Author(s):

Dr. BL Sinha and Shasikant

Abstract: Due to limited water resources and environmental consequences of common irrigation systems, drip irrigation technology is getting more attention and playing an important role in agricultural production, particularly with cash crops of high value. Proper design and operating of drip irrigation system significantly minimize water use and energy consumption. The poor design of drip irrigation system may leads to under watering many plants and over watering the others rather than distributing water over the whole field. The efficient water application through drip irrigation is mainly depends upon the hydraulic parameters of the system, which includes the effect of pressure on coefficient of manufacturer variation, emitter flow variation, emission uniformity, uniformity coefficient, application efficiency and distribution efficiency. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the hydraulic performance of drip irrigation system in farmer’s field at 1.00 kg/cm2 operating. Twelve farmers of each 12 villages of three blocks of Mungeli district of Chhattisgarh were randomly selected among the farmers who were given drip irrigation system on subsidy basis. The average value of the hydraulic performance indicators namely emitter flow rate, co efficient of manufacturer, emitter flow variation, emission uniformity, distribution efficiency, and application efficiency obtained were 3.10 lph, 0.0310, 24.90%, 87.77%, 86.44% and 87.10%, respectively. The results of hydraulic performance indicators revealed that only 5 (41.66%) farmer’s field showed a better hydraulic efficiency (Emitter flow variation) by meeting the standards set by ASCE. Rest of 7 (58.34%) farmer’s field showed low hydraulic performance (Emitter flow variation). The reasons for the low performance of drip irrigation system were mismanagement of the system, clogging problems, poor handling and less care, lack of skilled person, lack of knowledge about the system and lack of fittings and laterals supply.

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