Indian Journal of Dryland Agricultural Research and Development

Water for agriculture is becoming scarce due to increasing demand in the allied sectors. The knowledge of irrigation requirement for crops and the available water supplies under changing climate is necessary for efficient management of water resources. This aids in efficient application of irrigation based on crop water requirement. In this study, the irrigation water requirement for major crops of Sangareddy was estimated based on changing climate scenarios. The variability in rainfall, temperature, crop water and irrigation requirements of major crops under present and future scenario was assessed using ENSEMBLE data, Hargreaves and Samani (1985) equation and ten-day effective rainfall. During the period from 1951-2013, it was observed that the average rainfall and average effective rainfall of Sangareddy district were 875 and 527 mm respectively. The irrigation requirement estimated for major crops of Sangareddy such as cotton, rice, maize, groundnut, green gram, sesame, sorghum and sugarcane varied from 471.5 to 497.2 mm, 679.6 to 724.7 mm, 343.2 to 347.6 mm, 414.2 to 422.2 mm, 125.6 to 153.7 mm, 99.6 to 113.0 mm and 1329 to 1362 mm respectively. In case of future scenarios, the irrigation water requirement is expected to increase for almost all the kharif and rabi crops.