Study on crop water requirement of field crops under different climatic conditions of Madhya Pradesh

Improved and efficient irrigation water management through precise estimation of crop water requirement has a vital role to play in ensuring food security. However, the crop water requirement data of field crops are not locally available. In view of this, present investigation was aimed at quantifying the crop water requirement of rabi and kharif season crops grown under paired row planting in different agro climatic conditions of Madhya Pradesh. The crop water requirement was calculated based on the already developed crop coefficient and reference evapotranspiration. Daily weather data of 35 years (1979 to 2013) for twenty districts of Madhya Pradesh was collected to determine the reference evapotranspiration using Aquacrop model. The study revealed that the daily ETo increased continuously from 1st SMW to its maximum values during 21st-22nd SMW, thereafter decreased sharply and remains low from 30th to 34th SMW in all selected districts. The highest value of ETo (11.0 mm day-1) was found in Datia at 21st SMW and lowest in Betul i.e. 2.2 mm day-1 at 32nd SMW. The daily water requirement estimates showed that the water requirement of chickpea, wheat and lentil i.e. 1.73 lpd, 0.70 lpd and 0.49 lpd respectively is highest in Jabalpur. Sugarcane has the highest water requirement 13.56 lpd in Narsinghpur during mid season.  In all kharif crops cotton has highest water requirement 6.53 lpd in Harda followed by sesame and groundnut i.e. 2.75 lpd and 2.46 lpd respectively in Datia. These results can be used in efficient management of irrigation water under drip irrigation system in selected district of Madhya Pradesh.