Evaluation of agricultural land resources for irrigation in the cotton growing Yavatmal district, Maharashtra, India

The main objective of this study is to evaluate suitability of shrink-swell soils for surface irrigation system based upon a parametric evaluation system in low irrigation potential (7%) of cotton growing Yavatmal district, Maharashtra, India. The thirty three shrink-swell soil series on basaltic landforms were identified from reconnaissance soil survey on 1:50,000 scale and evaluated for surface irrigation methods using Geographic Information System (GIS). The standard weekwise rainfall data showed that the rainfall is less than 20% of total precipitation during September and December, the top A horizon reaches to wilting point and needs supplementary protective irrigation to cotton based cropping systems . It was estimated that ten soil mapping units (1.8 Mha and 13.89%) of shrink-swell soils on moderate slopes (5 to 8%) were evaluated as suitable for surface methods and calculated the irrigation intervals that vary from 8.61±1.35 days for cotton to 8.9±1.4 days for wheat and 10±1.64 days for sugar cane. The study emphasized the utility of soil resource maps helps to delineate the soils with large PAWC(>200mm) with slight yield advantage and will serve as benchmark sites to monitor the interrelationships of soil water dynamics with respect to climate and cotton yields.