Irrigation Technologies

Our project has piloted a number of new approaches to irrigation and horticulture practice that are based on farmers' site-specific barriers and issues. A key aspect of this work has been ensuring that womens' concerns and challenges are specifically addressed, since in many cases the work of growing vegetables falls to the women in a given household.

On this page

• Raised furrow-basins

• Micro-furrows

• Raised / terraced main canal

• Manual pivot piping system

• Direct-fill furrow system

• Tied furrows

• Rock head tank

• Micro basins

• Water-powered pump

• Ox-powered reservoir construction

• Animal traction leveling

• Multiple-head sprinkler

Sites Using This Technology

Aloet

Benefits

• Adequate drainage in waterlogged areas for a number of vegetable crops, including onion, cabbage, carrot, and cowpea

• Ease of irrigating compared to flooding and watering cans

• Lower cost than pressurized systems

• Allows use of waterlogged areas throughout the year

Challenges

• Erosion by rain and irrigation water, requiring ongoing re-shaping of beds and clearing of furrows

• Higher up-front labor cost than many other irrigation approaches

Furrow irrigation for moderate slopes

Micro-furrows are very short furrows with flat, level bottoms that run along the contour of a slope, filled one at a time to allow water to infiltrate. Unlike traditional furrow irrigation, micro-furrows can be set across a moderate slope. Each furrow can be filled by an open pipe, either from a pump or gravity system.

Sites Using This Technology

Kabos, Kyekidde

Benefits

• Water reaches the end of each furrow quickly and infiltrates evenly, with good uniformity along the length

• High water use efficiency: no tail water exits the furrow at the end, and small surface area limits evaporation

• Deep infiltration allows for longer time between irrigation applications

• Can be used with various water systems: channels, piped water, or jerricans

Challenges

• Furrows must be cleared regularly to maintain level bottoms

• Furrows and tops of beds must be flattened well

• Moderate labor required to fill each furrow

Sites Using This Technology

Aloet

Benefits

• Easy control of water into furrows

• No moving of soil which can damage furrows and canals

• Good uniformity of flow into each furrow

• Little labor required in irrigation

• Can be used in areas with highly erodible soils

Challenges

• High labor requirement in making raised main canal

• Need for regular maintenance in cleaning and re-terracing canal

Micro Basins

IMPROVED INFILTRATION FOR LARGE WATER APPLICATIONS

Small sections of land boxed in with small bunds and leveled to be flat. Water is applied into the basin using a pipe, canal, or jerican, filled to the top of the bund. The water is held inside and infiltrates down into the soil profile. This allows very high application rates, as it prevents runoff. This helps farmers irrigate deeper and crops to have a larger store of water before irrigation is needed again.

Sites Using the technology

Atari, Kabos, Tente

Benefits

• Long interval between irrigations

• Adaptable to many water supply systems

• Allows farmers to use very high flow rates

Challenges

• Requires large amount of labor for land leveling and bund making

• Encourages disease in crops susceptible to fungal infection, such as tomato and onion

Minimal pipe length for maximum irrigable area

A system of piping that lays a buried section to the center of the field to be irrigated, and attaches a raised pipe (HDPE or Layflat) that can rotate in a circle. This mimics the layout of a traditional center-pivot system, but is manually moved to the plot a farmer desires to irrigate.

In areas where the water source is below the field, a pump is necessary. Once farmers are using a pump, it is often possible to use a flexible pipe to deliver the water directly into furrows. This can be an efficient way of irrigating, since there is almost no loss on the way to the field and almost all the water ends up in the root zone.

Our Work

Tied Furrows

Achieving uniform infiltration in sloped furrows

In closed furrows, water accumulates at the end if there is even a small slope, so it can be difficult to get very good uniformity of water from the start to the end of the furrow.  A "tie" is a half-blockage inside a furrow, which is used to slow down the flow of water to achieve more even infiltration before and after the tie. This approach is used in closed furrows when it is difficult to get a level enough furrow to ensure even infiltration along its length.

Our Work

No cost, low volume, 24 hour pumping

A water-powered pump uses the force of the current in a stream to turn a wheel, which generates pressure to pump water upslope. It is installed inside a stream or river, and is connected to a delivery pipe to take water to a nearby plot. This system produces a low pressure and flow, so it is suitable for relatively nearby gardens that are not elevated high above the stream-- less than 6 meters vertical head and less than 100 meters lateral distance. The pump continues all the time, so some water storage at the plot is necessary in addition to a method for distributing water. Distribution can be done with watering cans, drip systems, or any other low-pressure method.

Our Work

Method of digging a water reservoir using animal traction

Our Work

low cost land leveling with animal traction

A method of leveling fields for furrow irrigation that requires only oxen and a tool for scraping and depositing soil. This greatly reduces the amount of labor required for leveling. Three people are needed to level: the navigator who shows the oxen operators where to cut and fill, the ox-driver who directs the oxen, and the machine operator who handles the scraper. The team moves in roughly circular motion around the field, cutting raised parts and filling depressions until the field is roughly flat. Final finishing can be done by hand-hoe.