Book of Extended summaries ISDA

International Conference on Reimagining Rainfed Agro-ecosystems: Challenges &
Opportunities during 22-24, December 2022 at ICAR-CRIDA, Hyderabad
Resilience through land and water management interventions, water management and governance
T1-46 P-1533
Development of Digital Weighing Type Lysimeter to Monitor Soil Water
Balance Parameters
Ajita Gupta * , R.K. Singh, and Mukesh Kumar
ICAR-CIAE, Bhopal (M.P.)-462038
*
ajitagupta2012@gmail.com
Enhancing water productivity (WP) of different crops by judicious irrigation scheduling is one
of the major activities to ensure water saving in the agriculture sector. Scheduling the time and
quantity of irrigation water application is primarily governed by crop evapotranspiration.
Among various technologies, a lysimeter is generally used for direct measurement of crop
evapotranspiration and water balance components. Various lysimeters have been installed by
IMD in the agriculture stations of different climatic zones of India for the measurement of crop
evapotranspiration. However, these lysimeters are bulky, manual, and need proper
maintenance. Also available digital lysimeters are very complex and costly. Only very few
studies have been executed in India for the development of weighing lysimeters with a digital
measurement system, which is highly precise and accurate at a lower cost.
Knowledge of crop evapotranspiration (ET) is important in modeling ET, crop growth
simulation, scheduling irrigations, optimizing crop production, and irrigation project planning.
The most accurate way to estimate crop water use and develop crop coefficients is with
precision weighing lysimeters, which have generally been regarded as the standard against
which other measures of ET are compared. A weighing-type lysimeter can measure the amount
of water used in evaporation, transpiration, drainage, leaching, and other water-balancing
parameters. However, high-precision lysimeters are very expensive and sophisticated. An
inexpensive portable weighing lysimeter, which is very sensitive and precise, needs to be
fabricated and put into the operations. This project is aimed at developing a weighing-type field
lysimeter with digital output for developing judicious irrigation scheduling of different crops.
Methodology
An IoT-enabled digital weighing type field lysimeter was developed and tested at ICAR- CIAE,
Bhopal. The lysimeter was designed as having an area of 1.38 m 2 , it was supported by a 1.5-
ton single-point platform load cell. It was powered by two 5-watt solar panels and a 7 Ah
battery for continuous power supply. The inner tank of the lysimeter was made in a cylindrical
format with dimensions of 750 mm in height, and 450 mm in diameter using a 10-15 mm thick
HDPE drum. To facilitate drainage, a 15 cm filter layer was added to the bottom of the lysimeter
tank. The top of the tank was then filled with a 60 cm depth of soil. The drainage water was
collected at the collector tank available at the bottom of the lysimeter. The collector tank was
made using PVC pipe 110 mm in diameter and 45 cm in height. The depth of the water drained
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