Wheat crop requires 55 cm of water during 120 days of base period. The...
Given data:
- Wheat crop requires 55 cm of water during 120 days of the base period.
- Total rainfall during this period = 100 mm
- Irrigation efficiency = 60%
- Canal flow rate = 0.01 m3/s
We can calculate the total water requirement for the crop as follows:
- Water requirement = 55 cm × area of land × crop coefficient
- Here, crop coefficient is the ratio of actual evapotranspiration of the crop to the reference evapotranspiration (ET0) during the same period. Let's assume it to be 1 for simplicity.
- So, water requirement = 55 cm × area of land
The total water available from rainfall and irrigation can be calculated as:
- Water available = (100 mm + irrigation water) × area of land × irrigation efficiency
- Here, we convert the rainfall from mm to cm and add it to the irrigation water that we need to apply.
- So, water available = (10 cm + irrigation water) × area of land × 0.6
Since the base period is 120 days, the total water requirement should be met over this period. Therefore, we can equate the water requirement and water available equations and solve for the area of land as follows:
55 cm × area of land = (10 cm + irrigation water) × area of land × 0.6 × 120 days
Simplifying this equation, we get:
irrigation water = 138.33 cm
Therefore, the area of land that can be irrigated with the given canal flow rate is:
Area of land = irrigation water / (depth of water applied per unit area × canal flow rate)
We convert the depth of water applied per unit area to meters and substitute the values to get:
Area of land = 1.3832 ha ≈ 13.82 ha
Therefore, option (a) is the correct answer.