Optimal Irrigation Management at Mundoghat Canal Command Area of Hirakud Canal System using Particle Swarm Optimization

The state, Odisha, India is mostly agriculture based, as almost 66% of population of the state depends on agriculture. Irrigation plays an important role for development of agriculture. The Hirakud dam of Odisha, India which was built in the early days of Independence across the Mahanadi River having live storage capacity of 5375 M Cum play an important role for the development of agriculture. The Hirakud command area is served by three canal systems namely Sambalpur distributary, Bargarh Main canal, and Sason main canal. The study highlights the advantages of using ADV flow tracker for accurate measurement of discharge, along the use of CROPWAT software to find out the crops water requirements of different crops. The Particle swarm optimization is used to select a suitable cropping pattern. It is found that as per the present practice of cultivation the farmers are getting a net benefit of Rs.320 lakhs only over the command area that can be enhanced to Rs 540.0 lakhs in Indian currency by adopting the cropping pattern suggested in this study.