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Innovative Technologies and Management for Water Saving in Agriculture

Role of Agricultural Drainage in Water Saving

1. INTRODUCTION The role of agricultural drainage in saving fresh water and improving water use efficiency is seldom recognized. In fact, drainage can contribute to water saving in three ways. First, drainage increases crop production without the need for consuming extra water resources. Second, reuse of drainage water in irrigation saves significant part of the available fresh water resources. Third, controlled drainage helps in saving fresh water by providing part of the consumptive use through capillary rise from shallow water tables.
Future Needs 40% of world food production comes from irrigated lands. Irrigated agriculture consumes about 8090% of available fresh water. additional 12% or more water needed for irrigation by 2025. Additional 65% needed for nonagricultural demands.

SAFWAT ABDEL-DAYEM1

90 80 70

W ithdrawals (% )

60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1900 1950 1980 2000 2025

Agriculture

Indusry

Municipal

Figure 1. Sectoral demand for water

1 Drainage Specialist, Egyptian National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage, Cairo, Egypt, E-mail: safwat_eid@hotmail.com

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Innovative Technologies and Management for Water Saving in Agriculture

2. WATER SAVING THROUGH INCREASING PRODUCTIVITY Drainage as a practice, aims at increasing agricultural productivity by controlling water logging and salinity in the root zone. The increase in yield due to improved drainage depends on the initial state of the affected land and the effectiveness of the drainage systems. In some cases the yield under improved drainage conditions could be several times more than without drainage. Thus, drainage can contribute in achieving food security without the need to exploit new land and use additional water resources. Global Drainage Problems

20 30 million ha are severely salt affected. Additional 60-80 million ha are salt affected to certain extent

50% of cropped land has developed drainage problems

240 million ha rain fed land could benefit from improved drainage

Worldwide, about 50% of the irrigated land has developed some drainage problems (Smedema 2000). There are about 20-30 million ha severely affected by salinity and an additional 60-80 million ha are affected to some extent (FAO, 1990). Increasing

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Innovative Technologies and Management for Water Saving in Agriculture

60

50

40

Irrigated Areas

Salt Affected

Area in million ha

30

20

10

0 India China USA Pakistan Iran Mexico Turkey Egypt Sudan Morocco

Figure 2. Salinity in major irrigation countries

Source: FOA (Irrigated areas) and ICID (Salt affected areas)

the yield in these areas by only 10% due to improved drainage is equivalent to expanding irrigation to 6-8 million ha of new land, and using additional 60-80 billion cubic meter of water. The actual savings will vary from country to the other depending on the area affected and level of suffering from waterlogging and salinity on one hand and the area that will be covered by improved drainage on the other.

Potential yield without constraints

100
Yield after drainage

Relative Yield %

Total yield increase

Yie ld with out drai n age

Drainage System Installed

Drainage system lifetime

Time after drains installation in years

Figure 3. Drainage impact on crop yield

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Innovative Technologies and Management for Water Saving in Agriculture

Potential savings in worlds fresh water due to improved drainage: 60-80 million cubic meter

Average Yield of Wheat Before and After Drainage in Egypt

6.2 6.0 5.8 5.6 5.4 5.2 5.0 4.8 4.6 4.4
Non-Saline Areas Saline Areas Rehabilitation areas

to n /h a

Before

After

Figure 4. From country to global gains The impact of improved drainage on productivity goes beyond this simplistic picture, as it allows also crop diversification where more high value crops could be cultivated on the drained land. It could boost export, income, and livelihood and reduce poverty. The increase of yield without extending agriculture to new lands is also saving of other agricultural inputs (seeds, fertilizers and farm operations) and releases less pollutants to the environment. 3. SAVING FRESH WATER BY REUSING DRAINAGE WATER In many cases drainage water is disposed Gains and losses of in rivers and reused again in the drainage water reuse downstream. More commonly, tail end farmers suffering shortage of irrigation Advantages water, lift water from drains to irrigate Overall water use efficiency increases their fields. Driven by water scarcity, Available in large quantities drainage water is now counted by many countries as additional non-conventional Available within the agricultural domain water resource. The most well known Minimum infrastructure needed formal program for drainage water reuse Disadvantage is in Egypt. This is a progressive program Risk of soil salinization and yield loss started with using 2.9 million cubic meter in 1984-85, increased to 4.4 billion cubic meter by 1997, and aims at reusing 8.8 billion cubic meter in 2017 (MWRI, 2004).

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Innovative Technologies and Management for Water Saving in Agriculture

Informal Reuse of Drainage Water in Egypt

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Innovative Technologies and Management for Water Saving in Agriculture

Reuse of agricultural drainage water provides an effective option to increase water use efficiency. It could save good quality water from rivers or underground aquifers for prime uses such as for drinking. The two main advantages are the relatively large volumes of agricultural drainage water available, and their proximity to agricultural lands when compared with treated domestic waste water. The main constraint for agricultural drainage water reuse in irrigation is its high salinity which increases when the program of reuse is stretched to higher quantities. It is therefore important to follow appropriate guidelines and careful management when drainage water is reused particularly when its salinity is relatively high (Ayers and Westcot, 1985, Tanji and Kielen, 2002). Another concern about drainage water reuse is the increasing trends of pollution in drains caused by disposal of sanitary water from urban centers and rural settlement into drains. Domestic wastewater effluent is mostly not treated or in a best scenario not treated to acceptable standards. It is a world-wide problem and gets more serious when industrial wastewater is also disposed into the drains. This threat imposes difficult challenge in the face of agricultural reuse practices, and calls for integrated approach for water management. Coordination and participatory planning and management offer a promise for reducing pollution and efficient water use. 4. SAVING WATER BY MANAGING WATER TABLES The conventional objective of drainage is Benefits and Costs of to lower the water table below the root controlled Drainage zone. Most drainage systems have been designed to keep the drainage depth as Advantages deep as what is commonly defined as the Water saving up to 20-30% in dry-foot crops irrigation critical depth. It is the depth which minimizes moisture upward flux into 50% saving for rice irrigation (paddy) the root zone from an underlying Drainage water quality improves groundwater through capillary rise Less nutrient losses particularly during the fallow season. In Saving in irrigation and drainage pumping some arid regions, as in Central Asia, subsurface drains were installed at a Disadvantage depth exceeding 3.0 meter below land Risk of secondary salinization surface. Deep drains could be a cause of over-drainage, which unless compensated by rainfall or additional irrigation water, results in yield loss (Smedema and Rycroft 1983, Skaggs and Chescher 1999). Controlled drainage has been introduced in North America and Western Europe as a measure to conserve water and increase crop yield (Evans et al, 1992). The objective of controlled drainage is to reduce subsurface drainage intensity during specific period of time by temporarily raising the level of the drain

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Innovative Technologies and Management for Water Saving in Agriculture

Egypts Drain Water Reuse Program

200

5.0 billion m3
150

100

50

2.9 billion m3

Volume BcM Salinity ds /m

0
19 84 19 5 85 19 6 86 19 7 87 19 8 88 1 9 -9 89 19 90 90 1 9 91 91 19 92 92 1 9 93 93 19 94 94 19 95 95 1 9 96 96 19 97 97 1 9 98 98 19 99 99 -0 0

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Innovative Technologies and Management for Water Saving in Agriculture

Controlled Drainage

Root zone Capillary fringe Groundwater

Surface Drainage

Level 2 Level 1 Drain

Pipe Drainage

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Innovative Technologies and Management for Water Saving in Agriculture

outlet. Capillary rise from the raised water table contributes in moisture supply to the root zone. Recent experimental work in Egypt showed that up to 20-40% of the total water requirement could be saved through controlled drainage during the growing season (Abott et al 2001). In the case of paddy rice water savings could exceed 50%. 5. CONCLUSIONS Drainage could play a significant role in saving fresh water resources. Improved drainage increases the potential of food security without need for more land and water Drainage water should be seen as additional resource rather than waste. Controlled drainage is effective in water saving and improving drainage water quality REFERENCES
Abott, C. L, S. Abdel-Gawad, M.S. Wahba, and A. Lo Cascio. 2001. Field testing of controlled Drainage and Verification of the WaSim Simulation Model. HR Wallingford Technical Report ODTN102, Wallingford, Oxon, OX10 8BA, UK. Ayers R.S. and D.W. Westcot (1985). Water Quality for Agriculture. Food and agriculture Organization FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper 29 (Rev. 1). Rome, Italy. Evans R. O., J.E. Parsons, K. stone, and W.B. Wells. 1992. Water Table Management on Watershed Scale. J. Soil Water Conservation, USA. FAO. 1999. An International Action Programme on Water and Sustainable Agricultural Development. A strategy for Implementation of the Mar del Plata Action Plan for the 1990s. Food and agriculture Organization FAO, Rome. Gillam, J. W., J.L. Baker, and K.R. Reddy. 1999. Water Quality effects of drainage in humid regions. . In Agricultural Drainage, R.W. Skaggs and J. van Schilfgraade (editors), American Society in the series Agronomy. Number 38 in the Series Agronomy, USA. MWRI. 2004. National Water Resources Plan for Egypt (IN Draft). Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, Egypt. Smedema, Lambert K. 2000. Global drainage needs and challenges: The role of drainage in todays world. 8th International Drainage Workshop, New Delhi Tanji, K. K. andN. C. Kielen. 2002. Agricultural Drainage Water management in arid and semi-arid areas. Food and agriculture Organization (FAO), Irrigation and Drainage Paper 61, Rome. Smedema L.K., and David W. Rycroft. 1983. Land Drainage: Planning and Design of Agricultural Drainage Systems. Batsford Academic and Educational Ltd, London. p 156p 283. Skaggs, R.W., and G. Schscher. 1999. Application of Drainage Simulation Models. In Agricultural Drainage, R.W. Skaggs and J. van Schilfgraade (editors), American Society in the series Agronomy. Number 38 in the Series Agronomy, USA.

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