Know the Facts Before Switching Irrigation Systems

Drip irrigation systems have a well-deserved reputation for water-efficiency. Although this gives them an obvious advantage in water-scarce South Africa, irrigation specialist, Mark Zartmann, explains that there are several factors that a farmer should consider before converting to such a system. Lloyd Phillips reports.

- Lloyd Phillips

The country’s recent drought has put South African crop farmers under increasing pressure from government and the public to maximise their water-use efficiencies, while, at the same time, improving national food security. To achieve this, and remain profitable, some crop farmers have converted to drip irrigation. However, before such a conversion takes place – typically from flood irrigation or overhead sprinkler systems – a number of aspects must be considered.

“There is no one size-fits-all irrigation system,” says Mark Zartmann, managing director of MBB Consulting Engineers in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZuluNatal. “Many individual irrigation systems have been developed according to generic principles that are blanket applied to all farms. This is not ideal because each farm, and even each cropland, has specific characteristics that should influence the design of an individual irrigation system for a particular production environment.”

Mark has a passion for researching and designing agricultural irrigation systems, and has amassed a wealth of knowledge and experience on the subject.

“All irrigation systems have their place. All irrigation systems should be married to the soils and crops that they are intended for.”

He explains that upgrading an irrigation system need not necessarily require changing an existing system; it can simply mean improving an existing system. The primary drivers for any irrigation system upgrade should be to optimise the combination of energy consumption, water use efficiency (WUE) and crop yield, all in relation to each other, in order to achieve maximum enterprise profitability.

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