Low-cost irrigation project interests other developing countries.

AuthorWan Qinghua

Low-cost irrigation project interests other developing countries

DRIP irrigation is gaining popularity in dry areas of rural China, thanks to a series of innovations by Chinese engineers and scientists at the Beijing-based Institute of Water Conservancy and Hydroelectric Power. They have turned this normally expensive technique into the most economic and efficient irrigation method in the country.

The Chinese version has aroused the interest of water conservation engineers in other countries. The institute has received inquiries from corporations in Malaysia, Thailand, Peru and the United States, expressing their intention to buy the technique and necessary equipment. A Malaysian businessman, for example, has requested that China help him build a drip irrigation project for his 200-hectare cocoa plantation.

Drip irrigation requires a network of polyethylene pipes of different diametres laid on the cropland. Through emitters, these pipes deliver water directly to the subsurface soil around crop roots so that the soil maintains suitable moisture for crop growth.

China imported the drip irrigation technique from Mexico in 1974. At first, its application was limited because of the high cost of large quantities of pipe.

Cost-cutting innovations by Chinese engineers, however, quickly changed this. The cost of installing drip irrigation now comes to about 600 yuan (US $200) per hectare on cropland and about 1,800 yuan (US $600) in orchards. This is 80 to 90 per cent less than the costs outside China, according to Institute estimates.

Lower costs, less water

Compared with sprinkler irrigation and conventional surface irrigation, drip irrigation also saves 30 per cent on operating costs, so more Chinese farmers can afford it. At present, some 13,300 hectares of farmland are under drip irrigation.

The technique uses little water. It saves water by 70 to 80 per cent compared with surface irrigation, and by 40 per cent compared with sprinkler irrigation. In addition, Chinese farmers can use small streams, wells and ponds--an impossibility with other methods. Engineers say a well with a water flow of 10 cubic metres an hour can irrigate 6 to 7 hectares of farmland if the technique is applied.

The technique can be employed to irrigate wheat, cotton, corn, peanut, vegetables, sweet potatoes...

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