Design and development of load-cell based economic mini-lysimeter for field experiments on water balance components

Mini-lysimeters are generally used to quantify accurate and minor changes in amount of soil moisture content, drainage water and evapotranspiration within a soil monolith. A study has been carried out to develop a mini-lysimeter for quantification of water balance components in field in arid condition at ICAR-Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur. The mini-lysimeter has been designed and fabricated based on electronic single load cell with a dimension of 0.50 m × 0.50 m × 0.55 m and then installed in experimental field of CAZRI, Jodhpur. The cost for fabrication of a single mini-lysimeter was 14, 500 (∼234.5 US $). It has been observed that fabrication of mini-lysimeter based on single load cell is less expensive as compared to conventional tank lysimeter and therefore, can be economically replicated and easily installed. The developed mini-lysimeter was tested in field during kharif season of 2014 and has been found effective to measure different water balance components with a resolution of 0.2 mm.