Egypt is considered as semi arid region, therefore, water is the limiting resource to maximize the agricultural production. To maximize the benefit of water resource, it is necessary to identify the causes of irrigation water losses through the system of irrigation on the farm level and water budget studies were conducted during summer season, 2005 on four branch canals. Dakalt and El Kahawagy branch canals represented Kafr El Shiekh Governorate (North Nile Delta), while Besntway and El – Hamamy branch canals represented, El Behera Governorate (West Nile Delta). Two improved mesqas were selected at Kafr El Shiekh, and four at El Behera, were selected at different locations. The cropped areas for the selected mesqas in Kafr El Sheikh Governorate ranged from 71.43 to 100% for rice, 0.0 to 28.34% for cotton and 0.00 to 0.23 % for maize. While in El Behera governorate, the cropped area ranged from 11.83 to 75.61% for rice, 4.59 to 58.93% for cotton, 0.96 to 3.76% for maize, 1.03 to 36.09% for fruits and 0.54 to 4.88% for vegetables. The conveyance efficiency average values ranged from 78.64 to 83.56 % for Kafr El Sheikh and from 78.12 to 86.57 % for El Behera. Water conveyance losses in earth marwas werefound to be 18.9% and 16.76% for Kafr El Shiekh and El Behera, respectively.
Field irrigation efficiency was a minimum value for El Naira mesqa (55.81%) because all area cultivated with rice, but it was 80.26% in Sharf El Den mesqa when rice occupied 35.73% of the total area.Total benefit values could be arranged as following ascending order: El Shemy & El Taweel mesqa > Ganab 1 mesqa > Sharaf El Den mesqa > Om Henesh C mesqa >El Deeb & Abd Ella mesqa >El – Naira mesqa. The most efficient utilization of water unit was achieved when rice area ranged between 11.8 and 66% of the total mesqa area to maximize the return of water unit and minimize water conveyance and field losses. The crop pattern should be adopted with mesqa water supply to ensure higher on – farm irrigation efficiency and reduce water losses.