Field assessment of basin irrigation performance and water saving in Hetao, Yellow River basin: Issues to support irrigation systems modernisation

• Research aimed at assessing performance and water saving in basin irrigation at Hetao.
• Present irrigation performance and water use were evaluated in traditional basins.
• Potential performance and water use were evaluated in precise levelled basins.
• Comparing traditional and improved basins, distribution uniformity was higher by 30%.
• Water savings due to precise levelling and adjusted cutoff times were of 34–39%.

Water-saving irrigation needs to be implemented in Hetao irrigation district to help satisfying the demand by other users in the Yellow River basin. Aiming at assessing the potential irrigation performance and water saving at farm level, a set of traditional basins and another of precision-levelled basins cropped with maize, wheat and sunflower and managed by farmers were evaluated. Data were collected to characterise the basin sizes, microtopography, inflow rates, advance and recession times, cut-off time and soil water content. In addition, families of infiltration curves were derived from field observations and subsequent use of model SIRMOD. Infiltration was higher for the precision-levelled basins and decreased from the first to the next irrigation events. Infiltration data were used to support the computation of distribution uniformity (DU), beneficial water use fraction (BWUF) and deep percolation (DP). For traditional basins, DU and BWUF were low and DP was high. When precise land levelling was practised, DU increased greatly to near 94% but BWUF improved little, because irrigation scheduling was inadequate leading to excessive water application; however, non-negligible water saving was achieved for maize and wheat since they have higher irrigation demand. In contrast, simulating the application of an appropriate irrigation scheduling through adjusting the cut-off time led to an approximately unchanged DU but BWUF greatly increased and DP reduced to 10% on average. This condition represents a potential water saving of 34–39%; however its achievement requires improved design of farm systems, appropriate irrigation water deliveries and scheduling, and the support and training of farmers.