TECHNICAL SESSION ON
AGRICULTURE WATER USE ON TEST APPLICATION OF CROPWAT SOFTWARE UNDER FIELD CONDITIONS OF SEMI-ARID REGION, MAHARASHTRA PRADNYA GHAG WATERSHED ORGANISATION TRUST, PUNE
05/10/13
Pradnya Ghag, WOTR, Pune
1
INTRODUCTION • What is CropWAT??? • Objectives behind this study…
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.
• Study Area • Weather conditions for the year 2011-12
05/10/13
Pradnya Ghag, WOTR, Pune
2
EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
•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 05/10/13
Pradnya Ghag, WOTR, Pune
3
CALCULATIONS 70%
IRRIGATION SCHEDULE FOR RABI ONION
(Drip Plots)
306mm
429 mm
(Flood Plots)
50%
Software Calculations Drip – 620 mm Flood – 660 mm Farmer’s Calculation 05/10/13
Readily Available Moisture
Total Available Moisture
Pradnya Ghag, WOTR, Pune
4
STUDY FINDINGS
Soil stress shown in Tensiometers 05/10/13
Pradnya Ghag, WOTR, Pune
5
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. 05/10/13
Pradnya Ghag, WOTR, Pune
6
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. 05/10/13
Pradnya Ghag, WOTR, Pune
7
CONCLUSION the relationship between cause AGRICULTURE and effect can only be perceived in retrospect SYSTEM
Probe – Sense – Respond
CropWAT
Sense – Analyze – Respond
Emergent Practice
Good Practice
Novel Practice
Best Practice
no relationship between cause and effect at system level
the relationship between cause and effect is empirically known
Act – Sense – Respond
05/10/13
the relationship between cause and effect requires analysis or some other form of investigation and/or the application of expert knowledge
Sense – Categorize – Respond
Pradnya Ghag, WOTR, Pune
8
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 05/10/13
Pradnya Ghag, WOTR, Pune
9
Visit us on www.wotr.org
05/10/13
Pradnya Ghag, WOTR, Pune
10