Enhancing Water Use Efficiency in Wheat Cultivation for Sustainable Water Management Using Different Methods and Rates of Irrigation

India is the world’s second-largest producer and consumer of wheat after China. In recent years, it produced 70-75 million tons of wheat and contributed around 12% of the global wheat production. Irrigation plays an important role in increasing crop yield. However, considering the increasing competition for water resources, there is a need to use irrigation water effectively.  The present study aims to evaluate the effects of different irrigation methods (drip, sprinkler, flood, and rainfed) and variable irrigation rates (100%, 75%, 50%, and 0% of crop evapotranspiration) on wheat growth. The field experiments on the wheat crop were conducted at the Demonstration farm of the Department of Water Resources Development and Management, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee, for the years 2022-23 and 2023-24, respectively. Results showed that around 28.62 % of water was saved by the drip irrigation system, and the sprinkler irrigation system saved 19.7 % as compared to the flood irrigation system. Among all treatments, the drip irrigation system retained the highest soil moisture in the top 10 cm depth, whereas the sprinkler irrigation system retained the highest soil moisture in 30 cm and 100 cm depths. Additionally, the results showed that the leaf area index and biomass collected from the sprinkler irrigation system were higher as compared to the drip and flood irrigation systems. Thus, sprinkler irrigation systems can be recommended to promote sustainable water management for wheat cultivation in the Indo-Gangetic plains and similar agroclimatic regions. This practice could play a crucial role in conserving precious water resources and achieving sustainable development goals.

Keywords: - Sprinkler, Drip Irrigation Systems and Sustainable Water Management