Hi Yogesh. Improving both ...
Published by Richard McLoughlin, Australian Government Department of the Environment - Assistant Secretary
Hi Yogesh. Improving both on- and off-farm water use efficiencies has been the principal focus of nearly $3 billion in investment in Australia's Murray Darling Basin. The work is continuing at full pace at present. We have focussed on improving irrigation district supply efficiencies through preparing, with irrigators, 30-40 year irrigation district plans that focus on infrastructure and water supply needs for the future, followed by a water loss 'hot spots' assessments using mainly EM surveys, then making fact based and logical decisions on best use of available funds for minimising supply channel losses. We have seen irrigation supply efficiency improvements of 20-25% as a result of the approaches being taken, with average supply channel efficiencies improving from around 60-70% up to often 90% depending on the technology selected. Decisions on future water supply availability have also taken account of climate change forecasting of potential rainfall changes in the area. On the basis that it is not much using improving supply channel efficiency if farms continue to use water inefficiently, on-farm projects have been converting many flood irrigation layouts to various types of pressurised systems, or to laser levelling of improved flood irrigation techniques (which is more suitable for some of the very large cropping areas we have here in Australia). This has been very popular with farmers, even though a minimum of 50% of the water savings from each farm have to be shared with the government for use in environmental watering and restoration. Happy to share my experiences with running this program at IWW if we get the chance. Regards. Richard McLoughin.
2 Comments
Hi Richard, Greetings from Jaipur - Rajasthan- India. In Australia you have improved the canal systems to a greater extent. But a lot is to be done In India to improve water supply channel efficiencies particularly by improved planning, design, construction procedures and maintenance. The water courses (field channels) are to be constructed by farmers themselves as per their own design, resources. In most of the cases field channels have not been constructed in full length, due to so many social, political, local and financial reasons. Therefore full proposed irrigated area is not covered by the field channels. Cropping pattern while designing the canals is never implemented nor the canals are improved as per the cropping pattern followed by the farmers. However I am sure participants in India Water week 2015will learn so many things from your experience in Australia. Thanks again.
Published by Yogesh Agrawal, Director (retired), Minor irrigation schemes, Water Resources Department at Govt of Rajasthan
Hi Yogesh, Improving water use efficiency needs collective action on all the domains of irrigated agriculture. may be it is engineering aspects, crop production, irrigation application or water distribution .. key to move forward is continual improvement in all sectors of water use in command area. Capacity building of water users is undoubtedly needs to be attended on larger context.
Published by DR RAJESH PURANIK, Water and Land Management Institute (WALMI Aurangabad) - Professor & Head