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Determinants of farm water supply in the Lower Bhavani Project, Coimbatore, South India
Author(s) -
Palanisami K.,
Subramanian S. R.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1029/wr019i006p01403
Subject(s) - water supply , environmental science , current (fluid) , distribution (mathematics) , water resource management , environmental engineering , mathematics , engineering , electrical engineering , mathematical analysis
A study on the determinants of farm water supply was conducted in the Lower Bhavani Project (LBP) Area, in Coimbatore District, Tamil Nadu during 1978–1979. The distance of a farmer's field from the outlet of the supply channel, size of the farm, number of intervening farmers, social characteristics, and possession of wells for supplymneting the canal water were the key variables determining the canal water supply at the farm level. Among the variables, direct distance and lateral distances of the supply channel in the head and middle portions and direct, lateral, and sublateral distances in the tail portion markedly influenced the stress days and yield of paddy crops. The buildup of stress days was higher at the direct distance category. The results indicated that under the current method of allocating water to only half of the command area in each year and with the consequent water distribution problems, changes in the system of water distribution below the outlet would have more significant impacts on farm level water supply in the Lower Bhavani Project than changes above the outlet. However, the methods suggested to improve the system performance indicated that changes above the outlet were also necessary for improving the system's overall performance.