IPASJ International Journal of Information Technology (IIJIT)

Web Site: http://www.ipasj.org/IIJIT/IIJIT.htm

Email: editoriijit@ipasj.org
ISSN 2321-5976

A Publisher for Research Motivation ........

Volume 2, Issue 10, October 2014

ROLE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN

MODERN IRRIGATION SECTOR
(An emerging dimension in IT)
Shri Prakash R. Kolhe1, Shri Pradip P Kolhe2, M.H Tharkar3
1

Assistant Professor of Computer Science, College of Agricultural Engineering & Technology, Dapoli, Ratnagiri
2

Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Dr PDKV, Akola

Assistant Professor of Mathamatics, College of Agricultural Engineering & Technology, Dapoli

ABSTRACT
As irrigation is essential for agriculture to increase the food production to meet the increasing demand of
population. To raise the irrigation sector, we must adopt the modern irrigation systems with Information
Technology. Role of Information Technology in Modern Irrigation Sector for various purposes has been presented
in this paper, such as to estimate the wheather parameters, water availability & water demand, gross command
area, crop water requirements, crop production for different amount of water supply, to prepare water supplying
scheduled, water billing etc. Scientific researches in irrigation in different countries can be easily accessible by
Internet than any other publication source. Automatic irrigation means Measure & controlling of irrigation
system without any human intervention & self-control. It is operated by different software according to user
purpose. Management of available water, irrigation scheduling, crop management, automated irrigation can be
done by using MS-Excel or any other spreadsheet program.
India is agricultural country. About 65 per cent of people are depends on agriculture. Agriculture & agriculture
business is big source of employment in the country. Indias agriculture production is affected by uncertainty of rainfall.
That intern affects the economic & social condition of people. Rainfall is limited to few months of a year, during which
all rivers are flooded. But unfortunately after rainy season there is great scarcity of water from drinking to industrial
level. Most part of the rainwater without any use is flow to sea, & some part of the rainwater is collected in reservoirs,
dams, canal, lakes & other storage structures. Collected water is used for agriculture & for other purposes. There is no
other source of water except the stored water after rainy season. In northern part of country the rivers like Ganga,
Yamuna & Sindhu get flooded due to melting of ice of Himalayan Mountain in the summer season. Thats why it is
necessary to use the water effectively in the irrigation sector. About 1/3 rd of worlds total production is of irrigated land.
That contributes 30 per cent in Asia. (Reff. FAO). The demands for water by agriculture, industry & for human &
cattle consumption is increasing rapidly, particular with the global increase in population. Therefore, the optimum use
of water resources is absolutely essential & this can be adopting modern management practices & preventing waste
caused by run-off. It is necessary to adopt the sophisticated irrigation technologies; because irrigation is the spirit of
agriculture. By collecting the information about stored water & its need through scientific view, we have to help for
management of water distribution through Water Management Programs. Irrigation is the application of water to
soil for the crop production through a irrigation projects, irrigation canals etc. so as to calculate the wheather
parameters, water availability & water demand, Gross command area, crop water requirements, crop production for
different amount of water supply, to prepare water supplying scheduled, water billing etc. the managing authority
should take more efforts. These calculations should be made without spending a lot of time & small mistake or change
in data results in delay for analysing & interpreting results. Today these calculations are made by calculators, pencils,
rubber etc. Twenty first century is under the influence of Information Technology era. Information technology redefines
the life in every aspect. Today it is impossible to develop any sector without help of Information Technology. India is
one of the leading country in Information Technology. Information Technology means is the acquisition processing,
storage & dimension of vocal, pictorial, textual & numeric information by microelectronics based combination of
computing telecommunication. Widely Information Technology may be defined in a broad view as All computerised
& auxiliary automated information processing, telecommunication & related techniques including hardware, software,
frameware, vender support & related services. This definition covers all the aspects of it beside that according to
expert experiences. The proper implementation has resulted increase in production, decrease the cost & increase in the
revenue. Today our country using Information Technology in all sectors. Soil & water conservation is also not

Volume 2, Issue 10, October 2014

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IPASJ International Journal of Information Technology (IIJIT)

A Publisher for Research Motivation ........

Volume 2, Issue 10, October 2014

Web Site: http://www.ipasj.org/IIJIT/IIJIT.htm

Email: editoriijit@ipasj.org
ISSN 2321-5976

exception for that. Management of water in agriculture by using Information Technology & computer can be
considered as new revolution in water resource management. Internet is the main component of the Information
Ttechnology. World comes nearer because of Internet. Scientific researches in irrigation & all other sectors in different
countries can be easily accessible by Internet than any other publication. This information one can get on respective
website.
Examples are:
www.itrc.org : You can get information about irrigation management, education, queries & also about different
research on this website.
www.irrigation.org : You can get information about modern irrigation equipments, information books & hints on this
website.
www.irrigo.com : You can order the computer programs for irrigation management, & products on this website.
www.celi-edu.com : You can get information about irrigation design workshops on this website.
www.irricon.co.za : You can get information about modern irrigation techniques, products & producer information on
this website.
www.irrigation-design.com : You can get information about computerised irrigation software, & also available for sell
on this website. Avoiding the traditional irrigation practices & by using automatic irrigation systems, optimum &
efficient use of water resources is become necessity today. Automatic irrigation means Measure & controlling of
irrigation system without any human intervention & self-control. It is operated by different software according to user
purpose. e.g. Israel based on irrigation project at Dr. PDKV, Akola & other agriculture universities in Maharashtra.
Under this project thousands of acre land is under irrigation. Due to this project it is made possible to control irrigation
of thousands of acres from one place. Water And Land Management Institute, Aurangabad has played important role in
this automated irrigation systems.
Following foreign softwares are available:
1) ACA software (operating system - WIN 95/98/NT) It is a program for the design & calibration of broad-crested
weirs, the selection & calibration of 23 standard parshall flume sizes & 24 std. Cutthroat flume sizes. A 3D view of
the flow measurement structure can drawn & rotate along three different axis.
2) NETWORK software (operating system - DOS) A computer program for branching pipe network design.
3) BCW software (operating system - DOS) BCW performs theoretical calibrations for broad-crested weirs in
rectangular & trapezoidal channels. Downstream submergence is considered. Data entry is interactive with
comprehensive error checking & context-sensitive on-screen help.
4) CanalMan software (operating system - WIN 95/98) CanalMan was developed for performing hydraulic
simulations of unsteady flow in branching canal networks. The model can be used to simulate canal operations in a
manual mode.
REF-ET software (operating system - WIN 95) REF-ET is a compiled, stand-alone computer program that calculates
reference evapotranspiration. The calculations are based on the weather data measurements that are made available by
the user.
Other softwares are : B2D, CANDI, CATCH-3D, LANDLEV, WATERS, WATRAP, REMAX, PDM etc.
APPLICATION OF COMPUTERS IN IRRIGATION
i) Management of Available Water
ii) Irrigation Timetable
iii) New Irrigation Techniques
iv) Crop Management
v) Automated Irrigation
Now a day all these calculations are done using computers. Computer is the electronic device, which performs many
operations & calculation with high speed & accuracy without taking rest. In windows environment MS-Excel is most
widely used spreadsheet program. A spreadsheet is a generic software package that include a grid of rows & columns.
We can solve the problems in irrigation by using MS-Excel. Out of many irrigation water management problems,
which can be analysed by using spreadsheet packages like LOTUS 1-2-3, Supercalc etc.
1. Water regulation or distribution:
Water distribution is depend upon following things
a. Availability of water
Gross storage
River gains
Dead storage

Volume 2, Issue 10, October 2014

Page 2

IPASJ International Journal of Information Technology (IIJIT)

A Publisher for Research Motivation ........

Volume 2, Issue 10, October 2014

Web Site: http://www.ipasj.org/IIJIT/IIJIT.htm

Email: editoriijit@ipasj.org
ISSN 2321-5976

Loss in conveyance
b. Demand of water
Drinking water
Industrial water
Seasonal irrigation on flow & lift
Long-term irrigation
2. Irrigation scheduling
It includes three parameters as
i) Frequency of irrigation
ii)Duration of irrigation
iii)Depth of irrigation
Considering the time interval between two irrigation, depth of irrigation one can suggest the irrigation timetable as
i)Name of farmer
ii)Distance between farm & canal
iii)Crop type
iv)Conveyance losses
Thus by utilising computrised system & application programming, we can design computer based irrigation system.

CONCLUSION
As irrigation is essential for agriculture to increase the food production to meet the increasing demand of population.
To raise the irrigation sector, we must adopt the modern irrigation systems with Information Technology. This is the
Information Technology era, which help the irrigation for new techniques, extension, adoption & information. So, in
number of way we can utilize Information Technology in Irrigation.

Volume 2, Issue 10, October 2014

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