Which method of irrigation uses water most efficiently?
- A.Flood irrigation
- B.Furrow irrigation
- C.Sprinkler irrigation
- D.Drip irrigation
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is D, drip irrigation. In drip irrigation water is carried through pipes and released slowly, drop by drop, at the root zone of each plant through emitters, so losses to evaporation, runoff and deep percolation are the lowest of all methods and fertiliser can be delivered with the water. Option A is wrong because flood irrigation, in which the field is simply submerged, is the least efficient and also causes waterlogging and salinity. Option B is wrong because furrow irrigation, where water runs along channels between crop rows, is better than flooding but still loses a good deal to seepage. Option C is wrong because sprinkler irrigation, which sprays water over the crop like rain, is efficient and useful on uneven and sandy land, but it loses more to evaporation and wind drift than drip does. Both drip and sprinkler come under micro irrigation.
Read the full article: Irrigation and Major Canals of India: Exam Notes
Practice Questions
View allWhich is the longest canal in India?
- A.Upper Ganga Canal
- B.Indira Gandhi Canal
- C.Buckingham Canal
- D.Sirhind Canal
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Begun in 1958 as the Rajasthan Canal and renamed in 1984, it is the longest canal in India; its feeder and main canal together run for about six hundred and fifty kilometres and carry water from the Punjab rivers into the Thar desert of western Rajasthan.
Read the full explanation →The Indira Gandhi Canal takes off from which barrage?
- A.Harike barrage
- B.Tajewala barrage
- C.Okhla barrage
- D.Madhopur headworks
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The Harike barrage stands in Punjab at the point where the Beas joins the Sutlej, and the Indira Gandhi Canal begins there as the Rajasthan Feeder before continuing as the main canal into Rajasthan.
Read the full explanation →The Upper Ganga Canal takes off from the Ganga at:
- A.Narora
- B.Haridwar
- C.Kanpur
- D.Allahabad
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The Upper Ganga Canal was opened in 1854 and is taken from the Ganga at Haridwar, from where it runs down the Ganga–Yamuna Doab and irrigates the districts of western Uttar Pradesh; the engineer associated with its construction is Proby Cautley.
Read the full explanation →The Grand Anicut, or Kallanai, one of the oldest water diversion structures still in use, was built across which river?
- A.Krishna
- B.Godavari
- C.Cauvery
- D.Tungabhadra
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The Grand Anicut, known in Tamil as Kallanai, was thrown across the Cauvery by the Chola king Karikala in about the second century to spread the river's water over the delta, and it still serves the canals of the Cauvery delta in Tamil Nadu.
Read the full explanation →The Buckingham Canal was constructed mainly for which purpose?
- A.Irrigation of the Krishna delta
- B.Navigation along the Coromandel coast
- C.Flood control in the Godavari basin
- D.Supply of drinking water to Hyderabad
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The Buckingham Canal is a salt water navigation canal dug in the nineteenth century along the eastern coast, linking the lagoons and backwaters between Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh and Chennai in Tamil Nadu, and it was used to carry goods and to relieve famine by moving grain.
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