11 Reasons Why Drip Irrigation Is Essential for Farming

It is the need of the hour that farmers should treat farming as a Business, and for a Profitable business it is essential to invest at the right time & in the right resource. 

Seed, Pesticide, Fertilizer, Water, Farm Equipment are the major farm inputs required for farming. & Effective management of these resources will decide the Yields & profit to farmers.

As Necessity is the mother of invention, in 1965 Drip Irrigation Technology was invented by Simcha Blass in Israel & Netafim India helped to spread this Drip Technology all over the world.

In India there are many issues faced by farmers in Irrigation & Fertigation management, inter cultivation Operations/mechanizations.

Below are a few pain points of Farmers.

Availability of water :-

About 70% of Available water is consumed for Agriculture & out of which only 25% is used under Micro Irrigation till date. 

Traditional methods like Flood, Furrow Irrigation have a very low Water use efficiency (30 to 50%) which leads to decrease the number of active days available to grow to plant. 

Humans & Plants both need food & water on a daily basis. If Plant is not able to produce food on a daily basis, then desired yields cannot be achieved.

Application of water & Fertilizer should be as per Peak water requirement of the crop. Peak water requirement of Crop remains same in all types of Irrigation methods, but the water use efficiency changes thus, it is highly recommended to go for Drip Irrigation to improve water use efficiency (90-95%). 

It is a misconception that just because water is abundant, there is no need for drip irrigation. In fact, Excess irrigation leads to deterioration of quality & runoff of soil too.

Electricity Hours (Day/Night):-

In most of the states/area Electricity available is less than 10 hours only & also not available in daytime. 

In flood Irrigation, as per electricity availability, Farmer or his Labour must have to irrigate fields in day -nights in all seasons, which is a dangerous, laborious & non safety job. 

As available electricity hours are low, it becomes essential for a farmer to irrigate his farm in the limited time & available pump Horsepower. It results in bringing the Low area under irrigation. But in the case of Drip Irrigation farmers can increase the area under Irrigation by saving Electricity hours. Drip Irrigation is the only solution to manage available electricity effectively to irrigate his farm. Farmers scan only on /Off the shift valves & even go for automation.

Labour :-

In traditional /Flood Irrigation Labors are required to Irrigate the farm. Nowadays skilled Labour are not available easily & also Labour costing is high. Drip Irrigation helps to reduce Labour cost required for Irrigation, Fertigation, weed removals, Inter cultivation operations etc.

Weed & Pest :-

Flood irrigation total field is Irrigated which results in increase in Weeds & possibility of Pest attack on Plants. In Drip irrigation, we apply water at the root zone of the crop only which helps to reduce weed growth in irrigated areas.

Fertilizer Efficiency :-

Fertilizer efficiency in Flood & manual application of Fertilizer is low & it can’t be assured that all fertilizer applied is available to the root zone of the crop.However, in Drip irrigation fertilizers are applied at the root zone of crop and every drop of water contains fertilizer which helps to grow plants as desired.

Cultivable land :-

Due to alternative use of lands & splitting of lands, net cultivable land is decreasing day by day.

Framer needs an assured outcome from his farm, for which he must aim to increase productivity of crops which is possible in Drip irrigation only.

In Drip irrigation, we can use saved water & electricity to increase the area under Irrigation. Digging a well when thirsty will not help farmers for a sustainable Growth. He needs to adopt new technology & ways of farming like Drip.

Crop diversification :-

Crop diversification is important to have a good ROI from farms. Time has come when farmers need to Produce the Crops which make them money.

Water Quality :-

We can use saline water through Drip Irrigation.

Mechanization:-

Crops like sugarcane, Banana, Cotton, Horticulture plants & other crops need inter cultivation by tractors & other farm machineries. It is difficult to go for inter cultivation in Flood Irrigated farms.

Low Yields :-

Farmers are not able to set & get desired yield in Flood irrigation whereas in Drip Irrigation he maintains field capacity of soil & also possible to fertigate fields as per desired dose which helps to increase crop Yield.

Control Monitoring & Analysis :-

Farming is a business & farmer needs to keep records for all his I input costs and output results.

Data of irrigation fertigation monitoring & analysis is possible through automation & digital farming.

As There are no shortcuts to success Change is important to grow, Farmers need to adopt Drip Irrigation for long term sustainable Growth.