ABSTRACT

Printed with permission from Goyal, Megh R., 2013. Chapter 7: Automation 143-165. In: Management of Drip/Trickle or Micro Irrigation edited by Megh R. Goyal. New Jersey: Apple Academic Press Inc.

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Drip irrigation is an artificial method to apply the essential water for the plant growth that the nature has failed to provide [1]. Typically the irrigation water is applied to supply moisture to root zone when most of the “water available” to the plant has been used. There are several methods of pressure irrigation, such as: Sprinkler irrigation, center pivot and LEPA; micro jets, drip/micro or trickle irrigation, surface or subsurface irrigation. These help to maintain the soil moisture that is adequate for the plant growth. Among these systems, drip irrigation is the most efficient in terms of water use efficiency. Drip irrigation system is used extensively in humid, arid and semiarid regions of the world. Any interruption or disturbance in an irrigation scheduling will cause a water stress to the crop. Therefore, the scheduling of drip (high frequency) irrigation should be automated so that it is able to respond to slower and faster changes in the soil moisture, the plant water or evapotranspiration. Automation of drip irrigation system has several advantages: Economy, saving of manual labor, increase in crop yield, conservation of energy and effective control of irrigation. This chapter presents basic concepts for automation of drip irrigation system, different methods of automation and irrigation programming [11].