The Various Ways To Water Your Fields

It is no secret that plants require a lot of water for growth and for you to have a bountiful harvest. Therefore, having a proper way to irrigate your crops is a pretty critical aspect that you need to give special attention to. Nowadays, there are lot of different ways to irrigate your crops, although most of them require special equipment of some kind:

• Relying on Rain – Natural rains are still a very viable way to provide water to your crops. If you live in an area with decent rainfall throughout the crop growing season, you can expect to make do with enough water for all your agricultural needs. Growing your crops using rainwater has the added benefit of not contaminating your crops. Nevertheless, you can’t always rely on rainwater: some areas do not get enough for sustainable farming, and there is always the chance of droughts occurring. You are therefore recommended to take a look at artificial irrigation methods, which will also allow you to get to know about companies providing irrigation pump spare parts and irrigation system parts.
• Flood Irrigation – Flood irrigation can be done in two main ways. One of them is furrow irrigation, where water is allowed to flow from PVC pipes to the gradually sloped furrows for irrigating the crops. The pipes have openings called gates with variable diameter, which can be changed to adjust the rate of flow of water. The other method is to rely on graded border irrigation. Here, a small strip of earth is excavated in the field. This strip has raised borders on each side and a gradual gradient to allow the flow of irrigation water through it.
• Irrigation with Sprinklers – Another efficient method used nowadays is by using sprinklers. Commonly used in homes to water gardens, sprinkler systems tend to be just as efficient in agriculture. Sprinklers can be either hand operated, mechanically operated or more recently, automatically operated by computers. The latter type is still not widely used since such sprinkler systems are expensive. Companies specialising in irrigation pipe also provide sprinklers that can be mounted on moving platforms, used to cover a wider area than stationary sprinkler systems.
• Drip Irrigation – Drip irrigation consists of slowly supplying small amounts of water near to a plant’s root system. This method minimises evaporation, and be accomplished by the use of small tubing systems installed either above or below the ground. Drip irrigation systems are a very efficient system to irrigate small patches of land or to irrigate a small, specific area.

Overall, choosing which irrigation system to use depends on a lot of factors – for starters, farmers need to consider the cost of purchasing, operating and maintaining irrigation systems, as well as the advantages and trade-offs of installing one. The type of crops cultivated, as well as the conditions of the soil also should play an active role in deciding on which type of irrigation system best suits the cultivations – so choose with care!