Enhancing the irrigation water management using developed irrigation canals

The present research aims to study the effectiveness of the developed irrigation canal on irrigation water management and compare its performance with the traditional ones. Field experiments were located in the middle northern part of the Nile Delta (Kafrelsheikh Governorate) during the two successive seasons of winter (2005/2006) and summer 2006. To fulfill the intended objective, several factors are studied as follow: i) One improved canals named Dakalt canal used as the main source of water, ii) Six improved meskas and three different locations (Head, middle and tail), iii) One unimproved meska was selected on Dakalt canal, and iv) Six cultivated areas (fields) on each meska were selected. The obtained results indicated that the minimum operating time and minimum amount of applied water were recorded for improved meskas, as compared with the unimproved one. The maximum value of applied water was recorded for berseem and rice crops during winter and summer season, respectively. It can be concluded that the improved meskas achieved the high values of water saving while they were 1079.8, 1023.4, 1240.7, 1019.3, 1028.6 and 1129.7 m. / feddan for long berseem crop comparing with unimproved meska. Also, the amounts of saved water were 14.8, 12.6, 14.3, 9.8, 10.6 and 12.3 % for rice crop under the previous meskas, respectively, during summer season compared with unimproved meska. The maximum and minimum total dynamic head of 4.744 and 3.543 m were recorded for pumps in meskas Om-Sen and Edrega EI-Bahria (A), respectively. The average values of applied irrigation efficiency for developed meskas had higher values than undeveloped meska for different crops. Based on the recorded results, it can be observed that the developed irrigation canals have many advantages such as: Saving irrigation water, hence minimize the drainage problems, improve the usage efficiencies, equity of water distribution, minimum cost and high crop yields.