Irrigation technology your team needs to know about.
In its most simple form, irrigation is essentially the process of “watering plants”. In agriculture, this process generally applies a controlled amount of water to a piece of farmland to help the crops planted there to grow as desired; this is not vastly different from how a homeowner may water their lawn or plants etc.
It is believed that irrigation became a central feature in agriculture roughly 5000 years ago and was developed by various cultures. Not only does agriculture help to grow the crops in question and produce food in abundance, but it can help to maintain landscapes and even, in some instances, rejuvenate tired soil where rainfall or over-farming has affected its natural composition.
There are also some less commonly thought of uses; the suppression of dust, the disposal of sewage or even the simple cooling of livestock in hot climates. All the former examples of irrigation use differing approaches to enable the desired outcome with lower wastage and overall water use. Examples of this might be drip irrigation, where water simply trickles out to a root zone, or micro-irrigation, which attempts to use lower pressure and water flow than normal overhead irrigation.
As suggested, the agricultural practice has been around for thousands of years; this is backed up by archaeological findings that show evidence of irrigation in low rainfall areas. For example, you can find very early examples of irrigation in what is now present-day Iran, in the southwest of the country.
There is also significant evidence in Iraq, close to the border with Iran, showing that irrigation by humans may have been taking place as early as 6000 BC.
In a far more modern setting, in the year 2000, the total land area classed as fertile land approached almost 7 million acres. The makeup of irrigation infrastructure in that year was as follows; almost 70% of the areas with irrigation infrastructure were found in Asia, approximately 15% in the Americas, almost 10% in Europe, and then only 5% in Africa, and 1% in Australasia.
Generally, regardless of approach, irrigation aims to water plants uniformly and only give each plant the necessary amount of water it needs. Giving the plant too much water can be as bad as giving the plant too little water. Modern irrigation can be broken down into several different categories.
One of the main modern methods for irrigation is known as surface irrigation or gravity irrigation; this is arguably the oldest form of irrigation and can be traced back thousands of years. In this approach to irrigation, water is moved on masse across the surface of the agricultural area, which then infiltrates broads swathes of soil, and ultimately floods the area.
This is not a particularly targeted method for irrigating farmland and can lead to excess water use and overwatering. However, whilst the water application efficiency of surface irrigation is generally lower than other more advanced forms of irrigation, it does have the potential of being significantly cheaper (regarding infrastructure costs). Therefore, surface irrigation is often the choice for developing nations (with large fields and relatively low-value crops). For instance, rice fields, or rice paddies, can be flooded via surface irrigation, with workers wading through knee-deep water to farm the crops.
Micro-irrigation, sometimes called trickle irrigation, low-volume irrigation, or even localised irrigation, is more advanced than the former. This micro irrigation system moves water via low pressure throughout a relatively developed pipe infrastructure, laid in a predetermined pattern. This predetermined pattern then discharges a small amount of water to each plant or crop; in theory, water wastage is far lower than surface irrigation. In addition, each plant can be watered as necessary and should get neither too much nor too little water. Micro-irrigation generally uses individual emitters, micro sprays or sprinklers, surface drip irrigators, and even mini bubble irrigation tools to enable water delivery to specific plants at a specific time.
Sprinkler or overhead irrigation is probably something most people have seen in developed countries; this may have been seen in a field with large mobile sprinklers or even far smaller versions on a neighbour’s lawn. In the overhead irrigation system, water is piped to a central location within farmland to distribute water overhead at high pressure, covering most of the crops. This sprinkler irrigation method uses sprays or guns mounted overhead and a rotating motion to move high-pressure water across the desired area.
The sprinkler systems can use rotors designed to rotate only partially or completely in a full circle. It is possible to use this technology on mobile platforms as suggested. These platforms can be moved manually and or automatically, allowing large areas to be irrigated at different times as needs dictate.
It wasn’t until the 1960s that water began to be seen by the mainstream as a potentially scarce resource. Since then, the number of people on the planet has roughly doubled. In addition, the populations of developed nations (and other nations more broadly) have become wealthier, resulting in higher water consumption. As a result, increased irrigation efficiency has become an ever more desirable outcome. Generally, irrigation efficiency can be improved in two main ways; this improvement is either by an efficiency gain in system design or system management.
Having water only go exactly where you want it, when you want it, is not a simple task. However, despite the difficulty in controlling water, many companies attempt to do just that. One of the methods for controlling water use efficiency is to use high-tech nozzles on watering systems. Some of these hi-tech nozzles are designed to need only limited cleaning, avoiding the traditional clogging and poor watering outcomes of more traditional watering nozzles.
Another approach is cutting edge software to allow for the best placement of centre pivot irrigation systems. So, for example, remote control pivots can be directed via software and have the pumps, pressure sensors, injectors and flow metres all being controlled from one simple application; this means, in theory, that any watering that is happening should be the most efficient possible, with no water going anywhere it shouldn’t, in any amounts it shouldn’t.
Another approach to evolving irrigation is not to focus on the water but the soil instead. Several companies are focusing their efforts on soil quality and soil sensors. They believe that by focusing on soil states, there can be a significant reduction in water use, potentially as much as 33%, by understanding exactly what the soil and crop need. In addition, some of the sensors are very simple and inexpensive to deploy, with a simple application pushing the sensor into an area of ground to be monitored. It is not only the soil sensor companies that believe that this has a future, as they are attracting big investment from significant funding houses.
Whatever the future of irrigation technology, there will undoubtedly be numerous impressive innovations to come. If you have an idea for new product development in this area, you know where to turn…
