Water balance and water use efficiency of different land uses in western Himalayan valley region

Various land uses, including sole plantations of leucaena and eucalyptus, maize–wheat, chrysopogon grass or turmeric and their tree crop mixtures were compared for period of nine years in two sequences for runoff, water use and water use efficiency on nine large erosion plots on 4% slope. Availability of water during summers and climatic evaporative (EP) demand during winters appear to be the governing factors for seasonal water use. About 70% of annual water consumption occurs during the four months (July to October) of rainy season. During this season water use was about 3–4 times to EP for trees and grass and 2.5 times for maize. The water use equals EP regardless the land use during winter season, while it reduced to about one-third to half of EP in the summer season. Annual water use is found to be closely linked with runoff reduction efficiency of the land use. Sole plantations of leucaena and eucalyptus showed negligible runoff losses and their water use approximated annual rainfall. Agroforestry land uses also reduced runoff and increased water use and water use efficiency. Seasonal crops exploited 1.5 m depth of profile more exhaustively than trees, whereas trees used soil water down to 3.0 m depth. Therefore, in tree crop mixtures more efficient soil water use was observed as compared to monocropping systems. Results of this study indicate that water conserved under sole tree plantations and due to tree intervention in agroforestry land uses through runoff reduction, is utilised to meet increased evapotranspiration demand, and hence ground water recharge in appreciable quantities is unlikely.