Design of Gravity-Fed Drip Irrigation System For Tree Based Farming System

See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.
net/publication/280628222
Design of gravity-fed drip irrigation system for tree based farming system
Article · October 2009
CITATION READS
1 658
2 authors, including:
Nitin Changade
Lovely Professional University
8 PUBLICATIONS 6 CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE
All content following this page was uploaded by Nitin Changade on 04 August 2015.
The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Click www.researchjournal.co.in/online/subdetail.html to purchase.
International Journal of Agricultural Engineering, Vol. 2 No. 2 (October 2009 to March 2010) : 249-253
Research Paper :
Design of gravity-fed drip irrigation system for tree based farming system
N.M. CHANGADE AND G.K. PIWALATKAR
Accepted : July, 2009
ABSTRACT
The gravity-fed drip irrigation was fabricated using local and market available materials. The test
crops were bottle gourd, bitter gourd and cucumber, grown in specially dugout pits, filled with
medium textured soil mixed with manures, fertilizers. The CROPWAT model was used to estimate
the ET of various vegetables for scheduling irrigation. Systems hydraulic performance was
See end of the article for evaluated by measuring discharge variation among the different emitters, estimating friction head
authors’ affiliations losses in different components. The frictional head loss in the lateral was found to 0.2640 cm
cumulatively. Whereas the frictional head loss of emitters was found to be 67.73 cm, the frictional
Correspondence to: head losses in the fitting were found out to be 6.995 cm. Total head requirement of the system
N.M. CHANGADE included the head required at the farthest emitter for operation and the frictional losses in the
Department of Agriculture bend, control valve and filter as 2.3 m. Among the vegetable, the bottle gourd resulted in significantly
Engineering, Vivekanand higher average yields as compared to other vegetables. Bottle gourd produced highest yield
Agriculture College, Hiwara under drip irrigation (290.9 q ha-1), closely followed by the yield under basin irrigation (229.2q ha-
(Bk) Mehkar, BULDANA 1
). In this way the locally fabricated micro drip irrigation system was found significantly superior
(M.S.) INDIA as compared to the basin irrigation.
Key words : Gravity fed drip irrigation system, Frictional loss, Basin irrigation crop yield.
I ndia has formidable proportion of wastelands being out

of cultivation due to various problems viz., water and
wind erosion, water logging, salinity, alkalinity and gully
cost micro-irrigation system, such as gravity-fed drip
technique for growing winter vegetables, can save water
up to 40 % (Sahu, 1984).
formations etc. The country has 144.2 mi.ha area In Chhattisgarh also, gravity fed drip irrigation set
subjected to water and wind erosion, 8.53 Mha area was designed, developed and used for growing vegetables
suffering from water logging and 3.97 Mha area under in farmer’s field (Rao and Sahu, 2002 and Patel and Sahu,
ravines and gullies (SPWD, 2005). These wastelands are 2004) resulted in higher produce (25-30%), savings in
now necessary to be put under cultivation due to increased water (45-48%), labour (45%) and fertilizer cost (50%).
population pressure. In the state of Chhattisgarh also the Looking to the success of this technique, the study is
situation is not different. These waste lands locally called proposed to evaluate this technique along with basin
as Bhata lands (red lateratic) are basically Entisols and irrigation methods for growing vegetables under tree
are nutrient and water deficient with meagre soil depth. plantation being developed in the Bhata land.
About 20 per cent of the total geographical area of the
state is covered under these soils. These soils are deficient METHODOLOGY
in organic matter content with poor water holding The study area was situated at village Uparwara in
capacity. Therefore, utilization of waste lands, through Abhanpur block of district Raipur, Chhattisgarh. It was
judicious use of water for survival of plantations, is most about 20 km away from university campus. The study
important. Micro irrigation system is one of the best area was located at 210.15’ N latitude and 81 0.36’ E
options for use of limited water and fertilizer under longitude with an altitude of 300.6 m above the mean sea
degraded Bhata land. level. The average annual rainfall in the study area was
Micro-irrigation systems are advanced method of found about 1422 mm with 64 annual numbers of rainy
irrigation through which water is applied directly to root days. The soils of the study area characterized by a red
zone around the plant through a pipe network with the lateratic soil termed as Bhata land (Entisols) with water
help of emitter. Drip irrigation records higher water use holding capacity was very low (2.12 cm), infiltration rate
efficiency of 52.81 and 26.02 kgha-1mm-1 as compared to of this soils was remarkably high (6.24 cm/hr). The field
10.96 and 11.94 kgha-1mm-1 under flood irrigation i.e on capacity ranged from 12-20 % with bulk density 1.78 kg
an average drip irrigation system had water saving of cm 2 . Permanent wilting point was in the range of 6-10 %.
41% over flood irrigation (Sharma and Kumar, 2007). Low
HIND AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND TRAINING INSTITUTE
View publication stats

Design of Gravity-Fed Drip Irrigation System For Tree Based Farming System

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Design of Gravity-Fed Drip Irrigation System For Tree Based Farming System

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Design of Gravity-Fed Drip Irrigation System For Tree Based Farming System

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

Article · October 2009

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

I ndia has formidable proportion of wastelands being out

View publication stats

You might also like