Conveyance losses from lined and unlined sections of canal irrigation network were determined under existing situation and the scenarios for different management strategy were developed to utilize saved water for irrigation. Panchnadi Minor Irrigation Project was taken as a case study. The study revealed that overall efficiencies of the lined and unlined sections of main canal and unlined field channels under existing condition were 75.1, 52.3 and 34.8%, respectively. Conveyance losses through canal network of the command were 0.97 Mm3 amounting to about 67% of the total live storage. The study also indicated that 0.263 Mm3 water can be saved due to conversion of unlined sections of main canal water and 0.113 Mm3 can be saved through conversion of unlined field channels into lined sections. With these savings, about 30 and 19 ha additional area can be brought under irrigation by keeping existing cropping pattern unaltered. The conveyance efficiency can be improved to 75 per cent from the present efficiency. Water saving to the tune of 0.65 and 0.17 Mm3 can be achieved through conversion of existing main canal sections and field channels, through which an additional area 73.3 and 19.3 ha additional area can be irrigated. Thus, total water saving of 0.82 Mm3 can be achieved and 92.6 ha additional area can be brought under irrigation. The scenarios were developed by considering the area additional area distributed among the first three highest benefiting crops like banana, watermelon and chilli using Aquacrop model developed by FAO. The gross water allocation was reduced about 26% and 57% while the project net benefit can be increased by 3.3 times (78.6 lakh) and 6 times (141.1 lakh) more than projected benefit (Rs. 23.67 lakh) under existing conditions when unlined canal sections is converted into lined sections or when whole canal network is replaced by closed conduit.

Full text: IJEIR_1200_Final.pdf