Drip Irrigation Technology adopted in OFI/SG/SEVAI Project in water and soil conservation process and enhances crop yields in Thottiyapatty.

Drip irrigation system developed in Thottiyapatty OFI/SG/SEVAI Project

Drip Irrigation Technology adopted in OFI/SG/SEVAI Project in water and soil conservation process and enhances crop yields in Thottiyapatty.Increasing competition with the water users limits the water availability for expanding irrigated area in Thottiyapatty dry land watershed area. Drip Irrigation Systems is widely used as it saves water and fertilizer by allowing water to drip slowly to the roots of plants, either onto the soil surface or directly onto the root zone resulting in a very high yield of crops. In traditional surface irrigation methods, the losses in water conveyance and application are large. These losses are considerably reduced by adopting drip irrigation methods. Among all the irrigation methods, the drip irrigation is the most efficient in Thottiyapatty project and it is practiced in a large variety of crops, especially in vegetables, flowers and cereal crops. In drip irrigation, water is applied near the plant root through emitters or drippers, on or below the soil surface.

Brinjal vegetable cultivation in Thottiyapatty Drip irrigation project

The soil moisture is kept at an optimum level with frequent irrigations. Drip irrigation results in a very high water application efficiency. Drip irrigation system is suitable for dry land area cereal and vegetable crops. Drip irrigation system has also been successfully employed for close growing field crops. Drip Irrigation involves technology for irrigating plants at the root zone through emitters fitted on a network of pipes. The emitting devices are drippers, micro sprinklers, mini sprinklers, misters, micro sprayers, foggers and emitting pipes, which are designed to discharge water at prescribed rates. The use of different emitters will depend upon specific requirements, which may vary from crop to crop. Water requirement, age of plant spacing, soil type, water quality and availability are some of the factors which would decide the choice of the emitting system. Drip irrigation provides farmers the most efficient way to grow crops in water scarce areas such as Tottiyapatty area where the rain fall is lesser than normal rainfall. Drip Irrigation saves water unto 30 - 70 percent, greatly reduce labor, and accurately deliver fertilizers. This makes cultivation during the dry season possible, with resulting yield increases of up to significant percentage.-Govin