Journal of Agricultural Science and Food Research
Open Access

Abstract

Evaluation of Water Management and Agronomic Practices at Command Area of Dargai Irrigation Scheme at District Malakand

Khan N, Alam F, Hassan SU, Ahmad I and Khan S

The land holding status of the command area was determined at head middle and tail reaches of the canal. Thefarm size at head reaches ranged from 0.40 to 3.4 ha with an average of 1.8 ha, at the middle reaches 1.62 to 3.6ha with an average of 2.6 ha while at tail reaches ranged from 0.5to 2.8 ha with an average of 1.8 ha for eachfarmer. The tenancy status showed that most of the farmers of the command area were owner. The number ofowners was 56% out of the total number of farmers. There were 36% tenants in the command area, while thenumber of owners cum tenant was 8% out of the total farmers. The cropping pattern was determined for twoseasons i.e., Rabi and kharif. There were four major crops in the area named as wheat, sugar cane, maize andtobacco. There were two crops in the Rabi season i.e., wheat and sugar cane. Wheat was the dominant crop of thecommand area in the Rabi season which covered 48% of the total command area followed by sugar cane whichcovered 44% of the total command area, while only 8% of the total commands area was fallow. The average yield ofwheat was 4280 kg/ha at head reaches, 4877 kg/ha at middle reaches and 4958 kg/ha at tail reaches of the canal.The average yield of raw sugar was 5475 kg/ha at head, 5932 kg/ha at middle, and 5899 kg/ha at tail reaches. Theaverage yield of Maize was 5171 kg/ha at head reaches, 6092 kg/ha at middle and 5863 kg/ha at tail reaches. Theaverage yield of Tobacco was 5000 kg/ha at head reaches, 4700 kg/ha at middle and 4125 kg/ha at tail reaches.Number of irrigations was about same at head, middle and tail of the canal because farmers followed pakkawarabandi system. The average number of irrigations were 5 for wheat, 7 for maize, 22 for sugar cane and 8 fortobacco. In agronomic practices mainly studied were related to yield improvement factors and agriculture productionproblems. These factors were studied at the head middle and tail of the canal. Most of the yield improvement factorswhich were pointed out by the farmers were common at the three selected sites of the canal. Some of these factorswhich improve yield were availability of sufficient water, insecticides, pesticides, fertilizers and low cost and high-quality seed varieties, lining of canals and watercourses, farmers education and awareness in farmers etc. Thesecond point which was mainly focused was the agriculture production problems. The main agriculture productionproblems were silt deposition in canals and watercourses, lack of education in farmers, high cost and low-qualityseeds, small land holding, insufficient water availability and subsidies etc.