Design, Development and Evaluation of a Bucket Drip Irrigation System for Dry Season Vegetable Production in South-Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

In South-Eastern Nigeria, during the dry season from November to April, vegetables are always in short supply and consequently expensive. Hence, there is a need to design, develop an affordable and simple bucket drip irrigation system that can be used to grow vegetables under limited water supply conditions. Using the estimated consumptive use of the proposed crop okra and the area occupied by the crop stands, the capacity of the bucket as a source of water was computed. The bucket filled with water was placed at a head of 1 m. The water was allowed to flow through emitters located at 30 cm intervals along the lateral lines laid at the land slope of 2%. Two lengths of PVC tubes 11 m long, 1 mm thick and internal diameters 16 mm, Micro-tubes 5 cm long and internal diameter 1.2 mm, were used. The discharge from each emitter was determined through volumetric measurements. The system was then evaluated using the Christiansen’s method and the Merriam and Keller’s method and assessed using ASAE standards 1996(a) and 1996(b) performance rating. 22 sampled emitters evaluated from the lateral line showed total energy drop of 2.5 x 10-5 m, flow variation (FV) of 8%, coefficient of variation (CV) of emitter discharge of 0.02, uniformity coefficient (UC) of 97% and emission uniformity (EU) of 73%. The results show that the system is efficient and can be used by farmers to meet the demands for vegetables in the dry season.