Water Management in Horticultural Crops

Need for irrigation

• When rainfall is insufficient to meet the water requirement of crops throughout their period of growth, need for irrigation water is unavoidable.
  
• Where rainfall is sufficient but is not uniform, concentrated as it usually is in monsoon months, there is acute requirement of irrigation in other periods.
• The rainfall and irrigation requirement are given in the following table.
  
Table1. Rainfall and irrigation requirement


S.No.	Rainfall (cm)	Irrigation requirement
1.	100	Rainfall needs to be supplemented by irrigation.
2.	100-50	Rainfall is helpful to crops but is insufficient. Irrigation is essential
3.	50-25	Only crops tolerant to moisture stress can be grown. Irrigation is essentially required
4.	Less than 25	No crop can be grown without irrigation.