Section 03 · Water
When to irrigate, and how long to run the pump
Pick your crop, state and sowing date to see the irrigations your state's agricultural university advises. Then work out how long your pump must run to water the field once.
When to irrigate
Enter the date to see calendar dates.
- Day 21Crown root initiation (CRI) — most critical
- Day 42Tillering
- Day 63Late jointing
- Day 84Flowering
- Day 102Milk stage
- Day 118Dough stage
4–6 irrigations in all
General schedule for North India from our crop data, not yet checked against a package of practices. Choose your state, or check it with your KVK.
Wheat: full guideHow long to run the pump
Measure your pump's flow with a bucket: hold it under the outlet and count the seconds until it is full.
Water for one irrigation: 3,03,514 litres
Guide
Make every irrigation count
Small plots (kiaras)
For the best use of irrigation water, PAU advises making 8 kiaras per acre on heavy soil and 16 on light soil.
Let the weather move the dates (wheat)
- For every 1 cm of rain, push the next irrigation back by 5 days up to the end of January, and by 2 days after that.
- Each date in the timetable can move 2 or 3 days either way.
- Don't irrigate on a windy day: the crop can fall over.
- Depending on rain, keep irrigating timely-sown wheat up to the end of March, against unusual heat while the grain fills. Wheat sown after 5 December: up to 10 April.
Save water
- Raised beds: wheat sown two rows to a bed (37.5 cm bed, 30 cm furrow) uses water and fertiliser efficiently.
- Drip: PAU found it saves 43.88 % of the water in onion, 38 % in potato and 30 % in pea, and raises yield.
- Paddy straw: for potato on light sandy soil, 25 quintals per acre spread as mulch, with salty and canal water used in turn, saves two irrigations.
Salty tube-well water
- PAU advises using salty tube-well water in turn with good canal water. For berseem on sandy loam, use good water at sowing and alternate after that. For potato on light sandy soil, alternate the two.
- On medium to heavy soil with high pH, water high in RSC (sodic water) soaks in slowly, which delays the rice harvest and the wheat after it. PAU suggests sowing wheat into the standing rice in such fields.
- Get your tube-well water tested at a soil testing lab or your KVK: the report tells you whether it is salty or sodic.