Only by clearly answering these questions, the customer will be able to get a drip irrigation system that meets his requirements. Such a system will provide the customer the desired results year after year and, in the end, will fully justify the funds invested in it.
Let's try to understand the problem of choosing the right drip irrigation system for a particular project.
Let's start, as usual, with the most important question:
Why spend money (and a lot of it) on a drip irrigation system?
The answer to this question is simple and obvious: a drip irrigation system is purchased in order to bring profit to its owner. This fundamental principle should be kept in mind throughout the selection, installation and operation of the drip irrigation system. It is this very simple issue, or rather, insufficient attention to it, that agricultural producers, who want to supply their fields with drip irrigation, “stumble” on all the time.
It seems, that nothing could be easier? But the key point is: the important thing is not how much money you have to pay for one drip irrigation system, or another and not what the terms of payment will be. The important thing is: what will be the difference between the final aggregative cost of the drip irrigation system and the benefit that it will bring to its owner during its operation, because in the end, this is what profit is.
Keeping in mind the fundamental principle of maximizing the profitability of a drip irrigation system, let's try to determine:
What exactly is a drip irrigation system supposed to do?
To begin with, let's agree that any drip irrigation system is a system that should work stably for many years. It doesn't matter if you grow a garden or vegetables, a drip irrigation system is still designed to last for many years. Yes, on a “vegetable” system you will regularly change the drip tape, while on the irrigation system of multiyear crops plantations, the drip line will work for many years without replacement (given it is of high quality and properly maintained), but the drip tape is far from being all the irrigation system.
During its operation, the drip irrigation system must provide high-quality watering, fertilizing and plant protection. This, in turn, gives the agricultural producer 2 main advantages:
• Significant improvement in yield and fruit quality in a typical year (compered to more modest results for growers who do not use drip irrigation).
• Acceptable yield and fruit quality in a difficult year (compered to almost complete lack of yield and significant damage to plants throughout producers who do not use drip irrigation).
It is these benefits of a drip irrigation system that ultimately generate income for its user, which, combined with savings in water, fertilizer, protective chemicals and energy costs, makes the profit.
This leads to the answer to one of the most important questions:
What should be the capacity of a drip irrigation system?
The capacity of a drip irrigation system is usually measured in millimeters of daily moisture return to the irrigated area. Properly designed drip irrigation system should provide sufficient water for the normal development and fruiting of the plant in the most unfavorable year. This is done in order, firstly, to preserve the plants, and secondly, to ensure maximum income for the agricultural producer in a bad year. After all, often in order to get a good financial result of cultivation, it is necessary to grow a good crop not in a situation of a good harvest for everyone, but when the yield is bad for most of the other producers.
The specific rate of daily moisture return for a particular site and crop is usually selected by the agronomists of the customer in cooperation with the agronomists of the supplier of the drip irrigation system. This parameter is one of the most important, it will largely determine whether the user of the drip irrigation system will receive significant profit from its operation. Without a clear definition of this parameter, it is impossible to design the hydraulic part of a drip irrigation system. Therefore, when choosing a particular drip irrigation system and a contractor for its delivery and installation, the customer must demand that the daily rate of return of moisture, incorporated in the design of the proposed system, would be named and proven to him. It also makes sense to require the supplier of the drip irrigation system to demonstrate hydraulic calculations that take into account the daily rate of moisture return required by the customer.
The next set of questions that needs to be answered is the operational parameters for your future drip irrigation system:
How many hours of watering per day should the system work? What should be the performance of the emitters? How many individual irrigation units should a drip irrigation system include??
The answers to these questions are always a search for a compromise between the agronomical efficiency of a drip irrigation system and its cost.
For example, in some cases, from an agronomical point of view, it is preferable to water in the evening and during the night, but in order to achieve it, the drip irrigation system should be capable of providing the required moisture rate during only the 12 hours of the night time, therefore, its capacity must be twice higher than if it provided the same amount of water in 24 hours. And accordingly, such a system will be much more expensive.
On the other hand, an attempt to stretch the daily operating time of the drip irrigation system for all the 24 hours will lead to the absence of any power reserve and time for maintenance and repairs of the system. This, in turn, is fraught with loss of crop in case of any unforeseen events during the period of maximum load on the system (interruptions in water, electricity, minor breakdowns, etc.). In such an event, with any interruption in operation, the drip irrigation system simply will not have time to replenish the daily rate of moisture return.
At the same time, one should also take into account the objective restrictions on the availability of water, energy and labor, which the customer has.
Typically, the determination of the agronomical parameters of each particular drip irrigation system is done jointly by the supplier’s agronomists, who have experience in operating various irrigation systems on various crops and the customers agronomists, who have in-depth knowledge of local conditions.
In any case, when choosing a drip irrigation system, the customer must demand a clear and reasoned explanation from the supplier: why is such a daily irrigation duration suggested? Why is this particular emitter performance offered (this parameter should correspond with the characteristics of the soil and climatic conditions of the customer and the technical features of the emitter)? Why are there as many irrigation blocks as you are offered?
You should make sure that the supplier of the drip irrigation system has made an individual and accurate designing, and offers you the system as he does, not because it is more convenient for him, or he cannot ensure its normal operation under other conditions, but because such a system is best suited to your site and your conditions.
The following are questions related to the technical aspects of configurating the drip irrigation system:
What filters to use? What pipelines to use? Which control to choose?
When answering these questions, you need to consider the following: although there is infinite number of possible configurations of drip irrigation systems, the relevant variety for each and every specific project, in general, is not so big.
For example, let's take the types of filter stations. For use in drip irrigation systems, there are 3 main types of filter stations:
• Boot filters (also known colloquially as "gravel filters").
• Mesh filters.
• Disc filters.
However, this does not mean at all, that you can choose any of them for your project. If the drip irrigation supplier tells you that they are all the same and differ only in cost, you can be sure that you are being misled. If this was indeed the case, then such a choice of filtering types simply would not exist. After all, why would people around the world use 3 different types of filters instead of choosing the one that is better and cheaper?
The filtration station must be selected for the conditions of a particular project and meet the requirements of the volume, type of contamination and degree of contamination of the source water during the period of maximum load on the drip irrigation system, and also take into account the seasonal dynamics of contamination of the source water.
Yes, under certain conditions, you can choose any of the 3 types of the filtration for a particular system, but this happens very rarely. This is possible only if the source of water is low polluted (for example, high-mountain, cold lakes, or water supply to the system that has already undergone primary treatment).
It is impossible within the framework of one article, even superficially, to describe all the principles of choosing the type of filtration, there is a whole scientific branch behind this. Therefore, when considering the offer of a particular supplier of drip irrigation systems, a few simple things should be done:
• Make sure that the supplier is in principle able to offer you different types of filter stations. Thus, you will know that this supplier can offer you not “what is”, but “what you need”.
• Ask your drip irrigation supplier to let you know which parameters of your water are the basis for selecting the type of filtration system.
• Demand a clear and reasonable explanation of why in your case the particular filtering system, as you are offered, is optimal.
Another good example is irrigation control systems.
As practice shows, the system of hydraulic control of irrigation, which is the simplest means of automation of control, gives a much better results of cultivation than manual control of irrigation valves. Typically, "manual control" ends up with irregular watering cycles, uneven watering and, as a result, loss of yield. However, properly designing and assembling a hydraulic control system in such a way that it works stably is quite difficult for a drip irrigation system manufacturer and requires special equipment, skills and trained personnel. Therefore, if a drip irrigation supplier offers you a manual system, it is worth demanding a clear explanation of the reason for such a choice. And one should not accept the explanations from the series: "workers will walk around the field, switching irrigation valves, and at the same time inspect the condition of the plants and the irrigation system."
If you want your staff to make field inspection tours, simply establish this as the standard procedure. Attempting to combine this with switching watering phases will result in neither of the two performed properly.
So, in order to choose the right technical equipment for a drip irrigation system, you should carefully study the equipment options that the supplier offers you, get his explanations of the reasons for choosing certain technical solutions, and agree these decisions with your own hydraulic engineers who are well acquainted with local conditions and will eventually operate a drip irrigation system.
And most importantly - when choosing the technical equipment for your drip irrigation system, make sure that all the elements of the equipment that it consists of are of good quality. Drip irrigation equipment, like any other sophisticated equipment, will only perform well if it is properly designed and built with quality materials and appropriate quality control standards.
Remember, even the properly designed equipment will not bring you any profit if it is the low quality one. Such equipment simply will not function properly.
In conclusion, let's try to answer one of the most difficult questions of choosing a drip irrigation system:
Which company to choose as a contractor for the designing, supply, assembly and maintenance of a drip irrigation system?
The key issue in this context is: service.
Of course, the contractor selected for the implementation of the drip irrigation project should use only high-quality, reliable, proven equipment from good manufacturers.
Of course, the contractor must be able to correctly and accurately design your particular drip irrigation system to suit your topography, soil morphology, water source, your crop, your operating principles, and be cost effective and, respectively, optimal for you at the price. After all, a poorly designed drip irrigation system, even assembled from the best equipment, will remain just a set of useless iron and plastic components.
In order to ensure the correct and reliable operation of the drip irrigation system, it is necessary:
In order to ensure the correct and reliable operation of the drip irrigation system, it is necessary:
• Properly install and run the drip irrigation system.
• Train local technical and agronomical staff in drip irrigation system operation, maintenance and minor repairs.
• Help the customers agronomists to properly prepare and execute irrigation, fertilization and plant protection programs.
• Accompany local personnel during the operation of the system and ensure that the technical and agronomical recommendations are correctly and fully implemented.
• Ensure prompt repairs (it must be remembered that minor problems may occasionally occur due to external factors: water interruptions, power outages, mechanical impacts of agricultural machinery, etc.).
• Help the customer carry out preventive maintenance of the drip irrigation system and prepare it for winter conservation.
Therefore, when choosing a contractor for the drip irrigation project, you need to make sure that the potential contractor has a sufficient number of highly qualified technical and agronomical personnel in close proximity to the location of your sites to provide installation, training, support and maintenance of the project. The Contractor must have sufficient operational warehouses of spare parts, components and expendables to ensure urgent repair and timely maintenance work. And finally, the contractor must provide you with the opportunity for immediate (almost round-the-clock) contact with him. Otherwise, you may find yourself unable to water and feed your plants for a significant amount of time during the peak season. It is for this reason that the attempt to cooperate "by mail" with contractors who are not physically present in the immediate vicinity of the customer and do not have significant agronomical and engineering infrastructure, is mostly purely negative.
Servicing and maintenance of supplied drip irrigation systems is a critical factor, which, unfortunately, is sometimes overlooked by inexperienced customers in the general mass of technical, agronomical and financial issues discussed in the process of choosing the drip irrigation system. This, in turn, often results in clients making the wrong choice of contractor and not receiving the required level of follow-up and support on their first drip irrigation project, resulting in general frustration and sometimes complete rejection of drip irrigation.
That said, anyone who has experience operating quality drip irrigation systems with a good level of support by the conscientious contractor can attest to two very simple facts:
1. A quality drip irrigation system is the most effective means of watering, fertilizing and protecting plants and, accordingly, brings the highest profit.
2. The quality of service and support, provided by the contractor to the customer for his drip irrigation system, is often the factor that will determine whether the customer will receive a profit, or only expenses and a headache.
To summarize all of the above, a good contractor, for a drip irrigation project, should:
1. Use high quality equipment from reliable manufacturers.
2. Be able to competently collect the initial data and carry out a full-fledged, accurate design of each specific drip irrigation system.
3. Provide the customer with high-quality assembly and launch of the drip irrigation system and accompany the operation of this system throughout its operation with high-quality engineering and agronomical services.
It is on the basis of these principles that we build our work at A.I.K.
We consider this approach to be the only correct one. Such an approach is highly supported by our customers, most of whom, after working with A.I.K. for the first season, remain our regular customers and prefer to carry out all their subsequent projects exclusively with A.I.K.
Vladimir Khurgin.
Deputy Director of A.I.K.
