Pakistan’s Northern Dry Mountain Agricultural Ecological Zone Autumn Maize Crop Water Requirement, and Irrigation Scheduling Using FAO Computer Programming Cropwat 8.0

Abstract

Water is one of the most important elements in this universe. No life will exist without water. The main consumer of water is agriculture. But due to mismanagement, overpopulation, and climatic changes this valuable natural resource is getting scare position throughout the world. It has become very important to define appropriate strategies for planning, development, and management of water resources. The main objective of this paper is to develop an optimal irrigation scheduling for maize crops, to increase crop yield under water scarcity conditions of Pakistan's northern dry mountain ecological zone, which includes Chitral, Dir, Swat, Malakand, Khyber, and triable areas of Peshawar. On the basis of last 36 years climatic data, the crop water requirement at 80% field efficiency was found to be 504.7mm, irrigation water requirement was 460.9 mm, total net irrigation was 327.4mm and grass irrigation was 409.2mm. On refilling soil to field capacity with irrigation at 80mm critical depletion. The research shows that the irrigation management model can effectively and efficiently estimate crop water requirements. The model, that calculates evapotranspiration and crop water requirements, allows the development of recommendations for improved irrigation practices, the planning of irrigation schedules under varying water supply conditions, and yields reduction under various conditions. Keywords: Maize, irrigation Scheduling, Crop water requirement, Cropwat 8.0.