Design and Evaluation of Automated Drip Irrigation System
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Date
2018
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Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
Abstract
An automated drip irrigation system (ADIS) was designed and evaluated in collaboration with JISL, Jalgaon, (Maharashtra). To optimize the design parameters of the system, two types of drip irrigation systems were considered, viz. wired based automated drip irrigation system (IS1) and wireless automated drip irrigation system (IS2). The experiment was carried out for two seasons on tomato crop (Abhinav, Syngentha) using two water sources viz. ground water and treated fruit processing waste water. The study revealed that the quality parameter of tomato was better for treated fruit processing water (WQ2) in comparison of ground water (WQ1) quality. Based on the optimization of ADIS, it was found that the irrigation system and water quality significantly affect the plant height, number of leaves, number of branches, number of fruits and yield. The wireless based irrigation system (IS2) with treated fruit processing waste water (WQ2) was found as best combination. The maximum tomato yield of 37.79 ton/ha was obtained with wireless based irrigation system with pressure compensating drippers (PC) for treated fruit processing waste water (WQ2). Economic analysis has been done to check the commercial viability of the automatic drip irrigation system. The benefit cost ratio for wired based irrigation system was found to be as 1.44 without subsidy and 1.77 with 50 percent subsidy, whereas, benefit cost ratio for wireless irrigation system was found to be as 1.56 without subsidy and 1.90 with 50 percent subsidy. Breakeven point for wired based irrigation system has been achieved after 14 years without subsidy and 10 years with 50 percent subsidy, whereas, breakeven point for wireless based irrigation system has been achieved after 10 years without subsidy and 5 years with 50 percent subsidy. Based upon the above study it was found that wireless irrigation system is more economical and best suited automated drip irrigation system to get higher net returns as compared to wired based irrigation system.
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