Maximizing net income and economic water productivity in a canal command through conjunctive use of canal water and groundwater

Abstract

This study was taken up in the Phulnakhara distributary command of Puri main canal system located partly in Cuttack and partly in Khurda districts of Odisha at 20019 15.6''N to 20014 56.4''N latitudes and 85052'51.6''E to 8600'0''E longitudes and 28 m above mean seal level (amsl). In the said command area, an optimization model was formulated for finding optimal cropping pattern with conjunctive use of surface and groundwater. Based on the goal programming (GP), the optimization model maximized the net annual income and economic water productivity from the canal command area. Along with the optimal cropping pattern for the command area, groundwater draft required to meet the irrigation demand of the crops in conjunction with surface water was obtained from the optimization model. After maximizing the net annual income and economic water productivity from the command area, no groundwater was required to meet the irrigation water requirement in kharif for the dry year (2015-16), normal year (2016-17) and the wet year (2017-18), respectively. Whereas, the highest and the lowest irrigation water requirement met from the groundwater in rabi were 210.14 lakh m3 (2015-16) and 176.80 lakh m3 (2016-17), respectively. The 10-years average irrigation water requirement met from the groundwater in rabi obtained from the optimization model for the canal command was 182.33 lakh m3. The highest and the lowest obtained net annual income were ` 101.01 crores in 2017-18 (wet year) and ` 98.75 crores in 2015-16 (dry year), respectively. The highest and the lowest obtained economic water productivity were ` 16.92 m-3 (normal year) and ` 15.51 m-3 (dry year).