ON TEST APPLICATION OF CROPWAT SOFTWARE UNDER FIELD CONDITIONS OF SEMI-ARID REGION, MAHARASHTRA

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Seminar Session 6

Transcript of ON TEST APPLICATION OF CROPWAT SOFTWARE UNDER FIELD CONDITIONS OF SEMI-ARID REGION, MAHARASHTRA

TECHNICAL SESSION ONAGRICULTURE WATER USE

ON TEST APPLICATION OF CROPWAT SOFTWARE UNDER FIELD CONDITIONS OF SEMI-ARID REGION, MAHARASHTRA

PRADNYA GHAGWATERSHED ORGANISATION TRUST, PUNE

04/24/23 1Pradnya Ghag, WOTR, Pune

INTRODUCTION

• What is CropWAT???

• Objectives behind this study…

• Study Area

• Weather conditions for the year 2011-12

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1. To test CropWAT application for developing a model case for the development of irrigation advisories at farm level.

2. To check the accuracy of this software for the use on field level.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

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•Seed Treatment:Seedlings dipped into fungicide

•Fertilizer Application: According to soil test reports

•Onion Variety: Locally available (Puna Fursungi)

•Weeding and Land preparation by Farmer’s method

CALCULATIONS

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IRRIGATION SCHEDULE FOR

RABI ONION

(Drip Plots)

(Flood Plots)

306mm

429 mm

Readily Available Moisture

Total Available Moisture

Drip – 620 mmFlood – 660 mm

Software Calculations

Farmer’s Calculation

70%

50%

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Soil stress shown in Tensiometers

STUDY FINDINGS

CHALLENGES

• A full real time data set of climate (rain, temperature, etc), soil and crop data is required to run the software in order to make calculations.– Averages Vs Weather variations

• Software itself does not allow for automated import of data.

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CHALLENGES (Contd...)

• Multiple constraints emerging from the circumstances under which farmers operate.– Financial– Physical

• The water availability over the season and for each farm is often unknown and makes it difficult to follow given irrigation advisories.

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Sense – Categorize – Respond

Sense – Analyze – Respond Probe – Sense – Respond

Act – Sense – Respond

Best Practice

Good PracticeEmergent Practice

Novel Practice

the relationship between causeand effect is empirically known

the relationship between causeand effect requires analysis or some other form of

investigation and/or the application of expertknowledge

the relationship between causeand effect can only be perceived in

retrospect

no relationship between causeand effect at system level

CropWATAGRICULTURESYSTEM

CONCLUSION

Recommendations• Moving from Measuring to Sensing...– Farmers should learn to sense by themselves crop water

requirements and plan irrigation schedules accordingly

• Moving from Indicators to Indications...– Estimating soil moisture by feel and appearance method– One of the method to estimate the soil moisture with low

cost tools is the “Ribbon Method”

• Set of diverse experiments...– Multiple small Probes – Sensing - Responses

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