1. IDE Low-Cost Drip Irrigation for Vegetable Production: A Farmer’s Guide
Dr. Manuel C. Palada
Head, Crop & Ecosystems Management Unit
AVRDC, P.O. Box 42, Shanhua, Tainan TAIWAN
Training Course on Drip Irrigation for Vegetable Crops
SANREM CRSP Agroforestry and Sustainable Vegetable Production
In Southeast Asian Watershed
Barrio Songo, Lantapan, Bukidnon, Philippines
24-25 May 2007

2. IDE INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ENTERPRISES

3. IDE INTERNATIONAL Non profit international NGO comprised of national
IDE Organizations from USA, Canada, UK & India.
Focus : Smallholder Poverty Alleviation.
Goal : To reach 30 million smallholder farm
families within next 15 years.
Implementing development programs in 9 countries,
India, China, Nepal, Bangladesh, Vietnam,
Cambodia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Myanmar
recently.

4. IDE APPROACH Market Creation Integrated Service Provision - ISP
Products and Services
Input – Throughput – Output
Farm Level

5. IDE APPROACH ISP Value Chains Affordable Micro-Irrigation Technology
Poverty Alleviation through Irrigation and Smallholder Markets
PRISM

6. MARKET CREATION Products & Services Price – Affordability
Place – Supply Chain
Promotion
M & E

7. Affordable Micro-Irrigation
Access to water
Efficient Utilization of Water
Affordability
Locally Available
User-friendly
Easy to operate, repair and maintain

8. Low Cost Drip Irrigation
More Crop per Drop – Water Saving
Removes entry barrier
Energy Saving
Fertilizer Saving
Labor Saving
Uniformity in application
Improves or increases yield
Minimize disease

9. Root Zone Coverage

10. IDE Low-Cost Drip Irrigation System
Components of
IDE Low-Cost Drip
Irrigation System

11. Low Cost Drip Systems Polytube drip and Easydrip Microtube as emitter
Available in user friendly kit forms –
20 sq.m, 100 sq.m, 200 sq.m, 500 sq.m,
1000 sq.m
Customized Systems
Microsprinkler and Minisprinkler Kits

13. Components of IDE Drum Kit
More Crop per Drop
Removes entry barrier
Water, Energy, Fertilizer
& Labour Saving
Uniformity in application
Improves yield
Tolerance to Salinity

14. Control valve
Filter
Mainline
Submain
Lateral

24. Tee connector
Easy tape roll
Straight connector
or joiner
Sleeve
Sleeve
Micro-tubing
dripper
L-connector
Thumb punch

26. Set-up and Plot Layout

28. Kitchen Garden Bucket Kit
20 / Ltr. Bucket
Microtube Coverage
1 m
Filter
Lateral line
for Vegetables
5 m
2 m
0.5 m
Kitchen Garden Bucket Kit

30. Drum Kit - Vegetable

31. Drum-200Ltrs
1 M
Horticulture Garden kit, is suitable for Papaya / Banana or similar kind of closed spaced horticultural gardens. It can irrigate up to 50 plants with spacing of about 1.8 m x 1.8 m, planted in 130.sqr mtr area. This kit has to be connected to a 200ltr Drum or a tank at about 1m height.
HORTICULTURE DRUM KIT

32. Available off-the-shelf
Item Description Qty
Item Description Qty
Peg
Connector
Main line;
Filter
Main tube
Tee
FTA
Tap
Joiner
Microtube
Lateral line
Lateral
End cap
155 1 5
DRUM
KIT
Instruction
Manual
Tap hole
punch
A complete kit
Available off-the-shelf

39. DK
Pre-assembled
Install it yourself

40. Component Assembly

41. Connecting lateral pipe to sub-main pipe

42. Submain
Lateral
Submain
Lateral

43. Inserting micro-tube emitter to lateral tube (tape)
Easy tape lateral
Thumb punch

45. Laying out drip line system

46. Micro-Tee

51. AVRDC Low-Cost Drip Irrigation Set-up for Tomato

53. Green House in Afghanistan

55. Optional Additions
Fertigation or chemigation: Soluble fertilizers can be added to the drip irrigation water to provide uniform crop fertilization.
A simple “hozon” venturi injector siphons soluble fertilizer from a bucket or jug into the line at a pre-set ratio (usually 1:16 or 1 gal for every 16 gal of water flowing the line).

56. Mulches
Drip systems operate most effectively when used in conjunction with plastic mulches.
Mulches reduce evaporation of water from soils and improve economy of drip water application

57. Mulches
Vegetable growers typically use 4-foot wide rolls of black or white-on-black polyethylene plastic mulch on 5-foot row centers with drip tape buried 1 to 3 inches deep below the plastic and either 3 to 5 inches to the side of the row or in the center, depending upon whether a single- or double-row crop is being grown.

60. Water Management and Operation
Drip irrigation is, in many ways, a different way of irrigating.
A small supply of water is applied as the plant needs it, usually on a daily or more frequent basis.
The goal should be to achieve a high level of efficiency to get maximum production of produce from minimal amounts of water.

61. Water Management
As the plant grows, larger quantities of water are needed as root systems become more extensive and foliage growth increases.
Thus, as the season progresses, more water needs to be applied and, obviously, under hot, dry conditions, more water is needed to replace evaporative losses (crop water use).

62. Water Management
Irrigation scheduling determines how often to irrigate and how much water to apply.
The appropriate irrigation frequency is influenced by the rate at which crops use water and by the water-holding capacity of the soil.
The amount of water to apply each irrigation application can be calculated from known soil and plant characteristics.

63. Water Management Soil in the root zone acts as a reservoir for water.
Soil texture is the primary factor influencing the amount of water stored.
Available water is defined as the amount of water plants can easily withdraw from the soil and use it.

65. Water Management
Coarse-textured (sandy) soils must be irrigated more frequently than fine-textured (clay) soils.
For most crops, an appropriate goal is to irrigate when 50 percent of the available water is depleted.

66. Full Stop Wetting Front Detector

67. Full Stop Wetting Front Detector

68. Crop Water Use
Water lost by evapotranspiration can be estimated by an open pan and is usually quoted by agricultural weather reports as pan evaporation.
A crop in full vegetative growth usually needs to be replenished at about 80% of the pan evaporation level.

69. Crop Water Use - Calculations
Gallons/100 ft/day = 50 x 80% pan evaporation x row spacing in feet.
Example: If 0.25 inch of water is lost per day from pan evaporation on a crop of melons on 5-foot row centers, how much water should be supplies?

70. Crop Water Use Calculations
Gallons/100 ft/day = 50 x (0.25 in x 80%) x 5 ft
= 50 x 0.2 x 5
= 50 gallons / 100 ft
If your drip tube drips at 25 gallons/100 ft/hour, then two hours would be necessary to replace water loss.

71. Tensiometer
Tensiometers indicate available soil moisture by measuring soil tension (also referred to as soil suction or vacuum).
Soil tension indicates how tightly water is held by the soil, increasing as moisture in the soil is depleted.
This force draws water out of a tensiometer through its porous tip, creating a vacuum inside the tensiometer.

72. Tensiometer
Tensiometer consists of a porous, pocelain-tipped tube of water with a vacuum gauge at the top.
Tensiometer is placed at root zone depth with the porous tip buried in the soil. As water moves from the porous tip, a vacuum reading (in centibars or kilo Paschals ) indicates the soil water status.

73. Tensiometer
A value of 0 cb or kPa means the soil is completely saturated with water.
A reading of 10 cb represents a normal field capacity soil water status.
Irrigation systems should begin when a reading of 20 to 30 cb is indicated on the gauge.

74. Tensiometer
Tensiometers are usually installed in pairs, called a “station,” one at a 6-inch depth and one at a 12-inch depth.
They are installed in the crop row about 4 inches from the row middle on the side opposite the drip tube
The drip system is turned on when the deeper (12-inch) tensiometer reads and turned off when the shallow (6-inch) tensiometer drops to 10 or below.

75. Soil Moisture Tensiometer

78. Maintenance
The drip system filter should be checked daily and cleaned if necessary.
A clogged screen filter can be cleaned with a stiff bristle brush or by soaking in water.
Check lines for excessive leaking. A large wet area in the field indicates a leaking drip tube.
You can install a connector to the leaking tube or bypass the leak with a short piece of feeder tube

79. Thank you very much