A canal system includes the following parts:

1. Head works: The head works are the works constructed to store ,divert and control the river water and regulate the supplies into the canal.

2. Main canal : Main canal is staring directly from the upstream side of weir head works.No direct irrigation is usually carried from the main canal.

3. Branch canal: When a main canal reaches the area where irrigation is to be done,it divides out into branches joining to different parts of the area.The branch canal ends into a distributary.

4. Major distributary or distributary:These are smaller channels takinf-off from the branch canal or sometimes from the main canal.The irrigation water is supplied t the outlets through these distributaries.The capacity of distributary channel may vary from 0.3 to 6 cumecs.

5. Minor distributaries or minors:These are small channels of capacity less than 3.3 cumecs taking off from the branch or distributary.The supply water to watercourses for irrigation.Main canals,branch canals and distributaries are called Government channels because they are owned,constructed and maintained by the government.

6. Watercourses or fields channels: From these channels,waters enters into th field of cultivators.Watercourses may be constructed by the government on behalf of the cultivators only.These are small channels known as field channels having capacity less than 0.05 cumecs.The length of watercourse is usually less than 1km having a command of 10 to 15 hectares.