Irrigation: A Way Forward

Where most population live in rural areas and derive livelihood from agriculture, the economic and social development without developing agriculture cannot be realized.  Developing agriculture is inevitable for poverty reduction, create job, and improve livelihood and living standards of people engaged in agriculture. 

Developing agriculture is becoming increasingly daunting task as the adverse impact of climate change is becoming more severe.  The changing rainfall pattern causing longer period of drought situation and more intense rains causing floods and landslides are the evidences of the impact of climate change.  The change in rainfall pattern and receding glaciers are resulting in reduction in discharge of streams and rivers.  Unless wise steps are taken to conserve and efficiently use the available water, the agriculture development will remain an unfulfilled dream. 

As the climate change becomes more apparent, farmers will have to face either severe drought situation or flood.  In either case there will be negative impact on agriculture.  It is predicted that by 2025, more than a third of the world population will face absolute water scarcity.  In such situation, technologies for efficient use of available water will be indispensable for sustaining rural livelihood. 

The time is now to adopt water saving technologies and products of bio-technologies such as hybrid varieties which tolerate drought and flood situation and have high degree of resistance to pests and diseases. 

In the existing conventional open irrigation channels, huge amount of water is lost in conveyance, often causing environmental problem.  The conveyance loss could be easily zero down by replacing open irrigation channels by PVC pressure pipes, specifically manufactured for conveyance of water for irrigation and drainage purposes. 

At farm level, the farmers have options for sprinkler and drip irrigation technologies.  Sprinkler and drip technologies improve water use efficiency and increases production.  These technologies apply just the right amount of water needed by crops. 

Both, the sprinkler and drip technologies, reduce crop water requirement by up to 70%, particularly by drip technology and liquid extract of manures and organic pesticides could be applied along with irrigation water. 

The sprinkler irrigation can reduce the risk of crop damage from unusual low temperature and frosts occurring due to climate change.  It can be installed in either permanent or mobile modes.  The only disadvantage of it is its fairly higher initial investment cost and the energy needed to build a constant pressure adds to higher operational cost. 

Across Asia and Africa, drip technology has been proven to be successful.  It is a versatile technology suitable for fruit crops such as orange or apple, and vegetables grown on raised beds like tomato, cabbage or cauliflower.

The unique advantage of drip technology is that it enables farmers to produce vegetable crops in dry months with small amount of water.  It enables to maximize production particularly in the event of seasonal droughts. 

The drip technology is adaptable to slopping land terrains where other systems do not work. 

With drip technology, minimum amount of water is needed for growing bumper crops.  Fertilizers such as extract of farm yard manures and organic pesticides can be precisely applied at the root zone for increasing crop yield and maximize  income. 

The initial cost of drip technology is fairly low which make it accessible even to poorer farmers with small land holding. 

Since the amount of water required for drip irrigation is small, it can be easily met from small spring water source nearby or by rainwater harvesting.  Both small and large scale structures may be considered for rainwater harvesting.  It could be small HDP tank at individual level or reservoirs and dams at community level in the catchment area. 

The combination of drip technology and rain water harvesting has immense potential to enable farmers to successfully grow vegetables during winter at mid and low altitudes and in spring season in high altitudes, and irrigate fruit crops like orange and apple during extreme dry months in winter and spring seasons. 

For further detail, Contact:

Agri-tech Bhutan Supplies and Services

(Dealer for Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd, India)

Post Box no. 0644

Thimphu