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A greenhouse field experiment was conducted at Plasticulture Farm in MPUAT, Udaipur Rajasthan in 2021 to examine the effects of different EC levels on the growth and weight of two lettuce cultivars grown in two hydroponic systems. Two lettuce cultivars, Ice Berg (V1) and Green Rapid (V2), were subjected to three levels of EC i.e. 0.75 dS/m, 1.0 dS/m and 1.25 dS/m and two hydroponic systems (DWC and NFT). The Green Rapid cultivar with 1.0 dS/m and NFT treatment combination proved significantly more productive than the other cultivar/treatment combinations. Based on the results, for all parameters, i.e. plant height, number of leaves, fresh weight, plant spread and dry matter were found more effective in Green rapid with 1.0 dS/m EC and NFT treatment combination. It is expected that the development of a good and easy-touse hydroponic system will help growers produce high-quality vegetables including lettuce.

The study was undertaken at Plasticulture Farm, Department of Soil and Water Engineering, Collage of Technology and Engineering, Udaipur, Rajasthan. The area is under subhumid climate located at 582.17 m above mean sea level in 24° 35 N – latitude, 73° 44 E–longitude. The important factors to control the polyhouse evapotion are solar radiation, air temperature, relative humidity and wind speed. The study was undertaken to analysis and modelling of the evaporation and meteorological parameters like air temperature, relative humidity and wind speed inside Polyhouse (1008 m2). For purpose of achieving the objectives, the Dalton model, Combination model and Christian model were selected and were critically tested under polyhouse conditions of Udaipur region. The average annual evaporation rate was found to be 1.6 mm day-1, average annual temperature was found to be 24.9 oC and average annual relative was found to be 72 % inside polyhouse. It was favorable and very good condition for growing high value vegetables crops like capsicum, tomato and cucumber inside Polyhouse. The modified Christiansen model was found better than other models for this region inside polyhouse.

The results of this study revealed that the pan evaporation and sensor based irrigation scheduling along with fertigation scheduling significantly affected the plant height, fruit weight, fruit length, crop water requirement, crop yield and water use efficiency of okra crop. The pan evaporation and crop evapotranspiration (ETc) values significantly vary over different stages of okra crop. The maximum and minimum average daily pan evaporation was recorded 8.4 mm day-1 and 4.5 mm day-1 at mid stage and late stage of okra crop respectively while, the maximum average daily ETc was recorded 7 mm day-1 at mid stage of okra crop. A approach of irrigation scheduling with 100 per cent field capacity, based on soil moisture sensor under automated drip irrigation system along with 100 per cent RDF through fertigation in equal splits at 4 day intervalor 80 % per cent of volume of crop water requirement based on pan evaporation under automated drip irrigation along with 100 per cent RDF through fertigation in equal splits at 2 day interval, can be used for irrigating okra crop with significant water saving, crop yield and water use efficiency under limited availability of daily weather datain climatic condition of Udaipur district of Rajasthan.

Accurate and reliable streamflow forecasting is paramount in the field of water resource planning and management, especially in semi-arid regions. However, streamflow time series are highly complex and non-linear in nature; traditional or physical-based models may fail to capture the complexity and maintain the robustness of the datasets. Therefore, the present study aims to improve the forecasting accuracy and reduce the uncertainty in the datasets by using the data-driven approach such as artificial neural network (ANN) that can efficiently handle the non-linearity in the large and complex hydrological data. This study method includes two steps: i.e., first to develop the ANN models using different combinations of inputs such as rainfall, temperature, and streamflow lag by one or two and then to validate the developed models to forecast the streamflow by using a total of four performance evaluation indices such as correlation coefficient (R), root mean square error (RMSE), modified Nash-Sutcliff efficiency (MNSE), and modified index of agreement (MIA). The proposed method is demonstrated in Jakham reservoir located in Pratapgarh district, Rajasthan, India, for improving the accuracy of monthly streamflow forecasting over a 40-year period (1975–2015). We found that increasing the number of input parameters improves the accuracy of the model and enhance its performance. According to the results, the ANN models 5 and 6 (M5 and M6) showed significant variation in the performance evaluation criteria. This clearly indicates that ANN model with an input combination of lag one or two streamflow (i.e., model M5 and M6) is performed better when compared to a model that incorporates only monthly rainfall and monthly lag one or two rainfall as inputs. Overall, the application of ANN models M5 and M6 (with lag one and two streamflow as an input) can forecast monthly streamflow forecasting with better accuracy.

Plastic mulching is a soil moisture conservation method that involves placing poly film over raised or a flat bed to provide a more favorable environment for growth and production. Plastic mulch normally is used in conjunction with drip irrigation to maintain optimum soil moisture and for improved stand establishment. Plastic film mulching with drip irrigation is a proven technology for vegetable production and its popularity is ever increasing among vegetable growers. Mulches leave behind large amount of plastic in the soil which in the current practice is buried or burned in the field which are both hazardous to environment. So, a mechanism is to be developed for retrieval of mulches for reuse or recycle. Basic mulch laying technique should include that mulch is stretched and placed firmly against compacted soil and edges of mulch are properly buried under soil, so, that wind can’t loosen them. Tractor operated mulch laying machine in available but its use is limited to large areas and where crop spacing allows it as area lost in between two rows is very large. To suit the requirement of small farmers partial mechanization of laying of mulch film is envisaged by developing a Manual Multipurpose trolley for plastic mulch laying and recollection. This machine besides being simple in design and operation also caters to a very important operation, which is otherwise overlooked, that is of retrieving the used plastic mulch by rolling it back for better storage which significantly enhances its life beside being environment friendly.

The Sina river basin is facing both episodic and chronic water shortages due to intensive irrigation development. The main objective of this study was to characterize the hydrologic processes of the Sina river basin and assess crop water productivity using the distributed hydrologic model, SWAT. In the simulation year (1998–1999), the inflow to reservoir from upstream side was the major contributor to the reservoir accounting for 92 % of the total required water release for irrigation purpose (119.5 Mm3), while precipitation accounted for 4.1 Mm3. Annual release of water for irrigation was 119.5 Mm3 out of which 54 % water was diverted for irrigation purpose, 26 % was wasted as conveyance loss, average discharge at the command outlet was estimated as 4 % and annual average ground-water recharge coefficient was in the range of 13–17 %. Various scenarios involving water allocation rule were tested with the goal of increasing economic water productivity values in the Sina Irrigation Scheme. Out of those, only most benefited allocation rule is analyzed in this paper. Crop yield varied from 1.98 to 25.9 t/ha, with the majority of the area between 2.14 and 2.78 t/ha. Yield and WP declined significantly in loamy soils of the irrigation command. Crop productivity in the basin was found in the lower range when compared with potential and global values. The findings suggested that there was a potential to improve further. Spatial variations in yield and WP were found to be very high for the crops grown during rabi season, while those were low for the crops grown during kharif season. The crop yields and WP during kharif season were more in the lower reach of the irrigation commands, where loamy soil is more concentrated. Sorghum in both seasons was most profitable. Sorghum fetched net income fivefold that of sunflower, two and half fold of pearl millet and one and half fold of mung beans as far as crop during kharif season were concerned and it fetched fourfold that of groundnut, threefold of wheat, twofold of onion during rabi season and was sevenfold of sugarcane. Analysis suggests that maximization of the area by provision of supplemental irrigation to rainfed areas as well as better on-farm water management practices can provide opportunities for improving water productivity.

This study was undertaken for performance evaluation of filters for separation of sediments at different loads of sedimentation. These observations are conducted at Plasticulture Farm, CTAE, Udaipur, Rajasthan. For this study, three types of filters were used, i.e. sand filter, screen filter and disc filter. Water with different sediment loads was feeded and samples of filtrate were analysed for removal efficiency of these particles. During the study of particle size distribution, it was found that sand filter was able to retain 100% particles larger than 0.05 mm size, whereas disc and screen filters were able to retain only 92.73 and 86.33%, respectively. The main difference in the removal of particles of different diameters was found that sand filter is most efficient (i.e. 82.35%) in removing particles of all diameters and achieved the total retention of particles with diameters greater than 0.05 mm.

A field experiment was conducted during March-August 2017 at Plasticulture farm College of Technology & Engineering, Udaipur. Randomized block design (RBD) was adopted for conducting field trial with six levels of irrigation viz., 100, 90, 80, 70, 60 and 100% (control without mulch) of crop evapotranspiration and 4 replication. Capsicum (shimla mirch locally known in Udaipur) cv Indra was irrigated with drip irrigation (also known as trickle irrigation) technique. Measurements of crop biometric parameters namely plant height, number of leaves and individual fruit weight was done at pre scheduled time throughout the crop season. Results revealed that biometric parameters found maximum in case of 80% irrigation level whiles minimum in 60% irrigation level treatment. The highest yields (42.64 t/ha) was also recorded in the same treatment. Therefore, it can conclude that by scheduling irrigation to meet 80% of crop ET will result in optimum crop yields and enhances crop water use efficiency of capsicum grown inside naturally ventilation polyhouse (NVPH).

The aim of the study was to evaluate the drain spacing equations at Lunkarnsar farm in Bikaner District of Rajasthan, India. In subsurface drainage, field drains are used to maintain the water table and the salinity level in the root zone by draining excess water. The area was facing severe drainage problem and under waterlogged condition. The subsurface drainage system was installed at a spacing of 125 m with an average depth of 1.6 m below the soil surface at Lunkarnsar farm. The hydraulic head and drain spacing were determined by using four drain equations: Glover-Dumm, Van Schilfgaarde, integrated Hooghoudt and modified Glover equations. The percentage deviation between predicted drain spacing and actual spacing is −37.36% to −36.64%, 2.77% to 10.06%, 5.05% to 13.50% and −0.33% to 7.68% for Glover-Dumm, Van Schilfgaarde, integrated Hooghoudt and modified Glover drain equations, respectively. The modified Glover equation has shown minimum deviation from the actual value for drain spacing and hydraulic ...

The study was undertaken to develop and evaluate evapotranspiration model for black gram (Vigna Mungo L.) crop under climatic conditions of Udaipur, India. Pan evaporation data for the duration of twenty three years (1978-2001) and measured black gram evapotranspiration data by electronic lysimeter for duration of kharif season of 2001 were used for analysis. Black gram is an important crop of Udaipur region. No sys-tematic study on modelling of black gram evapotranspiration was conducted in past under above said cli-matic conditions. Therefore, stochastic model was developed for the estimation of daily black gram evapotranspiration using 24 years data. Validation of the developed models was done by the comparison of the estimated values with the measured values. The developed stochastic model for black gram evapotran-spiration was found to predict the daily black gram evapotranspiration very accurately.

The present study was undertaken to evaluate the performance of synthetic envelopes for sub-surface drainage under the field conditions at Lunkarnsar Farm, Indira Gandhi Canal Command Area, Bikaner and laboratory conditions at College of Technology and Engineering, Udaipur. Three types of synthetic envelopes viz. HG 22, SAPP 240 and CAN 2 were evaluated by using sand tank model and permeability apparatus to compare their performances in terms of entrance resistance and hydraulic conductivities of soil envelope system. The experiments revealed that the values of entrance resistance for envelope HG 22, SAPP 240 and CAN 2 were 1.95 day/m, 1.33 day/m and 1.51 day/m, respectively of Lunkarnsar soil. The hydraulic conductivities for envelope HG 22, SAPP 240 and CAN 2 of the total thickness (k-total) were found to be 4.53 cm/hr, 5.22 cm/hr and 4.91 cm/hr and of the contact layer (k-contact) were found to be 3.009 cm/hr, 3.62 cm/hr and 3.27 cm/hr, respectively. The hydraulic conductivity of contact layer...

The study has been undertaken to investigate the utility of artificial neural networks (ANNs) for comparison of daily reference evapotranspiration (ET0) estimated by Penman-Monteith (PM) method and that of estimated by ANNs during growing season of wheat crop. Feed forward network has been used for prediction of ET0 using resilient back-propagation method. For the purpose of the study, daily meteorological observations such as minimum and maximum temperature, minimum and maximum relative humidity, wind speed and solar radiation for the period of November 21, 1997 to March 2, 1998 were used as input and ET0 estimated by Penman -Monteith method for growing season of wheat crop as output. The comparisons were made between ANNs estimated ET0 and ET0 estimated using PM method. The correlation coefficient between actual and predicted ET0 during training of ET0 for growing season of wheat crop was found to be 0.990 which was found to be significant at 5 % level. The networks were also used for computation of crop evapotranspiration (ETc). During training of ETc, crop coefficient values estimated by quadratic method have been taken as input to the network along with meteorological parameters and ETc estimated using crop coefficient approach and that of measured by lysimeter as output separately. The crop evapotranspiration estimated by ANNs were compared with ETc estimated by crop coefficient approach and that of evapotranspiration measured by lysimeter. The correlation coefficients during training of ETc of wheat crop were found to be 0.994 and 0.915 respectively which were also found significant at 5 % level. Based on these comparisons, it can be concluded that the ANN models is suitable for prediction of ET0 and ETc.

The shrinking fresh water resources have motivated many researchers to investigate and evaluate the use of poor quality saline water using improved irrigation techniques such as drip irrigation.Saline water application through a point drip source in the root zone adversely impact the crop due to accumulated salts. The shape of wetted soil volume has remained of great interest since the advent of drip irrigation. The accumulation of the salts is mostly found towards the outer wetted zone, the knowledge of the actual shape and size in case of a point source of drip irrigation has remained a matter of concern to researchers for the purpose of design and operation of this irrigation system could be further refined. An attempt has been made in this paper to review the works conducted and reported worldwide and specially in India to monitor and evaluate the wetting front and salt movement within it under a point source of drip irrigation. This review can guide a definite methodology to evaluate salt accumulation and its impact on crop growth as well as its mathematical modelling.