EVALUATION OF AUTOMATED DRIP IRRIGATION SYSTEM USING LOW COST SOIL MOISTURE SENSOR
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Date
2018
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Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur
Abstract
Land and water resources are the basic needs of agriculture and for the economic development of any country. The demand for these resources will continue to grow due to ever increasing population. The world population is increasing faster than the food supply. India has only 2.4% of land mass and 4% fresh water resources of the world. Agriculture uses about 70 to 80% of total available water. Drip irrigation method distributes water to the field using the pipe network and transforms it from the pipe network to the plant by emitters. In spite of the advantages of drip irrigation methods, the traditional network in drip irrigation method has many problems. Gravity fed drip irrigation with Soil moisture sensor system is the best available approach for efficient utilization of soil moisture and for producing higher yield to fulfill the ever growing food demand in the country.
The present study was conducted on “Evaluation of Low Cost Soil Moisture Sensor Based Automated Drip Irrigation System” at the experimental field of Department of Soil and Water Engineering, SVCAET & RS, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur, Chhattisgarh. The aim of the experiment was to integrate and set up a low cost sensor system for monitoring of soil moisture content along with calibration and validation the sensor system in conjunction with the low cost gravity operated drip irrigation system.
Laboratory tests of the soil samples revealed its texture as clay loam. Field capacity (27%) and Bulk density (1.34 g cc-1) was obtained. Alfa-mart sensor, TDR and gravimetric method were used to measure soil moisture content. Soil moisture sensor system was calibrated between VMC of 80-50% for field capacity of the soil by using Gravimetric method.
Gravity fed drip irrigation system 750 litres overhead (total height 3.55m) tank was used for irrigation. The experiment constituted two treatments Conventionaldrip irrigation (Control) and Sensor based drip irrigation. As Control irrigation water is provided based on farmer practice and Sensor based treatment water was provided according to field moisture content. For Control irrigation and Sensor based drip irrigation 2 and 10 lines of laterals were used respectively. Wetting patterns was measured at 0.25 kg cm-2 operating pressure. Wetted width and depth of soil after 15, 30, 60 and 90, minutes of water application were recorded. The maximum horizontal wetting front advance was observed to be 4.2, 8.2, 11.2 and 16.4 cm respectively and maximum vertical wetting front advance were recorded as 8.4, 12.4, 20.1 and 22.3 cm respectively from emitters with discharge of 1.3 lh-1 at 0.25 kg cm-2.
Drip irrigation discharge of 1.03 l h-1 inline emitter was measured at different locations in the field at 10 min interval of different operating head to evaluate out the hydraulic performance of drip irrigation system based on, emission uniformity, emitter flow variation, uniformity coefficient and irrigation efficiencies. Based on the experimental record Emission uniformity (98.80%), Uniformity coefficient (97.94%), Distribution efficiency (97.04%) and Application efficiency (95.62%) were found maximum at operating head 3.35 m to 3.36 m. The growth characters was progressively increased and influenced by different irrigation treatments. In Control irrigation maximum plant height was 98.30 cm, number of branch per plant was 3.50, number of fruit per plant was 15.12, avg. weight of fruit 10.10 gram, avg. length of fruit was 9.30 cm, yield per plant was 209 gram and water use efficiency was 27.68 kg ha-1 mm-1was obtained. In Sensor based treatment maximum plant height was 115.90 cm, number of branch per plant was 4.90, number of fruit per plant was 15.81, avg. weight of fruit 13.40 gram, avg. length of fruit was 11.20 cm, and yield per plant was 234 gram was obtained.
Water use efficiency was found maximum (46.76 kg ha-1 mm-1) under sensor based treatment. After calculating total volume of water 4850 m3 used by Control irrigation and 3116.0 m3 for the production of okra in one ha area. So Sensor based treatment safe 1734 m3 of water in one ha area.
Description
EVALUATION OF AUTOMATED DRIP IRRIGATION SYSTEM USING LOW COST SOIL MOISTURE SENSOR
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