Water Productivity of Agricultural Crops in Upper Manair Catchment

Water use in agriculture is highest among other water users and economically far less efficient.  The production per unit water consumed, the water productivity, must be increased to increase its economical efficiency. Knowledge about water resources availability and crop water productivity with high spatial and temporal resolution is necessary for water productivity improvement analyses. Therefore, the study has been taken up to characterize the hydrologic processes of the Upper Manair catchment and assess crop water productivity using Soil and Water assessment tool (SWAT) to evolve irrigation management plans to sustain the use of groundwater resources for irrigation. The biological and economical yield of different field crops, viz. Rice, Maize, Cotton, Sugarcane and sunflower were predicted successfully. Water productivity for Rice, Maize, Cotton, Sugarcane and sunflower were estimated at 0.61, 1.27, 0.41, 8.04 and 1.05 kg /m³, respectively, which were significantly lower than the potential. SWAT model predicts crop yield, biomass and water productivity temporally and spatially which will help to finalize the management practices to sustain ground water resources. In addition to adopting water saving technologies, reliable quality and hours of supply of power is extremely important for achieving higher water productivity in ground water irrigation.