IRRIGATION TRE

ND AND NEED
What is IRRIGATI
ON?
• Irrigation is the artificial application of water
to land for the purpose of agricultural prod
uction.

• Irrigation is the supply of water to land or cr

ops to help growth, typically by means of ch
annels.
What is IRRIGATI
ON?
• Irrigation is purposely providing land with water, other
than rain, for improving pastures or crop production. Irr
igation usually implies the existence of infrastructure an
d/or equipment for applying water to crops, such as irri
gation canals, pumps, sprinklers or localized watering s
ystems. It may also include manual watering of plants u
sing buckets, watering cans or other devices. Uncontroll
ed land flooding by overflowing of rivers or streams is
not considered irrigation.
Types of Irrigation
Surface irrigation is the oldest form of irrigation and has be

Surface
en in use for thousands of years. In surface ( flood, or level basi
n) irrigation systems, water moves across the surface of an agric

Irrigation
ultural lands, in order to wet it and infiltrate into the soil. Surface
irrigation can be subdivided into furrow, border strip or basin irri
gation. It is often called flood irrigation when the irrigation resul
ts in flooding or near flooding of the cultivated land. Historically,
this has been the most common method of irrigating agricultura
l land and is still used in most parts of the world.
Example

SURFACE IRRIGATION
Types of Irrigation
Micro-irrigation, sometimes called localized irrigatio

Micro n, low volume irrigation, or trickle irrigation is a system w

here water is distributed under low pressure through a pi

Irrigation ped network, in a pre-determined pattern, and applied as

a small discharge to each plant or adjacent to it. Traditio
nal drip irrigation using individual emitters, subsurface dr
ip irrigation (SDI), micro-spray or micro-sprinkler irrigatio
n, and mini-bubbler irrigation all belong to this category
of irrigation methods.

• Drip Irrigation
Example

DRIP IRRIGATION
Types of Irrigation
In sprinkler or overhead irrigation, water is piped to one or

Sprinkler
more central locations within the field and distributed by overhe
ad high-pressure sprinklers or guns. A system using sprinklers, s

Irrigation
prays, or guns mounted overhead on permanently installed riser
s is often referred to as a solid-set irrigation system. Higher pres
sure sprinklers that rotate are called rotors and are driven by a b
all drive, gear drive, or impact mechanism.
Example

SPRINKLER IRRIGATION
Types of Irrigation
Sub-irrigation has been used for many years in field crops i

Sub-
n areas with high water tables. It is a method of artificially raisin
g the water table to allow the soil to be moistened from below t

Irrigation
he plants' root zone. Often those systems are located on perma
nent grasslands in lowlands or river valleys and combined with d
rainage infrastructure. A system of pumping stations, canals, wei
rs and gates allows it to increase or decrease the water level in a
network of ditches and thereby control the water table.
Example

SUB-IRRIGATION
 Advantages of Irrigation

Increase in Protection Revenue Mixed Cropping:

against drought: generation: Means growing two
food or more crops
production: The provision of When the regular
together in the same
Increase in crop adequate supply of water is field. This practice is
watering facilities assured, the followed so that if
yield leads to an
in any region farmers can grow weather conditions
increase in food certain superior are not favourable
ensures
production, thus or high priced for one crop, it may
protection
developing crops in place of be suitable for other
against failure of crops. But if enough
people as well crops from inferior or low water facilities are
as society famines and priced crops. As a made available, the
droughts. result, revenue is need for mixed
generated. cropping is
eliminated
Trend and Need
Biotech companies are using advanced genomics to create seed

1. Drought s for crops that need less water and are more tolerant of drough

resistant
t conditions. For example, drought resistant crops may have dee
per roots or stomata that close sooner to hold more moisture.

seed
Drip irrigation allows for precise control of the application of
2. Drip water and fertilizer, which can greatly reduce the amount of

irrigation water needed for crop irrigation.

Trend and Need
Precise measurement of water usage with water flowmeters can prevent over

3. Measuring
watering and reduce costs for farmers. As water resources become more limit
ed and expensive it will be more important to have accurate data on how muc

Water Flow
h water is being used to irrigate. Additionally, soil sensors can track soil moist
ure to determine how much water should be used and allow farmers to make
water-saving adjustments.

New software products that crunch large amounts of data can provide

4. Data farmers with important information that they previously didn’t have access
to. Using data such as local weather as well as data collected from their

Analytics equipment, farmers can receive recommendations and better understand how
much water is needed to optimize production while minimizing water waste.
 Trend and Need
Farmers are relying more on groundwater sources for irrigation

5. Drilling more
and as the water table falls due to unsustainable levels of pumpi
ng, farmers need deeper wells to continue tapping local ground

wells water sources.

In year 2000, the total fertile land was 2,78
By 2012, the area of irrigated land had
8,000 km² (689 million acres) and it was eq
increased to an estimated total of 3,242,917
uipped with irrigation infrastructure world
km² (801 million acres), which is nearly the
wide. About 68% of this area is in Asia, 17
size of India.
% in the Americas, 9% in Europe, 5% in Afri
ca and 1% in Oceania.