Assessment of Water Saving using Precision Land Leveling in Moga District-A case study

Harinder1, Rajan Aggarwal2 and Samanpreet Kaur3

ABSTRACT
Declining water table and degrading soil health are the major concerns for sustainable agriculture in
Punjab. Thus, proper emphasis should be given on the management of irrigation water practices. Laser
levelling is one such device that promotes efficient utilization of water. To scientifically understand the
benefits of laser levelling a survey was conducted at farmers field and co-opertive societiesin different
blocks of Moga district to evaluate the performance laser leveller and to estimate the saving in water
resources at different level of adoption. It was observed that farmers can save 14 to 37.5% of water
resources in different crops by laser leveling. The study concluded that laser land leveling can result in
saving of 9259.6, 23150.73, 46300.8, 69450.64 and 92601.6 ha-m of water at 10, 25,50,75 and 100 per
cent adoption of laser leveler.
INTRODUCTION
Indian Punjab, a small state comprising only 1.57 per cent of geographical area of the country
and producing about 20 per cent of wheat and 11 per cent of rice production of the country, is an
outstanding success story of increasing food grain production. This has been possible due to introduction
and adoption of high yielding varieties, along with assured irrigation and high fertilizer use supported by
marketing facilities. However, these developments have been accompanied by negative impact on soil
and water resources. The deficient of water was largely by over exploitation of ground water which is

B.Tech Student, College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Punjab Agricultural University,
Ludhiana 141004.
2

Sr. Research Engineer, Deptt., of Soil and Water Engineering, Punjab Agricultural University,
Ludhiana 141004 Email: rajanaggarwal1@gmail.com
3

Asstt. Research Engineer, Deptt., of Soil and Water Engineering, Punjab Agricultural University,
Ludhiana 141004

evident from the fact that the number of tube well has increased from 3.0 lakh in 1975 to 13.15 lakh in
2010 (Anonymous,1975, 2010) in the state.
There are various districts of Punjab in which there are over exploitation of water resources,
especially ground water resources; one of them is Moga district which is categorized as over exploited.
There are five blocks in the district which are categorized as over exploited. The overall groundwater
exploitation is 177 per cent in the district (Sharma and Marwaha 2007). The climate of district is
classified as tropical and dry sub-humid. Climatic conditions are extremely hot in summer and
extremely cold in the month of December-January and hot and humid in rainy season. Average annual
rainfall is 498 mm. Wheat and Paddy are the main crops.
Generally, farmers use surface irrigation methods in the district. Efficiency of these methods
is very poor at the field of farmers field. The basic reason behind is lack of proper design and leveling.
It has been reported that significant amounts (10-25%) of irrigation water is lost during application at the
farm due to poor management and uneven fields (Kahlown et al 2000). The conventional process of
leveling was time consuming, expensive and inefficient due to human errors. Farmers generally level
the field using scrapper and make a check by impounding the field by water. Thus, in the process of
having good leveling in field, large amount of water is wasted. The problem of wastage is more in case
of rice fields due to unevenness of fields lead to inefficient use of water and also delay tillage and crop
stands. The problems of weed burdens and uneven maturing of crop are most common in fields which
have high degree of unevenness. All these factors contribute to reduction in yield and grain quality.
Thus, this also leads to reduction in income of farmer.
So land leveling is effective to optimize water use efficiency, reduction in irrigation time and
effort required to manage the crop. Laser leveling is a laser guided precision leveling technique used for
achieving very fine leveling with desired grade on the agricultural field (Aggarwal et al 2010). Laser
leveling uses a laser transmitter unit that constantly emits 360 rotating beam parallel to the required
2

field plane. This beam is received by a laser receiver (receiving unit) fitted on a mast on the scraper unit.
The signal received is converted into cut and fill level adjustments and the corresponding changes in
scraper level are carried automatically by a two way hydraulic control valve. Laser leveling maintains
the grade by automatically performing the cutting and filling operations. Both level grade and slope
grade can be achieved with the help of this precision equipment.
Precision land leveling is thus the foremost step in judicious use of water. Laser leveling was
introduced in the state about five years ago and has been widely adopted by the farmers in Punjab due
not only to its water saving potential but also due to its significant economic benefits arising out of water
saving, reducing weed problems and relatively higher yield levels. Also the precision land leveling helps
in saving electricity, time, labour along with conservation of water and judicious use of other inputs like
fertilizer, insecticides, pesticides, weedicides etc. This will also results in uniform maturity of crop better
quality and higher yield. The empirical evidence has shown that laser leveling in rice brings down the
water use by 36.19 cm along with the yield improvement 0.78 tonne/ha. The productivity of paddy was
reported to have increased from 7.32 t/ha on traditionally levelled field to 8.10 t/ha on laser levelled
field. The total economic benefit from laser levelling was estimated at Rs. 8800 per ha (Sidhu and Vatta,
2009).
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The district Moga lies are North Latitude 3028 30 and 310615, East Longitude
745440 and 752457 having geographical area: 2216 Sq. km (Fig. 1). There are five blocks in the
district namely Moga-I, Moga-2, Dharamkot, Bagha Purana and Nihal Singh Wala. Information
regarding area under irrigation, hydrometeorology, ground water assessment, cropping pattern, time to
irrigate laser leveled field and non-laser leveled field, time spent for laser leveling field was collected
from the farmers. Information regarding time taken to level the field from co-operative societies was

collected. Block wise information regarding geographical area, cultivated area and groundwater
development is given in Table 1.

District Moga

Fig.1 Location map of Moga district

Table 1 Block-wise information about geographical area, cultivated area and groundwater
development
Sr. No

Block

Geographical area
(ha)

1
2
3
4
5

Moga-I
Moga-II
Bagha Purana
Dharamkot
Nihal Singh Wala
TOTAL
(Sharma and Marwaha 2007)

39,805
33,311
57,253
54,868
38,173
2,23,410

Cultivated area

Stage

ground

(ha)
34,021
28,666
52,000
48,363
34,000
1,97,050

development (%)
205
187
174
138
217
177

water

To access water saving information from various farmers of different blocks was collected
from 80 farmers and 25 farmers were selected to present the study. Efforts were made to select those
farmers who have laser leveled as well as traditionally leveled field and they should represent maximum
number of crops in the area. Efforts were also made to select the farmers in such a way that the

information provided represents all the blocks. For present study the co-operative societies were also
selected to get information about the laser leveler. The information regarding the time spends for laser
leveling for the entire farm size were collected from the farmers. Since it was difficult to install water
measuring device at all the selected farmers, therefore the information regarding the cropping pattern
and time spent on irrigating and leveling the field in conventional system and by laser leveling were
collected from the individual farmers to estimate saving of irrigation water for different crops. The
major cropping pattern of the area is rice-wheat, but efforts were made to collect the data from the
farmer having area under the other crops like potato, maize, Barseem, cotton etc. The information is
presented in Table 2. Irrigation requirement of major crops (Arora et al 2007) is given in Table 2.
Table 2 Seasonal ET, percolation and water input (mm) in principal field crops
Crop

ET

Rice
Maize
Cotton
Wheat
Chickpea
Sugarcane
Raya
Sunflower

Percolation

650
480
600
380
320
1350
280
550

1400
270
150
80
40
200
40
80

Water input
Rainfall

Irrigation

600
500
630
110
120
730
110
100

1600
350
200
350
200
200
850
550

To assess water saving in water resources at different level of adoption of laser leveler for
different cropping information regarding major crops were collected from district agriculture department
and presented in Table 3 for the year 2009-10

Table 3 Block wise Area (hectare) under major crops in 2009-2010 in Moga District.
Sr.No

Crop

Moga-I

Moga-II

Bagha

Nihal

Purana

Wala

Singh Dharamkot

Total

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Wheat
Potato
Barseem
Paddy
Cotton
Maize
Sorghum

28989
1536
1770
29364
371
9
2074

(fodder)
Sugarcane 4

26451
672
1153
25504
230
6
1491

45375
225
2135
42618
285
66
2534

30946
531
1420
42283
1415
16
2786

44989
585
2312
28020
1384
13
2084

176750
3549
8790
167789
3685
110
10969

12

31

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Water saving at farmer field: Water saving for different crops was estimated by assessing the
difference in duration of irrigation at laser leveled fields and traditionally leveled fields under same
conditions and farmers practices. Because duration of irrigation is directly proportional to the amount of
water used for irrigation. The results of 25 selected farmers from all the blocks for their different crops
have been presented in Table 4. A perusal of Table 4 reveals that water saving at varies from 14 to 37.5
% for different crops. It was observed that upper limit of water saving for different crops varies from 21
to 37.5 %. Based on farmers field survey average water saving for paddy, wheat, cotton, maize, barseem
and potato was 27.27, 27.42, 23.33, 26.50, 17.5 and 26.5 percent respectively.
Table 4 Water saving due to laser leveling for different crops
Sr. No

Crop

Water saving

Average water saving

Paddy

(%)
25-37.5

(%)
27.27

Wheat

16-37

27.42

Cotton

20-28

23.33

Maize

20-33

26.5

Barseem

14-21

17.5

Potato

20-33

26.5

Average water saving

24.71

The information collected from the survey of the farmers was used to assess the amount of water
saving for different level of adoption of laser leveler. The analysis of this parameter has been represented
in Table 5
Table 5 Amount of water saving for different crops by adopting laser leveler at different
level for cropping pattern of year 2009 -2010

Sr.

Crop

No

Water

Water

Water

Area

Saved

Reqd.

saved

(ha)

(%)

(cm)

(cm)

Water saved (ha m) at adoption level of

10%
25%
50%
75%
100%

Paddy

27.27

160

43.6

167789

7315

18289

36578

54867

73156

Wheat

27.42

35

9.59

176750

1695

4237.8

8475

12712

16950

Cotton

23.33

20

4.66

3685

17.17

42.93

85.86

128.7

171.7

Maize

26.5

35

9.27

110

1.01

2.54

7.64

10.19

Barsem

17.5

105

18.37

8790

161.47

403.68

807.36

1211

1614.7

Potato

26.5

75

19.7

3549

69.9

174.78

349.5

524.3

699

Total

24.71

430

105.19

360673

9259.6

23150.73

46300.8

69450.64

92601.6

The perusal of Table 5 revels that 7315, 18289, 36578, 54867 and 73156 ha-m of water can be
saved by laser leveling at 10, 25, 50, 75, 100 per cent for paddy crop. Whereas perusal of Table 5 reveals
that 1695, 4237.8, 8475, 12712 and 16950 ha-m of water can be saved by laser leveling at 10, 25, 50, 75
and 100 per cent level of adoption in Wheat crop and 17.17, 42.93, 85.86, 128.7, 171.7 ha-m of water
can be saved by laser leveling at 10, 25, 50, 75 and 100 per cent level of adoption in cotton crop.
Similarly 1.01, 2.54, 5.0, 7.64, 10.19 ha-m of water for maize , 161.47, 403.68, 807.36, 1211, 1614.7

ha-m of water for Barseem and 69.9, 174.8, 349.5, 524.3, 699 ha-m of water for potato can saved at 10,
25, 50, 75 and 100 per cent level of adoption respective crops.
Over all 9259.6, 23150.73, 46300.8, 69450.64 and 92601.6 ha-m of water can saved for all the
crops at 10, 25, 50, 75 and 100 per cent level of adoption laser leveling.
Assessment of number of laser levelers: The laser leveling is generally done through laser leveler
available in cooperative societies. So a survey was carried out in Moga district by selecting 20 societies
covering all the 5 blocks in the district. The survey of performance of laser leveler in 10000 ha reveals
that time required for one acre land to laser leveled is 1 hours 30 minutes. So based upon this
observation analysis was made for assessment of number of laser leveler required for Moga district is as
follows:
Total area under Paddy in five blocks = 167789 ha.
Time required per acre = 1.5(1 hour 30 min)
Time required per hectare = 1.5 x 2.5=3.75(3 hours 45 mins.)
Area can be covered in one day = 2 ha.
Number of days available for land leveling between wheat-paddy crops = 45 days
So area can be covered by single leveler = 90 ha.
Area to be covered =1677893=55930ha. (Laser leveling is required after every 3 years)
Number of laser leveler required to cover entire paddy grown areas in 3 years=5593090=621.44622
(approx).
Number of days available for land leveling between paddy-wheat crops=45 days
So number of laser leveler required in Moga district=6222=311
Miscellaneous losses in time (breakdown, Transporting etc) = 10%

So number of laser leveler required in district = (10/100 x 311) + 311= 342.1 350
Net irrigated area is = 2, 00,000 ha.
Number of laser levelers required to level 167789 ha. of paddy grown area = 350
Number of laser levelers required to level 1 ha of paddy grown area = 350/167789
So number of laser leveler required to level net irrigated area= (350/167789) x 2,00,000 = 417.19 420
CONCLUSIONS
It was observed from the field studies, that farmers can save 14 to 37.5% of water resources in
different crops by laser leveling. The study concluded that laser land leveling can result in saving of
9259.6, 23150.73, 46300.8, 69450.64 and 92601.6 ha-m of water at 10, 25, 50, 75 and 100 per cent
adoption of laser leveler. Since rice-wheat is the major cropping pattern in the state therefore adopting
laser leveling in rice-wheat system alone can result in saving of 90106 ha-m of water. On the basis of
area under paddy in the district and performance of laser leveler 350 laser levelers are required whereas
for entire area 420 laser levelers are required for the period of 3 years.
REFERENCES
Anonymous 1975; 2007. Statistical Abstract of Punjab - The Economic Advisor to Govt. of Punjab,
Chandigarh, India.
Sharma A; Marwaha S 2007. Ground water information booklet moga district, Punjab. Central Ground
Water Board, Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India, North Western Region.
Chandigarh.

Accessed

through

http://cgwb.gov.in/District_Profile/Punjab/Moga.pdf

on

16.7.2011.
Kahlown A; Choudhary M A; Mushtaq A; Gill M. 2002. Evaluation of Resource conservation
technolgies in Rice- Wheat system of Pakistan. Pakistan council of research in water resources
(PCRWR), research report-1(2002) (PCRWR, Islamabad, Pakistan).

Sidhu R S; Vatta K. 2009. GECs and Food System in Indian Punjab: Characteristics, Vulnerability and
Adaptation Strategies, A Power Point Presentation for GECAFS Indo-Gangetic Plains Meetings,
Environmental Change and Food Security in the Indo-Gangetic Plains: A Briefing and AgendaSetting

Discussion

Saturday

February,

2009,

Delhi,

accessed

to

website:

http://www.gecafs.org/gecafs_meetings/07_feb_2009.html on 9th July, 2011

Arora V K; Jalota S K; Singh K B. 2007. Managing water crisis for sustainable crop productivity in
Punjab: An overview. J Res Punjab Agric Univ 45 (1 & 2): 17-21.
Aggarwal R; Kaur S; Singh A. 2010. Assessment of saving in water resources through precision land
leveling in Punjab. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp 182-185.

10