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<br />I <br />I <br /> <br />I <br />,I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I, <br />I, <br /> <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />1886 <br />may suffer significant runoff losses. Coarse textured, rapidly <br /> <br />permeable soils typically have insignificant runoff losses, but <br />since they have low available water holding capacity, storage <br /> <br />capacity is limited and deep percolation losses may occur. <br /> <br />The net crop water requirement is also a factor which must be <br /> <br />considered in evaluating potential dryland farming areas. The net <br /> <br />crop water requirement takes into account not only the water lost <br />from the soil through evapotranspiration, but also water gained <br />through precipitation.' Crop consumptive use requirements vary <br />between plant species and will vary for the same species under <br />different climatic conditions. Thus, under conditions of high <br />evaporative demand, consumptive use will be higher and effective <br />precipitation lower resulting in a higher net crop water <br />requirement. The efficiency of precipitation for dryland farming <br />operations and crop yield is dependent upon the multiple effect of <br />these variable factors. <br /> <br />Precipitation is also important for irrigated farming operations. <br /> <br />Effective precipitation acts to reduce the irrigation requirement <br />since it satisfies a part of the crop consumptive use requirement. <br /> <br />The unreliable nature of precipitation in the project area results in <br /> <br />crop yield under dry land farming conditions which is usually far from <br />optimum. The timing and amount of rainfall that occurs is seldom <br />adequate to maximize potential crop yield. Conversely, irrigation <br /> <br />3- 24 <br />