Innovation in

irrigation

L D College of engineering, Ahmedabad

Prepared by Montu Gohil
(190280106050)

Civil engineering department

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Introduction

 Need of innovation

 Some innovation

 Advantage and disadvantage

 reference
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Need of innovation in irrigation

 Whenever you bite into a piece of food, do you think about where it comes
from? How did it get from the ground to your table? Who are the farmers
and entrepreneurs who cultivated and sourced it? It’s strange to think that
this doesn’t cross our minds more often. This issue is one we should be
thinking about more and more often. As populations continue to grow, there
needs to be new innovations to increase sustainable food production,
without draining the earth. With factors such as climate change impacting
water supplies and security, business-as-usual just won’t cut it.
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Continue…
 For this reason, on January 29th, 2018, the Water for Food International
Forum Innovation Fair: Innovate to Irrigate, gathered together 19
organizations who are leading the way in this challenge, through creative
technologies that support farmer-led irrigation practices.

 In her opening remarks, Laura Tuck, Vice President for Sustainable

Development at the World Bank, applauded the focus of “highlight[ing]
technologies that both improve the expansion and intensification of farmer-
led irrigation, but also really help us address the risk they raise for the
sustainability of resources.”
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Innovation in irrigation

 Below are just a few of the

innovations from some of the most
creative organizations in the
irrigation field:

 KickStart International

 Upstream

 Acclima

 Dynamax
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KickStart International
 KickStart International aims to meet the needs of small-scale farmers in Africa by
selling its products through the local private sector supply chain. “We design,
market, and promote small-scale irrigation technologies that are efficient,
sustainable, very low-cost, and high-quality,” explained Jenna Rogers-Rafferty,
Director of Development & Strategic Alliances

 Incorporating feedback from farmers, the organization is currently working to

develop and improve a solar-pump technology focusing on durability and efficiency.
KickStart has also worked with an award-winning film team to produce a short
documentary, A Seed of Maize, which “depicts how difficult the decision process is
for farmers when they’re thinking about investing in something like irrigation,”
according to Rogers-Rafferty.
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Upstream
 Upstream uses satellite imagery with machine learning to monitor and measure
from space. What does this mean for irrigation and agriculture? By taking data
from a variety of sources, the platform essentially provides a one-stop-shop to
search for insights on specific regions of land. For example, is the land irrigated?
And using what technology?

 Upstream hopes that presenting the information in this way will aid decision-
making: “We’re trying to make it as easy to use as possible, by taking
traditionally very difficult GIS processes that require degree, and making them so
that any practitioner or developer could go learn,” said Marshall Moutenot, Co-
Founder.In addition to monitoring, the program allows users to search for and
pinpoint things such as rice fields in California, or where in an irrigation system
there might be room for hydro-power.
 With a mission to increase productivity and efficiency in
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agriculture, Acclima is focused on the precise application of
irrigation water. At the Innovation Fair, they were showcasing Acclima
two Time Domain Reflectometers (TDR), which do just that.It’s
the only sensor on the market that is able to accurately report
the soil water content despite the salinity of the soil under
normal growing conditions,” Kingsley Horton, General Manager
at Acclima, explained as a buzz of conference participants
gathered around to examine the TDR sensors. “Acclima TDR
sensors also accurately report soil electrical conductivity and
temperature thus facilitating more efficient application of
fertilizer.”Because salinity can interfere with measurements, this
sensor allows farmers to get an accurate reading to reduce
water waste, pumping costs, and erosion, while increasing crop
yields and nutrient uptake into the plants. So what’s on the
agenda? In order to continue to bring prices down and make
these products available to small-scale farmers, Acclima is
seeking collaboration with major partners in the field.
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 Dynamax is also measuring moisture levels, but this Dynamax
time in plants. From small flowers to large trees, “we
can put sensors on a plant that tell us exactly how
much the [water] flow is for one day. So we can tell
exactly what that plant needs in water,” offers Eric
Pena, Business Development for Dyanamax.This data
is then uploaded to a cloud based system, so the data
can be read and compared across all plants surveyed.
Pena added: “It’s the whole next level. If you give a
plant exactly the right amount of water for the
efficiency, then it actually raises the yield.”In his
remarks at the Innovation Fair, U.S Congressman Jeff
Fortenberry (R-NE) spoke compellingly about “this
idea of economic regeneration, particularly the use of
our land – so we are helpfully harvesting it, and leaving
it in a sustainable manner for those who come after
us.”
 z Advantage and disadvantage
 Advantage :. Efficient use of wate

Increase In crop yield

Save water

Save fertilizer

Production of cash crop possible

 Disadvantage : Initial cost very high

Most of the farmers are illiterates so they are unable to use the
modern machines

More efficient but have side-effects or drawback

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Reference

HTTPS://
W W W. I W M I . C G I A R . O R G /
HTTPS://
W AT E R F O R F O O D . N E B R A S K A
.EDU/HTTPS://
W W W. M FA R M . C O . K E /
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