Drip irrigation in intensive agriculture
Drip irrigation supplies water slowly and evenly at low pressure through plastic hoses installed inside or near the root zone of the plants. Its use is oriented to intensive agriculture in the outdoors or in a greenhouse. Find out what it brings to intensive agriculture.
The use of drip irrigation systems is widespread in fruit crops, citrus fruits, vines and horticultural plants, especially in temperate zones with scarce water resources, and with intensive outdoor or greenhouse crops.
In Spain, the areas of the Mediterranean, with the Levant and the south in the head, concentrate most of the drip irrigation facilities. Although it is increasingly used in other areas, and especially in gardens and green areas of urban nuclei.
The use of professional tools in the tasks of installation of drip irrigation in agricultural farms, allow to save time, to reduce labor costs and to optimize the use of phytosanitary products. Prakor offers a catalogue of tools for agricultural use that you can consult in our online catalog.
Why to introduce drip irrigation in intensive agriculture
Drip irrigation, also known as localized irrigation, reduces and optimizes water use. A well-designed drip irrigation system loses very little water because it minimizes runoff, evaporation or deep percolation in silty soil. It limits the main causes of water loss during irrigation.
Localized irrigation offers many other advantages such as:
- Its adequacy to fields or farms with irregular shape or where the topography or texture of the soil is not uniform.
- It decreases the contact of the water with the foliage, the stems and the fruits, generating less favorable conditions for the development of diseases in the plants or crops.
- It is especially suitable for arid geographical areas where irrigation water is scarce or expensive. This allows for more precise use and considerably reduces the evaporation of water in the soil.
- The application of nutrients is more accurate and efficient through drip irrigation, because the water application is limited to the root zone of the plant. In this way, the costs of fertilizers and the loss of nitrates can be reduced.
- It allows the area between rows to remain dry, reducing the proliferation of weeds, and facilitating the operations of tractors or workers at any time.
- Suitable for using more efficient fertigation systems . This method allows the application of herbicides, insecticides and fungicides at the most opportune time of each harvest.
- The installation of automation systems and precise scheduling of irrigation increase their performance and quality, save labor time and dynamically adapt to climatic or production conditions.
Aspects to be taken into account in drip irrigation
- The installation and maintenance of the localized irrigation system requires an expert hand to design the irrigation system adapted to the soil, topography, climate and cultivation. It will also define which components to install. This function is typical of agricultural engineers and agronomists.
- The installation costs of a drip irrigation system can be elevated, according to the characteristics of the terrain and the equipment required.
- The hoses or tapes through which the water runs must be in perfect condition to avoid leakage. Measures should be taken to prevent damage to the installation or handling of such hosesand to the formation of sediments.
- Fine soil particles or other materials may clog emitters if a filter is not used to remove them from irrigation water. Algae and chemical deposits can also form blockages in emitters. Filtration and injection of acid or chlorine are solutions to these problems.
- Sometimes it is necessary to modify the weed control program. Some herbicides need rain or sprinkler irrigation to be activated.
- With the exception of permanent systems, the tape must be collected after harvesting and discarded, recycled, or re-used. With the added costs that this implies.
- The Labor required for the installation of the hoses for each crop.
- The operation of the Drippers is based on the homogenization capacity of irrigation along a irrigation line. It should be avoided that the last emitters have a lower pressure than the first ones. For this purpose, there are self-compensating drippers (they regulate the same amount of water in each outlet) or antidrains (which prevent air from entering the hose).
How to optimize Prakor the installation of your drip irrigation system
In all this process, PRAKOR helps to optimize the installation times of the irrigation system between crops with the Tools,
Mammoth
and
Alligator
. The aim is to avoid water losses and damage to the hoses, also allowing the reuse of hoses and emitters.
- Mammoth Drill : We get, effortlessly, a perfect placement of the shunts in the secondary pipes.
- Alligator Connector, its complementary, will allow us to connect without applying force the hose with the shunt.
With this Basic tool kit we will be guaranteeing a leak-free installation, the equivalent of a job well done.
In conclusion, the efficiency of water use in a drip irrigation system is greater than the efficiency in a flood irrigation system.
With a good irrigation program that meets the needs of the plants, it is possible to increase the yield and the quality of the harvest, to reduce costs and to manage in a telematic way the water needs of our farms.
