Drip Irrigation - the solution?

Irrigation with precision. Drip irrigation in Africa (africaacribusiness)

There is an extensive wealth of news articles and journals describing the benefits and the prosperity that drip irrigation brings to countries within Africa. Many organizations such as iDE believe drip irrigation is key for small rural farmers to enter the wider (international market). In this blog post the benefits of drip irrigation will be examined and an academic article in Scientific American will be critically evaluated. This will help answer the question - is drip irrigation the future for agriculture in Africa?

A Brief History of Drip Irrigation

The concept of drip irrigation was first conceived by Symcha Blass over 70 years ago when he noticed a tree near a leaking faucet exhibited more growth than other trees in the area. 

The Israeli engineer created the first drip irrigation system that has been refined by various manufacturers today. 

Conventional irrigation that involves flooding fields or diverting rivers sees only 30-60% of the water taken up by the plant and is therefore extremely inefficient (see previous blog post about water being a wasted resource). 

Advantages (Burkina Faso as a Case Study)

With individual success stories, the news article hyperlinked above demonstrates a "new" Africa. An Africa of prosperity and increasing wealth (not just financially). It's main point it that takes less water for a better harvest because of the efficient delivery of water. 

An article by Shoji (1977) helps to explain this efficient delivery of water. Drip irrigation can be calculated used equations so that the exact amount of water needed to replenish the amount lost through evapotranspiration is delivered straight to the plants' roots. 

However, a major flaw in this method of drip irrigation is that it seems unlikely that small scale African farmers have the correct education to calculate that. The now dated article in Scientific American also notes that the soil has to be well prepared and fine grained so capillary forces can effectively diffuse the drip of water to the roots of the plant. Therefore farmers have to effectively plough their soil. 

Is drip irrigation the future for agriculture in Africa?

• Water use (for agriculture) is incredibly inefficient and to avoid wasting water a solution has to be found. 
• Drip irrigation DOES provide an effective solution to this. 
• However, how accessible (in terms of usage, cost, maintenance) is it for small scale rural farmers in Africa?

Solar-Powered Irrigation Scheme in Africa

Jocelyn Timperly's recent article in Business Green is really interesting in that is shows how far irrigation systems have come and the adaptation of a certain technology to a certain environment (Africa) and with the aim of being more accessible to small-scale African farmers

However, is £30 for an irrigation pump cheap enough for the average small scale African farmer?

Water: a wasted resource?

This blog provides the setting for the discussion of water use within agriculture. It aims to offer more than a description of current trends and whimsical facts, but also opinions on some of the issues that are being thrown around in a vast arena of water scarcity debates.

The problem is not the scarcity of water but the inefficiency of its usage that means water is wasted. This first blog post sets the scene for this idea whilst future blog posts will examine this idea within the academic debate and offer possible solutions.

What is the link between water and agriculture? Water is used in all aspects of agriculture from growing crops and rearing livestock to transportation and machinery and is therefore a vital resource in that it provides a food source for the world’s 7 billion population. UNESCO (2003) estimated that 70% of water withdrawals are used within agriculture. This number increases in developing countries, such as those in Africa, to 82%.

Agriculture in Africa (young farmers foundation)

In low income countries in Africa were water resources are relatively scarce, it is important that the water is used effectively and efficiently in order to produce food for the population.  In 2005, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment estimated that between 15-35% of irrigation withdrawals are unsustainable because they withdraw more water than they need and a lot is wasted. Wasted water means that it is not directly taken up by the crop to promote growth. These inefficient irrigation practices put a constraint on future food production and therefore solutions to this issue must be considered.