Estimation of crop water requirement for rice- wheat and rice- maize cropping system using CROPWAT model for Pusa, Samastipur district, Bihar

Abstract

This study is about estimation of crop water requirement for rice-wheat and rice-rabi maize cropping system for Pusa Region of Samastipur district of Bihar using CROPWAT model for year 2017-18.The effective rainfall was calculated using USDA S.C. Method. Reference crop evaporation was calculated using meteorological data viz temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and Sunshine using Penman Monteith equation. The meteorological data were collected from university observatory of R.P.C.A.U Pusa. Crop coefficient (Kc) value was taken according to crop growth stages. Effective rainfall and crop water requirement was used for determining net irrigation requirement. The annual crop water requirement of Rice- Wheat cropping system was found to be 904.1 mm whereas the crop-water requirement of Rice- Rabi Maize cropping system was 991.7 mm.