TECHNICALLY-ORIENTED RESEARCH ON DRIP-IRRIGATION EQUIPMENT FOR SPECIAL CROPS

The high demand for water as drinking water and for household purposes on a private level, for industrial and for agricultural use pressurizes irrigation systems and equipment to be economically designed, and water to be rationally used, even in temperate areas such as Western Germany.
Drip irrigation practices will be more meaningful in future particularly in long-term intensive soil cultivation desired for the planting of perennial crops like fruit trees, grapes and hops only through optimal use of irrigation water and the use of energy-saving systems for the application of such irrigation water.
Intensive soil cultivation requires a lot higher level of technology, if practiced on hilly regions as it is generally in Western Germany, and if irrigation systems are fed with river water containing large quantities of suspended matter.
To plan such an irrigation scheme, the flow, particularly the expected pressure drop in the ducts and the final discharge at the nozzles, are to be taken into consideration.
Theoretical and experimental research results have shown that a large portion of the industry is completely in a position to produce with appropriate designs, systems and methods drip irrigation equipment which may work well even under difficult conditions.

For steep hills and for long-term soil cultivation, only the pressure-equilibrating, largely temperature-dependent and not be jammed-up, sloping type of drip elements have been found useful.
It is still urgently necessary to undertake further technically-and economically oriented research and intensify efforts into the design of cheaper drips, which will be suitable also for the underground irrigation, so as to be able to justify the desired objective in the future.

Symposium on Water Supply and Irrigation

E. Moser

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1979.89.5