Participatory Gravity-fed Water Conveyance System for Irrigation in Himalayan Foothills - Dr Ambrish Kumar, Principal Scientist(SWC Engg).

1. Participatory Gravity-fed Water Conveyance
System for Irrigation in Himalayan FoothillsSystem for Irrigation in Himalayan Foothills
Dr Ambrish Kumar, Principal Scientist(SWC Engg).
d f l h dIndian Institute of Soil & Water Conservation, Dehradun

2. Outlines
Pl i d i d I l t ti f• Planning , design and Implementation of
Water conveyance system
• Optimizing dimensions of surface
irrigation methods – Check & Borderirrigation methods Check & Border
• Impact analysis and upscaling

3. Hill Agricultureg
• Low productivity and cropping intensity, subsistence level of
farming is attributed to poor water resource development infarming is attributed to poor water resource development in
the hilly areas.
• Farmers use water of low‐discharge springs (discharge <20L) at very
small scale in a unsystematic and scattered manner of vegetablesmall scale in a unsystematic and scattered manner of vegetable
production.
In Uttarakhand, irrigated
agriculture(12 % of total arable
land) concentrated to valleysland) concentrated to valleys
major area is covered by Guhl
irrigation system (Small size
channel/water course)

4. Drawbacks of GuhlsDrawbacks of Guhls
• Seepage from Guhls ranging
from 12 to 35 %from 12 to 35 %
• Breaking the Guhls by the
farmers near theirfarmers near their
fields/terraces
High repair and maintenance cost due to damage
occurred by frequent Landslides/landslip
Normally Over size of Guhls are
constructed
Wastage of land under Guhls network

5. Water losses and utilization efficiency under different
components of Canal irrigation system (Agarwal and
Khanna, 1983)Khanna, 1983)
System
h t i ti
Water losses (%)
characteristics
Canals Distributaries Field
water
courses
Field
application
Total Net
utilization
Entire system 15 7 22 27 71 29Entire system
unlined
Only canals
lined
15
4
7
7
22
25
27
30
71
66
29
34
Canal and 4 2 26 32 64 36Canal and
distributory
lined
4 2 26 32 64 36
Whole system
lined
4 2 6 42 54 46
Whole system
lined and
sprinkler
method
4 2 6 6 18 82
Whole system 4 2 6 3 10 90Whole system
lined and drip
method
4 2 6 3 10 90

6. Alternative solution
Gravity fed Water Conveyance System using
PipelinePipeline
• Himalayan Foothills: village cluster – Gadoria,
D h l P li d D khDevthala, Pasauli, and Dungakhet.
• Population: Socially backward‐ 82%; economically
poor – 80%

7. Least Irrigated area in Pasauli (11 %) but in
Devthala, agriculture was entirely rain dependant.
W t• Water conveyance
• Water distribution
W li i• Water application

8. Elevation of intake structure along
left bank of the streamleft bank of the stream
Plan of the intake structure of thePlan of the intake structure of the
water conveyance system

9. Galvanized Iron(GI)
pipeline
Dia of pipe : 100mm
Length: 2080 m
Gravity head: 37 87 mGravity head: 37.87 m
Discharge: 10 LPS
Designed for Gravity flow.

10. Distribution SystemDistribution System
A masonry tank of size (7.4 x 5.5 x 1.8 m) and a capacity of 50,000
liters was constructed at an altitude of 709 m amsl and was fed with
i h h h i GI i b i fl f hwater conveying through the main GI pipe by gravity flow from the
source.

11. To minimize the cost of the system, PVC
pipes of 110 mm  was laid out in the
Blocks
PW:16 28 ha;pipes of 110 mm  was laid out in the
command area.
PW:16.28 ha;
slope: 4.3%
PE:5.5 ha; slope:
13%
D: 4.5 ha;
l 4 3 %slope: 4.3 %

12. On‐farm Water Management
• In all three blocks, one riser is provided at every 1.5
ha, this is termed as unit command area.
• To enhance the application efficiency of irrigation,
collapsible synthetic pipes are being used to irrigate
individual fields of the unit command area areindividual fields of the unit command area are
encouraged to use.

13.  To avoid the conflict: in one season, delivery of water follows
h f h d h il i d ithe sequence from head to the tail riser and in next season
delivery sequence gets reversed
• To enhance the water use efficiency, Drip irrigation system has been
equipped with three risers with objective to popularize the system

14. Cost Effectiveness
Item Quantity Expenditure
(in Lakhs)
Initial Expenditure
(Rs/Ha)
GI pipeline, 4’  2 km 17.95one lakh
In case of WC water
conveyance system (as per PVC pipeline, 4’  1.6 km 3.96
Trenching/Laying/jointing GI & PVC 1 18
conveyance system (as per
norms of state):
1.5 lakh/ha
Trenching/Laying/jointing
/fixing
GI & PVC 1.18
Intake & masonry 3.00
Annual Repair &
maintenance cost
(Indicative) Intake & masonry
tank/pipe support works
3.00(Indicative)
For pipeline: 1%
For WC: 10 %
Total 26.09

15. Design and optimization of Border and Check basin on
mildly slopping broad terraces using SIRMODmildly slopping broad terraces using SIRMOD
• To calibrate and validate the SIRMOD model, recommended
dimensions for border and check basin irrigation methods was used
(published data of water management, AICRP; Yadav, 1982).
• Thereafter it was used to design optimum size of border and check• Thereafter, it was used to design optimum size of border and check
basin for different soils and land slope conditions in the 3 blocks of
command area
• The model was run with various combination of length of the field
between 20-50 m for sandy loam and 30-70 m for clay loam soil
under different downfield slope between 1 and2%.
• Width was fixed as 15 m as most of the farmers maintained same• Width was fixed as 15 m as most of the farmers maintained same
width of the field in all the 3 blocks.
• The average discharge of risers in all the 3 blocks was 10 lps.

16. Efficiencies at different dimensions and discharge in Sandy loam Soil
on
Length(m) and discharge(lps)
bratiCalibC
Flow pattern of SIRMOD simulation for L=50 m, W= 7.5 m, Q=14 lps

17. Estimated efficiencies at different basin lengths & slopes in
sandy loam soil
L= 20 m, W=15 m, Q= 6 lps L= 30 m, W=15 m, Q= 8 lps

18. Optimum discharge and dimensions in mildly
slopping land using SIRMOD
Soil type
Length
(m)
Width
(m)
Discharge
(lps)
Slope (%)
slopping land using SIRMOD
( ) ( ) ( ps)
Basin Irrigation
SandySandy
loam
20 15 5-6 1-2
Sandy
30 15 8 1 2
y
Loam
30 15 8 1-2
Border irrigation
Sandy
Loam
40 15 10 0.5-1.5
ClClay
Loam
50-70 15 10 0.5-1.0

19. I L d hImpact: Landuse change

20. Impact of the Irrigation system
• The maximum increase in irrigated land was 391.9% in village
P li f ll d b 22% i D kh t d l t (0 8%) i G d iPasauli, followed by 22% in Dungakhet and least (0.8%) in Godaria.
• Gross irrigated area during PrP was 46.92 ha and reached to the
level of 130.15 ha at EoP indicating that gross irrigated area
increased by 83.23 ha though the net irrigated area was increased
by 25.3 ha.
• Irrigability index value: 3 29• Irrigability index value: 3.29.
• Productivity of major crops increased by 48% with enhanced
cropping intensity by 29% due to intervening crop of Toria in
between Maize‐Wheat sequence.
• Crop diversification index improved from 0.84 (pre‐project) to 0.96
at the end of the project, helped to minimize the negative impactat the end of the project, helped to minimize the negative impact
of climatic aberrations.

21. • Beneficiary farmers contributed 15 % of the total cost ofBeneficiary farmers contributed 15 % of the total cost of
the component, i.e. Rs 25,91,932.00.
• Planting of napier grass on the field boundaries andPlanting of napier grass on the field boundaries and
terrace shoulder bounds: around 93% agricultural area
• Induced Eco‐development Index (IEI) of the irrigated p ( ) g
command area : 0.316
• The conveyance efficiency : > 95 % with designing
discharge at remotest riser.
• Cultivation of Rabi wheat on fallow land resulted
increased additional net income of Rs. 17500/‐ ha
• Overall additional regular employment generated to the
tune of 65 mandays per ha per annum.

22. Conclusion & Recommendation
• Himalayan hills have great potential to convert least an economic
rainfed farming into the most profitable irrigated farming system
through participatory water resource developmentt oug pa t c pato y ate esou ce de e op e t
• The study revealed that active involvement of beneficiary farming
community at all the stages of the project life holds the key for
sustainability of the systemsustainability of the system.
• Development of an efficient irrigation system, i.e. technically as
well as socially, is followed by many other activities such as land
l li b di i i h l d i h i hleveling, bunding, terracing in the area, coupled with niche
farming with intensive land use management system; ultimately
leads to sustainable livelihood security in the area.
• However, the proactive strategies for conflict resolution among
the beneficiaries as well as upstream – downstream areas is
equally essential.q y
• Upscale ‐ Present Guhl/water course system needs to be replaced
by piped conveyance system in hilly agriculture.

23. Developing water conveyance system in Tube well command area(UP)
T/w equipping with PVC pipeline PVC pipeline in T/w command area
Outlet with air vent Irrigation by Raingun

24. THANKS