Definition:

Irrigation is the controlled application of water to croplands. Its primary objective is to create an optimal soil moisture regime for maximizing crop production and quality while at the same time minimizing the environmental degradation inherent in irrigation of agricultural lands. OR Irrigation is the application of water to the soil to supplement natural precipitation and provide an environment that is optimum for crop production. Well Irrigated crops produce more food.

Water Resources:
Water is the primary source for every human being living in this world. Unless water no human being can survive, on earth it is mostly found in oceans, it covers 70.9% of earth surfaces. It is getting used in agriculture, industries, household, and other environmental activities. Water resources are the sources of water useful for all humans, almost every human will require fresh water. Earth is occupied with 97 % of salt water, and only 3 % of fresh water is available, in which 2/3 of the fresh water is frozen by polar ice caps and glaciers rest of the fresh water is mainly found as ground water. Water demands already came into exists due to increase in population and its continued to increase. Awareness of preserving water for environment has emerged recently. The construction for distributing water resources to the water users is term to be Water rights. We will discuss about Water resources and irrigation engineering.

Water resources in India:

India is surrounded by Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea, and Indian Ocean and has the coast line of more than 7,000kms and too has the widespread network of inland water ways and seaports. Rivers, canal, backwaters are included in the Inland water ways, and the length of the navigable inland waterways includes 14,500Kms. India has three national waterways they are Hoogly River, Brahmaputra river system, and Kollam Kottapuram stretch of west coast canal along with champakara canal and udyobmandal canal.

Irrigation:
Irrigation is defined as the artificial application of supplying water to the land or soil, it is make used in preserving and growing agricultural crops, preserving landscapes. In addition to it, irrigation is used to protect plants against frosting, and helping in preventing soil consolidation.

Irrigation Engineering:
The key factor for agriculture is none other than water, it is required for agriculture. Sometimes it is fulfilled by rainfall but there are lit of dry areas available, so in order to fulfill their needs, irrigation is necessary, because it is the only process of supplying water to the agricultural crops. Irrigation engineering deals with the study and design of irrigation, which includes dams, weir, barrage, canals, drains, etc. For the design of irrigation systems, the good knowledge of hydraulics or fluid mechanics is required. There are four types of irrigation techniques; they are Surface irrigation, Sprinkler irrigation, Drip irrigation, Sub- irrigation. Thus water resources and irrigation engineering