2. What is Drip Irrigation?
• Drip-irrigation, also known as micro-irrigation or trickle-
irrigation is a remarkable water technology developed
decades ago.
• Drip irrigation is the targeted, intelligent application of
water, fertilizer, and chemicals that when used properly
can provide great benefits
• Today it is commonly used all over the world in
agricultural, nursery, greenhouse, landscape and a
variety of industrial applications.
3. What is Drip Irrigation?
• Drip irrigation allows for targeted water applications,
where runoff, leaching and wetting of non-targeted areas
is avoided or completely eliminated
• In drip irrigation, water is applied near the plant root
through emitters or drippers, on or below the soil
surface, at a low rate varying from 2 - 20 lit res per hour
• The soil moisture is kept at an optimum level with
frequent irrigations
• Drip irrigation results in a very high water application
efficiency of about 90-95 %
4. History of Drip Irrigation
• The use of drip irrigation can be traced back to the ancient
custom in certain parts of India of irrigating a tulsi plant kept in
the courtyard
• The drip system was developed for field crops in Israel in the
early 1960s and in Australia and North America in the late
1960s
5. Advantages of Drip Irrigation
• Increased revenue from increased yields
• Increased revenue from increased quality
• Decreased water costs
• Decreased labor costs
• Decreased energy costs
• Decreased fertilizer costs
• Decreased pesticide costs
• Improved environmental quality
6. Conserving Water with Drip
Irrigation
• Drip irrigation application uniformity is very high, usually
over 90%
• Unlike sprinklers, drip irrigation applies water directly to
the soil, eliminating water loss from wind.
• Application rates are low so water may be spoon fed to
the crop or plant root zone in the exact amounts required
(even on a daily or hourly basis).
• Low application rates are less likely to run off from
heavier soils or sloping terrain.
• Drip irrigation does not water non-targeted areas, such
as furrows and roads, in agriculture applications. In
greenhouse applications, drip irrigation does not water
between beds, blocks, or benches
7. Conserving Water with Drip
Irrigation
• Drip irrigation easily adapts to odd-shaped
planting areas which are difficult to address
with sprinklers or gravity irrigation
• Drip irrigation is capable of germinating
seeds and setting transplants which
eliminates the need for “sprinklering up” and
eliminates the resulting waste in the early
stages of crop growth
