure

The complete design of drip irrigation system includes the design of drip lateral line, design
of manifold and design of main line. The mathematical investigation gave the equation for

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design of manifold feeding single of pairs of laterals laid on different shape subunits. The
different cases were considered and broadly by divided in three major groups as:
• Hilly land with water source at the top of hill
• Hilly land with water source at the bottom of hill
• Plane land

These major groups were classified according to the shape of subunits and the surface condition
of land. The shape of subunit includes rectangular and trapezoidal geometry and surface
condition includes terraced and non-terraced i.e. sloping land. The mathematical method for
the design of manifold for first case i.e. hilly land with water source at the top of the hill was
developed and design chart and have been prepared for both, the first and second case. The
non-tapped manifold can be easily designed using the design chart and tapered manifold
can be designed using mathematical method or computer programme.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The design procedure was developed for different conditions depending on the location of
water source, surface condition (terraced or sloping lands) and the shape of the subunits. The
numerical method of design of manifold, when water source is at the top of the hill, was
developed considering different shapes and surface conditions of the subunits.

To make the design procedure easy and less time taking the micro computer software was
developed. This software requires only most basic and fundamental inputs related to soil, field
conditions, crop and the dripper characteristics. The software takes care of the water
requirementof the crop, percent wetted area within the permissible limit, number of drippers
per plant, the application time and other factors related to the hydraulic design of the lateraland
submain or manifold.

Fig 1. Various shape of the field Prevails in the Hill

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In case the water source is at the bottom of hill, this software will require an additional data
related to the total head loss. The designer must decide either the diameter of manifold or
the total head loss to be dissipated in the manifold. It is only with this assumption that the
design procedure has been developed. To make this job simpler the design charts were
developed.

The design was developed for the subunits having ground slope 50, 75 and 100 percent.
These three slopes covers almost all the hilly horticulture lands in India. The 25 percent slope
was not considered in the development of design chart because in India, people commonly
adapt the vegetable or cereals farming even up to 35 percent slopes and generally do not
take horticultural crops in such low sloped lands. The design charts for the ground slopes in
between 50, 75 and 100 percent was also not developed.

The design of manifolds for the ground slopes falling in between 50, 75 and 100 percent
slopes can be done by extrapolating the values from the available charts. The shape factors
considered in the development of the above design charts were 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5. The shape
factor equal to 1.0 corresponds to the rectangular subunit and the design charts related to
1.0 shape factor can be used for both locations of the water sources (water source at the top
or bottom of hill). The shape factor 0.5 and 1.5 corresponds to the trapezoidal shape of
subunits which is the most common shape of subunits in hilly tracts. These shape factors were
calculated by using the equation (3.35) considering the ratio of the discharges of top and
bottom laterals of any subunit equal to 3. Thus, the charts corresponding 1.5 shape factor
will be applicable to the design of manifold feeding the subunits having water source at the
top of hill and the ratio of discharge of top and bottom laterals equal to3. The design charts
corresponding to 0.5 shape factors will be applicable to the design of manifolds feeding the
subunits with water source at the bottom of hill and the ratio of the discharge of top and
bottom laterals equal to 3.

To estimate the extent of the percentage error with the use of extrapolated values
the total head loss for 60 and 80 percent ground slopes having 15 number of terraces and
requiring 6000 lph discharge was computed using design charts. The percentage error in
the extrapolated values of head loss was calculated for the most commonly used manifold
diameters i. e. 30, 35, 40, and 45 mm, using the design charts for 50, 75 and 100 percent
ground slopes and 15 number of terraces. The extreme value of the number of terraces
was selected for the extrapolation so that the maximum error can be obtained in the
extrapolated values of total head loss for 60 and 80 percent ground slopes. Also, all the
three shape factors were considered in the error calculation so that extrapolation may
cover both the cases of water source locations.

The extrapolated values of total head loss were compared with the calculated
values from the general equation and percent error was calculated. This indicates that the
maximum error obtained for any case was less than 5 percent. It means that the series of
developed design charts is satisfactory for the design of manifolds feeding the laterals
laid on the subunits having any slope ranging from 50 to 100 percent with maximum
error up to 5 percent.

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Gravity fed micro irrigation system for hill horticulture

A new, modified drip irrigation system (Fig.2) "gravitation drip system” has
recently been developed for small-time farmers suited for hill horticulture. This type of
system can be efficiently used for the irrigation of hilly terraced land .A simple poly tank
/container can be connected with a small discharge spring and positioned few meters
(terraced) above the field to be irrigated. By opening a valve, the water flows by gravitation
into the MIS. The fertilizer may be added to the water, as in the conventional
drip system.
Table 2: Percentage error in the extrapolated values of total head loss due to 6000 lph
system discharge for 60% and 80% ground slope with 15 number of terraces

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

A general design procedure was developed considering the design factors, design
of laterals and design of manifolds. The general equation for the design of manifold, feeding
the laterals laid on the terraced or sloping lands of any shape, was developed.
This general equation was also specified for two field conditions namely trapezoidal
shapes and rectangular shapes.

The developed numerical procedure was quite tedious and involves iterations. To
ensure the easiness of the design a computer programme, which takes care for all the
terms and conditions required in the design of drip laterals and manifolds, was developed.
This programme can be used for the design of drip laterals and manifolds, laid on any
shapes and surface condition of the subunits. In case of water source at the top of hill
programme needs only basic data related to the crop, soil of the subunit and material to
be used in the designing of the drip system.

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In case of water source at the bottom of hill the programme requires the assumption of an
arbitrarily expected total head loss or the desired diameter in addition to other inputs.

Keeping this problem in view the design charts were developed to make the design easy and
fast. The charts were developed for three shape factors (0.5, 1.0 and 1.5), three ground
slopes (50, 75 and 100 percent) and three terrace numbers (5, 10 and 15). The combination
of these three factors was considered and total of 27 number of charts, were developed. The
design of manifold laid on any ground slope can be done by extrapolation. A test of use of
the extrapolated value showed that there was an error within 5 percent. The developed design
charts can not give the type of drippers to be used on any terrace, therefore in order to know
the types of drippers for a terrace, another computer programme was developed. This
programme provides the dripper types required on any terrace based on the total head
available at the terrace.

A cost-effective precision irrigation system such as gravity fed micro irrigation, which is most
suitable for hill horticulture, must be capable of applying not only water but also improvement
in the quality and quality of the produce.

REFERENCES

Dhruvnaryan, V.V. 1991. Soil conservation in India. ICAR, New Delhi, 96-109.

Laxmipathy, B.M., and Narayansawamy, S. 1956. Bench terracing in the Nilgiris. Journal
of Soil and Water Conservation in India, 4,4 28-37.

Prasad, R.N., Singh, A. and Verma, Arun. 1987. Application research findings for management
of land and water resources in Estern Himalayan region. CAR Research complex for
NEH region, Shillong, Meghalaya, India.

Larsion, L.C. 1969. Geometry of broads-base and grassed-back slope terrace cross- section.
Trans of the ASAE, 509-511.

Shukla, K.N., Singh, P.K. and Singh, K.K. 2001. Crop water requirement under micro irrigation.
Technical Bulletine, PFDC Pantnagar,16pp.

Doorenbos, J. and Pruitt, W.O. 1975. Crop water requirements F.A.O., Rome. 179 pp.

Tan, C.S. 1980. Estimating crop evapotranspiration for irrigation scheduling. Agriculture
Canada vol. 25(4): 26-29.

Tan, C.S. and Layne R.E.C. 1981. Application of a simplified evapotranspiration model for
predicting irrigation requirements of peach. Hortiscience 16(2): 172-173.