Irrigation of farmland can be defined as the artificial supply of water plants to improve their availability. It is the artificial source of water that helps to maintain the life of plants and farming in general.
Before irrigation can occur, there are many factors to look at, some of which will be listed in this article. Another thing to look at is the systematic types of irrigation and how each of those types of irrigation can affect your farm.
What are the factors that determine irrigation of farmland?
After setting up a farm, there should be a very adequate supply of water every time. This is important not to avoid just wasting the cost for setting up irrigation tactics. The most important factor that determines irrigation include:
1. Availability of water: Without water, there is no irrigation. Water determines the effectiveness of irrigation around the farm. The availability of water is a necessity for plants to grow and the necessity for soil to accept any plant into it. It is either there is a near water source like canal, river, dams, streams, boreholes or running tap water.
2. Type of soil: Some soil requires surface irrigation while some soil is featured in underground Irrigation and running of water. Such clayey soil needs to involve surface irrigation because of the water retention capacity.
3. Types of crops or plants: Some plants require a lot of water to grow while some require just a minute amount of water. But no matter what there should still be effective irrigation to take place around them.
4. Slope of the land: The topography of some land determines the type of irrigation that will occur in it. The shape and slope of the land is another factor to look at to determine how to carry out the irrigation process. On flat land, sprinkler irrigation goes with it, while surface irrigation helps to make water available to sloping land.
What is the importance of irrigation of farmland?
There are amazing important that irrigation does to plants before improving the yield of plants:
1. Crop yield
2. Dissolves nutrients for roots absorption
3. Reduces spread of weed seeds
4. Constant and adequate availability of water to plants
5. Facilitating crop production
6. Cools the soil by reducing the temperature of the soil
7. Ensure the survival of crops
8. Supply moisture to the soil
9. Washout of toxic chemicals to plants
10. Promote the easy working together and development of plants tissues anytime.
What are the types of irrigation of farmland?
The process of even distributing adequate and sustainable water to plants can be divided mainly into three main parts:
1. Surface Irrigation: This is the process whereby water from streams, rivers and surrounding water bodies flows directly to the farmland inadequate quality without disturbing the quality of the elements in the soil. This can be in form of canals, channels, don’t, ditch, contour ditch and so on. It is just to avoid too much but instead an adequate amount of water. To make sure an effective surface immigration process occurs, the hand must have a gentle steep slope. This will also help in the efficient allocation of resources to the plants.
2. Subsurface irrigation: This can also be referred to as underground irrigation. This process happens in such a way that water is directed to the roots of the plants specifically from under the soil without causing any issue to the growth of the plants. The depth of the perforated pipes used to direct the water to the crops is near and relative. However, this depends on the type of crops being grown. Some crops can easily get affected by underground water while some enjoy the pieces of eater to come from above them. But all the same, efficient production and availability of plants is important to the growth of the plants. The most used equipment for this is nothing less than perforated pipes used to conduct water to the plants and it absorbs the water through capillary action.
3. Overhead irrigation: This is the most common piece of irrigation which involves the effective passing of water to plant over the surface of the plants. This is not as difficult as that of subsurface irrigation. It allows for the monitoring of what is going on about the availability of water. It can be very costly as well though reliable for the type of crops being used. Through nozzles or sprinklers, you can successfully carry out the process of overhead irrigation. Also, you can provide adequate water sources to the plants.
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