Consumptive Use of Water
Consumptive use of water by a crop is the depth of water consumed by the plant in the process of transpiration and evaporation, during crop growth.
Transpiration is the process of water entering the plant roots and used to build plant tissue.
Evaporation is the process of water evaporating from the adjacent soil, water surface or from the surface of the leaves of the plant. Any water deposited by dew or rainfall and subsequently evaporated without entering the plant system is also part of evaporation.
These two processes (i.e. transpiration and evaporation) collectively termed as evapo-transpiration.
Consumptive use of water by a crop is expressed as the depth of water per unit area for specified period, such as days, months or seasons.
The value of consumptive use of water is needed to calculate the irrigation requirement of the crop.
The values of consumptive use for a given crop at a given place can vary widely from day to day.
There are a lot of factors which affects the consumptive use of water by a crop. These are as given below.
- Temperature
- Humidity
- Wind Velocity
- Soil Topography
- Sunlight Hours
- Method of Irrigation
- Cropping Patterns
- Natural Ground Water Table