Abstract

                                Inadequate natural drainage facilities and flat lands causes, some of the Cauvery river basin command are suffering waterlogging and alkalinity problems during the canal water supply and period of excess rainfall. Subsurface drainage system is the method to lower the depth to groundwater level below the root zone and creates a favorable environment for crop growth. A study aimed to evaluate the performance of the parallel pipe subsurface system installed in farmers’ field at Sembari village, Lalgudi Taluk, Trichy District, Tamil Nadu in a waterlogged paddy field from October 2020 to February 2021. The field experiment was conducted with the combination of three lateral drain spacing (7.5, 10.0 and 12.5 m) and two drain depths (60 and 80 cm). 63 mm PVC perforated pipes wrapped with coir envelope were laid as lateral drains at a grade 0.3%. Inspection chambers connected with collector drains laid at a grade of 0.6% were used to measure the drain water discharge, observation wells installed midway between lateral pipes drains were used for measuring the depth to groundwater level. Hydraulic properties of soil, depth to water level, discharge collected in drain pipe were used as evaluation parameters. This study revealed that soil hydraulic conductivity had been increased to 30%, pH, EC and ESP has been reduced to 12, 54 and 20%, respectively. The system has performed well to alleviate the waterlogged condition in 7.5 m lateral drain spacing and 80 cm drain depth treatment by observing the higher rate of decrease in depth to water of 0.3 to 0.4 m and a drainage coefficient of 0.069 to 0.29 cm/day.

Key words : Drainage coefficient; hydraulic conductivity; subsurface drainage; waterlogging; water table depth