Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment

Development of very low-cost drip irrigation system using spent plastic water bottle for sustainable farming in poor countries

Author(s):

Xishui Yu ^1,3, Isaac Olaposi Oladipo ²*, Yuncheng Liao ¹*, Beibei Zhou ⁴

Recieved Date: 2013-01-22, Accepted Date: 2013-04-24

Abstract:

This paper reports the performance evaluation (experiment with five replicates) using of improvised drip irrigation system using spent plastic water bottles. The average time taken to completely discharge 100 cl from orifice diameter ranging between 1.0 and 10 mm with interval of 0.5 mm was observed. Orifice of  1.0 mm had the longest discharge time of  22 min for open bottle and 158 (2 h 38 min) min for conscripted bottle. The wetted surface area of drip from 1.0, 2.5, 4.5 and 6.0 mm orifice size was 40, 60, 100 and 200 mm, respectively. The corresponding wetted depth (mm) for the respective orifice sizes was 200, 160, 140 and 50. The surface area and wetting depth from orifice sizes above 6.0 mm were above 300 mm and below 40 mm, respectively. For good drip irrigation practice, orifice diameter of 1.0– 2.5 mm was found to be most suitable for effective water use and reduced evaporation. While those between 3.0 and 6.0 mm could be used on soils with high infiltration rate. Orifice sizes above 6.0 mm were found to be unsuitable. The performance of the system was found to be close to the commercial irrigation system available in the market. The average cost of the system was 20 US$ which represents 0.8% of the cost of commercial drip irrigation that costs 2390 US$. The report recommended that the system should be popularized among rural farmers who should be motivated with incentives that may be commensurate to their waste disposal service. 

Keywords:

Climate change, spent plastic water bottle, netafim, low hanging fruit

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Journal: Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment
Year: 2013
Volume: 11
Issue: 2
Category: Agriculture
Pages: 691-695

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