Irrigation and Fertigation Management in Protected Cultivation

Dr.Bishnu Prasad Behera

Professor & Head
Dept.of ASCEE, CAET, OUAT
Introduction

Since ancient times, agriculture is an outdoor or open field production of crops. Open
field production is climate and weather dependent. In fact, growth and development of crops
under a particular set of climate parameters defines geographical location, productivity and
production period of different crops. Abiotic and biotic environments govern crop production
potential and quality of products. The major constraints in production of horticultural crops
are temperature (hot or cold), sunlight (duration and quality), water deficiencies or excesses,
atmospheric moisture (relative humidity), weeds, deficiency of nutrients, heavy winds,
carbon dioxide and host of diseases and insect pests. There are ecological optima for
obtaining production potential of each of the crops. Deviation from these conditions results in
yield losses partially and sometimes totally. However, near optimal climatic conditions could
be created by controlling the climate with the help of greenhouse using different protected
structures/methods/devices and such cultivation under controlled environmental conditions is
termed as protected cultivation. Protected cultivation technologies cover climate control high-
tech greenhouses, poly/net-houses, naturally-ventilated green/ polyhouses, hydroponics,
aeroponics, plasticulture, drip irrigation, fertigation, mulching, integrated greenhouse pest
management, low-cost protected structures like net houses insect-proof and shade houses,
hydroponics, aeroponics and vertical farms. Protected cultivation is a unique and specialized
form of agriculture, the primary emphasis is on producing high value horticultural crops like
vegetables, fruits, flowers, ornamental and bedding plants.

Greenhouse Technology

Growing plants is both an art and a science. About 95% of plants, either food crops or cash
crops are grown in open field. Since time immemorial, man has learnt how to grow plants
under natural environmental conditions. In some of the temporate regions, where the climatic
conditions are extremely adverse and no crops can be grown, man has developed methods of
growing of some high value crops continuously by providing protection from the
excessive cold, which is known as Green House Technology. So, Green House Technology is
the technique of providing favourable environmental conditions such as wind, cold,
precipitation, excess radiation, extreme temperature, insects and diseases. It creates an ideal
microclimate around the plants. This is possible by erecting a green house/glass house/poly
house/shade net house, where the environmental conditions are so modified that, one can
grow any plant in any place at any time providing suitable environmental conditions with
minimum labour. Green houses are framed or inflated structures covered with transparent or
translucent materials large enough to grow crops under partial or full controlled
environmental conditions to get optimum growth and productivity. The greenhouses are large
enough to allow a person to walk within the structure to carryout cultural and operational
activities. Sometimes it is also called surface covered cultivation. Glass houses, poly houses,
rain shelters, shade houses, melon houses are all different names given to green houses
depending upon the type of material used and the utility of the facility.

The green house technology in practice has been found useful under the following
conditions:

i) Adverse agro climatic conditions

ii) For growing certain crops round the year
iii) For growing export oriented crops
iv) For raising the productivity of a crop
v) For increasing economic returns from small holdings
Mostly micro-irrigation practices like surface drip, micro-sprinklers are generally adopted
inside a green house.

Types of irrigation:

A distinction is made between the two principle micro- irrigation methods, namely, the
sprayer or micro-sprinkler, and the drip irrigation system. Sprayers and micro-sprinklers
spray the water through the atmosphere and are designed principally to wet a specific volume
of soil around individual trees in orchard. Drip irrigation, on the other hand, represents a
point source of water, and wets a specific volume of soil by direct application of water to the
root zone of the plant. The type of drip emitter from the point of view of its discharge and
distribution of the emitters throughout the plot (distances along the drip lateral and between
the drip laterals) is dependent on the soil texture and the crop. The drip system is suitable for
irrigation of row crops and orchards.
Drip Irrigation:

Drip irrigation is the slow, nearly continuous application of water as discrete drops. Water
can be applied at single point on the land surfaces through devices called as emitter or as a
line source from either closely spaced emitters or tubes with continuous or equally spaced
openings that discharge water a drop at a time.
Advantages of Drip irrigation:

Followings are the advantages of drip irrigation.

 Water is directly applied to the root zone of the crop and hence deep percolation and
surface runoff are reduced. This increases the application efficiency.
 There is elimination of land leveling as required by the surface irrigation methods and
hence cost of irrigation system is less.
 Irrigation can be done in any type of soil, topography and even in steep slopes.
 Irrigation can be done with poor quality water including saline water.
 Irrigation is frequent and low and maintains favourable moisture range always in the
root zone. This saves a lot of irrigation water and increase water-use-efficiency.
 Weed growth is less.
 Along with irrigation water, fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides can also be applied to
the crops. This increases the input use efficiency and reduces the cost of cultivation.
 Intercultural operation can be done easily without any interruption.
 Need for construction of irrigation and drainage channels as is required in surface
irrigation is eliminated. This saves the land which otherwise would have been lost for
construction of channels and this saved area can be used for cultivation.
 Quality of crops including fruits and vegetables are good.
 Requires less operating pressure and so less energy for operation of the irrigation
system as compared to sprinkler irrigation.
 For widely spaced crops like frit trees, the system is less costly than sprinkler
irrigation.
 It is possible to vary the supply as per the need of water by the plants at different
growth stages.
Disadvantages of Drip Irrigation:

Followings are the disadvantages:

 Initial cost is very high which limits for its large scale operation.
 Requires high technical know-how than any other irrigation methods.
 There is chance of clogging of emitters/drippers especially by chemical and biological
materials. Clogging cause poor water distribution and if it continues for a long period,
then crop may be damaged..
 Maintenance cost is also high.
 A salt accumulation problem may occur in this system when only a portion of the root
zone is wet and saline water is being used for irrigation. This may damage the crop.
 Possibility of water leakage from pipes exists.

Fertigation

Fertigation is a method of fertilizer application in which fertilizer is incorporated within the

irrigation water by the drip system. In this system fertilizer solution is distributed evenly in
irrigation. The availability of nutrients is very high therefore the efficiency is more. In this
method liquid fertilizer as well as water soluble fertilizers are used. By this method, fertilizer
use efficiency is increased from 80 to 90 per cent.

Water and fertilizers are the two most important inputs in the crop production. Due to
increasing pressure on both these resources, there is immediate need to increase the efficiency
of these inputs. Fortunately, the technology of drip irrigation can be used effectively to
enhance the efficiency of these resources. Application of fertilizers through drip/sprinkler is
termed as ‘fertigation’. Though fertigation technology is a boon to increase the fertilizer use
efficiency, there is a great deal of science to be understood before it becomes successful on
the farmers’ fields. Following sections describe this science in a nutshell. Keywords in
fertigation are as under;

• Chemigation is an inclusive term referring to the application of a chemical into or

through an irrigation system. It includes the application of fertilizers, acids, chlorine
and pesticides.
• Fertigation is specifically the application of fertilizer (plant nutrients) through an
irrigation system.
 • Acidification is the introduction of an acid, such as phosphoric, sulfuric or
hydrochloric acid into an irrigation system.
 Chlorination is the introduction of chlorine, such as liquid sodium hypochlorite
(household bleach) or chlorine gas into an irrigation system

Advantages of fertigation

• Eliminates manual application: Manual operation requires labour and time and is less
efficient compared to the advanced fertigation methods. The fertigation eliminates
this manual operation.
• Quick and convenient: Fertigation is done through either injector pump venturi or
fertilizer tank. The operation of injecting fertilizers with these methods is quite quick
and convenient.
• Uniformity in application: Since the drip or microsprinkler irrigates a limited area of
active root zone and fertilizers are placed directly in this active root zone, there is very
high uniformity in the application of fertilizers.
• High efficiency and saving of fertilizer: In fertigation, fertilizers are applied in small
quantities and more frequently. Fertilizers are directly placed in the active root zone.
Hence, there is no loss of fertilizers through runoff, leaching or volatilization. It
results into high efficiency of fertilizer application and saving of fertilizers to the tune
of 30 to 40%.
• Less fertilizer leaching and groundwater pollution: As controlled volume of water and
fertilizer is applied in fertigation there is less (or negligible) leaching of fertilizers
which results in less groundwater pollution.
• Better penetration of P and K in the layers: Phosphatic fertilizers get fixed when
applied in the soil. But in fertigation they are placed in the soluble form and hence can
be placed in different layers where water percolates.
• Improvement in nutrients availability and their uptake: In fertigation fertilizers can be
given every day and the quantity given is based on the crop nutrient requirement.
Hence, nutrients are available as and when the crop requires it.
• Nutrition requirements tailored with crop stage or development:
• Application of herbicides, pesticides, acid etc: The same system can be utilized forthe
application of herbicides, pesticides, acids etc.
 Limitations of fertigation

• Possibility of clogging of emitters if the pH of irrigation water and fertilizer sources is

not managed carefully.
• May result in possible contamination of the drinking water supply if devices are not
used to prevent backflow of nutrients into the well or other water sources.
• Some of the chemicals are quite corrosive to metal and also cause skin burning if
safety devices are not provided to protect the workers against unexpected discharge or
spilling of chemicals.
• Insoluble fertilizers are not suitable (e.g. super phosphate)
• Phosphate may get precipitated in the pipe line and dripper due to pH reaction.
• Fertilizers are chemical substances and when they come in contact with other
materials (e.g. water, iron or other chemicals) may react chemically and many times
the results are unfavorable. Hence, there are certain criteria to be met by the fertilizers
when they are to be used for fertigation.

Fertilizer efficiencies of various application methods

Fertilizer use efficiency (%)

Nutrient Soil application Fertigation
Nitrogen 30-50 95
Phosphorous 20 45
Potassium 50 80

Water saving, yield and profit under drip and drip fertigation systems

Water Yield (t/ha) Profit (Rs/ha)

Crops Saving Drip+ Drip +
Conventional Drip Conventional Drip
(%) Fertgn Fertgn
Banana 35 26 30 37 81000 98000 120000
Sugarcane 29 120 160 207 30000 47000 68000
Tomato 32 45 56 65 56000 77000 95000

Fertilizer used in fertigation

 Urea, potash and highly water soluble fertilizers are available for applying through
fertigation.
  Application of super phosphorus through fertigation must be avoided as it makes
precipitation of phosphate salts. Thus phosphoric acid is more suitable for fertigation
as it is available in liquid form.
 Special fertilisers like mono ammonium phosphate (Nitrogen and Phosphorus), poly
feed (Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium), Multi K (Nitrogen and Potassium),
Potassium sulphate (Potassium and Sulphur) are highly suitable for fertigation as they
are highly soluble in water. Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, B, Mo are also supplied along with
special fertilisers.

Fertilizers commonly used in fertigation

N – P2O5 – K2O Solubility

Name
content (g/l) at 20 C
Ammonium nitrate 34-0-0 1830
Ammonium sulphate 21-0-0 760
Urea 46-0-0 1100
Monoammonium phosphate 12-61-0 282
Diammonium phosphate 18-46-0 575
Potassium chloride 0-0-60 347
Potassium nitrate 13-0-44 316
Potassium sulphate 0-0-50 110
Monopotassium phosphate 0-52-34 230
Phosphoric acid 0-52-0 457

Water soluble fertilizers

N% P2O5 % K2O %
Name
Polyfeed 19 19 19
Polyfeed 20 20 20
Polyfeed 11 42 11
Polyfeed 16 8 24
Polyfeed 19 19 19
Polyfeed 15 15 30
MAP 12 61 0
Multi-K 13 0 46
MKP 0 52 34
SOP 0 0 50

N fertigation

Urea is well suited for injection in micro irrigation system. It is highly soluble and dissolves
in non-ionic form, so that it does not react with other substances in the water. Also urea does
not cause precipitation problems. Urea, ammonium nitrate, ammonium sulphate, calcium
ammonium sulphate, calcium ammonium nitrate are used as nitrogenous fertilizers in drip
fertigation.

P fertigation

Application of phosphorus to irrigation water may cause precipitation of phosphate

salts. Phosphoric acid and mono ammonium phosphate appears to be more suitable for
fertigation.

K fertigation

Application of K fertilizer does not cause any precipitation of salts. Potassium nitrate,
Potassium chloride, Potassium sulphate and Mono potassium phosphate are used in drip
fertigation.

Micro nutrients

Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, B, Mo could be used as micro nutrients in drip fertigation.

Fertigation equipments

Three main groups of equipments used in drip system are :

 Ventury
 Fertilizer tank
 Fertilizer pump

Ventury

Construction in the main water flow pipe causes a pressure difference (Vaccum) which is
sufficient to suck fertilizer solution from an open container into the water flow. It is very easy
to handle and it is affordable even by small farmers. This equipment is most suitable for
smaller area.
Fertilizer tank

A tank containing fertilizer solution is connected to the irrigation pipe at the supply
point. Part of the irrigation water is diverted through the tank diluting the nutrient solution
and returning to the main supply pipe. The concentration of fertilizer in the tank thus
becomes gradually reduced.

Fertilizer pump

The fertilizer pump is a standard component of the control head. The fertilizer solution is held
in non-pressurised tank and it can be injected into the irrigation water at any desired ratio.
Therefore the fertilizer availability to each plant is maintained properly.

Micro-irrigation followed by fertigation is very much essential for green house crops in
protected structures. The packages of practices are well established for various agro-climatic
zones and suitable site conditions.

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Acid and chlorine treatments for drip irrigation system
Dr.Bishnu Prasad Behera
Professor & Head
Dept.of ASCEE, CAET
OUAT, Bhubaneswar
Properly managed micro-irrigation offers several potential advantages over other
methods of irrigation due to greater water application uniformity & water use efficiency,
minimized deep percolation losses and runoff losses, enhanced weed control and other pests.
Though it offers several advantages, one of the most serious problems encountered to
plugging of emitters. Emitter plugging can severely affect drip irrigation system
performances. The clogging of emitters can take place due to different physical, chemical and
biological impurities in source of water used. The physical impurities caused by suspended
inorganic particles such as (sand, silt, clay and plastics), organic material (animal residues,
snails etc.) and microbiological debris (algae, protozoa etc.), physical materials are often
combined with slimes and can be controlled by using various type of filters. Some measures
for cleaning the system were discussed in the following paragraphs.
Chemical treatment:
Many times in physical treatments, micro-biological impurities are difficult to separate from
water. These impurities promote growth of algae, fungi in the drip line and emitters which
may cause the serious problem of emitter clogging and reduction in velocity of water. Also
the presence of calcium bicarbonate, sulphate, magnesium etc. promote for deposition of salt
in drippers which affect the uniform flow through emitter. To overcome these difficulties the
chlorine and acid treatments is to be periodically conducted as per the seriousness of
problems, The acid treatment is to be given for drip irrigation system before the use of drip
irrigation set for next season. Chemical treatment is essentially done at least once in a month.
Procedure of acid treatment:
The commonly used acids are
i) Hydrochloric acid (HCl, 36%)
ii) Sulphuric acid (H2SO4), 98%
iii) Phosphoric acid (60%)
Generally for acid treatment hydrochloric acid of 33% concentration is to be used. The acid is
to be mixed in flowing water in mainline through ventury or injector pump such that the pH
of water at last dripper is to be obtained 4.0. For testing pH of water at various dripper the pH
paper can be used. After the treatment of half or one hour, the acid treatment is stopped and
set should not be used for next 24 hours. Next day the laterals, sub main and main lines are
cleaned by flushing. In order to decide the quantity required for acid treatment, following
procedure is adopted.

 Collect the known volume of representative water sample flowing through drippers in
glass bottle jar
 Measure the pH of collected water sample
 Add known amount of hydrochloric acid in a water sample drop by drop till pH of
water becomes four
The injection rate of acid is to be decided as per following mathematical equation

3.6𝑥𝑄𝑥𝐴
I.R.= 𝑉

Where

IR = Injection rate of acid through drip system (lit/hr)

Q = Water flow through main line (lit/sec)
A = Amount of acid required to bring the pH of volume of water taken for sample analysis up
to four
V = Volume of water sample taken for analysis (lit)
Chlorine treatment:
For chlorine treatment sodium hypo-chlorite or calcium hypo-chlorite can be used. The
sodium hypochloride is available in the form of liquid with 5-10 percent chlorine
concentration, while calcium hypochlorite is available in the form of crystal or powder with
65 percent of available chlorine. Calcium hypo-chlorite is commonly known as bleaching
powder. It is always suggested to use bleaching powder for chlorination considering its
cheapness & easy handling.
Dose of chlorination:
10 to 50 ppm based on water quality. Use chlorine paper to know the chlorine concentration
e.g. 5 ppm for controlling algae growth and 50 ppm is required to decompose the organic
matter, i.e. called hyper chlorination.
Quantity calculation of sodium hypo chlorite through drip irrigation system
0.36𝑥𝑄𝑥𝐶
I.R.= 𝑆

Where,
IR = Injection rate of chlorine through drip system (lit/hr)
Q = Water flow through main line (lit/sec)
C= Estimated chlorine concentration (ppm)
S= Percentage of available chlorine in Sodium hypo-chlorite
Ex.1.The drip irrigation set is installed on a 2ha area, where one block of 0.5 ha is irrigated at
a time by flow of 6 litr/sec through main line. Farmer wants chlorine concentrations of 15
ppm in water by using sodium hypo-chlorite (10%). Calculate the injection rate of sodium
hypo-chlorite.
0.36𝑥6𝑥15
I.R.= 10

= 3.24 lit/hr
Care to be taken while chlorine treatment:
Chlorine is poisonous chemical which may affect the persons coming in its continuous
contact. Many times such person may become unconscious. Therefore careful handling and
storage of chlorine is needed. Proper ventilation is needed to store chlorine. Sodium hypo-
chlorite and calcium hypo-chlorite are affected by open air and sunlight. Chlorine is to be
injected in main pipeline before filtration unit. The chemical treatment is to be conducted by
the ventury appliances or by the injector pump.

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