Keywords:  watering rates, water balance calculation, irrigation norms, water requirements, irrigation maxinorms, feasibility study

// Мелиорация. – 2018. – №4(86).– P. 16 — 23 

The relationship of agricultural irrigation norms with their watering rates has been studied. The analysis of the results of water balance calculations for a longterm period (1980–2015) was carried out. The data from 42 meteorological stations located in different hydrological and climatic zones of Belarus have been used. It was shown that technically and economically feasible norms of water demand in projects of drip and sprinkler irrigation can be calculated from the maxinorms irrigation using a linear relationship with a single empirical coefficient constant for all vegetable crops, but varying in soils. It was established that with an increase in watering rates, irrigation norms intensively decrease, following from loamy to sandy loam and further to sandy soil. This pattern is valid in the range of watering rates, which covers the whole range of economically sound and environmentally safe drip and sprinkler irrigation throughout Belarus