"Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years."
Methods used to deliver water to crops, including overhead sprinklers, drip irrigation, and flood irrigation.
Types of Irrigation Systems: Understanding the various irrigation systems and their applications, including drip irrigation, sprinkler irrigation, flood irrigation, and center-pivot irrigation.
Water Sources: Understanding the different sources of water available for irrigation, such as surface water, groundwater, and recycled water.
Water Management and Conservation: An understanding of water management techniques, including water measurement, proper irrigation scheduling, soil moisture monitoring, and water conservation practices.
Crop Water Requirements: An understanding of crop water requirements, taking into account factors such as plant species, growth stage, soil type, and weather conditions.
Soil and Crop Management: An understanding of soil health, nutrient management, and crop management practices to improve the overall health and productivity of the crop.
Farm Planning and Design: Designing irrigation systems and planning for crop management using tools like CAD software and farm management software.
Irrigation Equipment: Knowledge about irrigation equipment, including pumps, pipes, valves, filters, and sprinklers, and how to properly maintain and use them.
Irrigation System Installation and Maintenance: Installation and maintenance of irrigation systems, including debugging, troubleshooting, and repair.
Monitoring and Control Systems: An understanding of remote monitoring and control systems to manage irrigation systems remotely from a central location.
Agricultural Water Law: An understanding of water law and regulations, including water rights and water use permits, that govern the use of water for crops.
Irrigation System Economics: Understanding the economics of irrigation systems, including cost-benefit analysis, return on investment, and financing options.
Farm Safety: Knowledge of farm safety guidelines and regulations to ensure the safety of the workers and equipment involved in irrigation and crop management.
Surface Irrigation: This type of irrigation involves the use of gravity to distribute water over the surface of the soil.
Sprinkler Irrigation: This type of irrigation involves the use of sprinklers to distribute water over the soil.
Drip Irrigation: This type of irrigation involves the use of tubes or pipes to direct small amounts of water directly to the plant's roots.
Center Pivot Irrigation: This type of irrigation involves the use of a large mobile sprinkler system that moves around a field in a circular pattern.
Subsurface Irrigation: This type of irrigation involves the use of buried pipes or hoses that deliver water directly to the plant's root system.
Flood Irrigation: This type of irrigation involves the flooding of a field with water to saturate the soil and provide moisture for the plants.
Furrow Irrigation: This type of irrigation involves the use of furrows or trenches to direct water to the plant's root system.
Micro-irrigation: This type of irrigation involves the use of small emitters such as drippers or micro sprays to deliver water to plants.
Lateral Move Irrigation: This type of irrigation involves the use of a system of sprinklers that move laterally across a field.
Rotational Grazing: This type of irrigation involves the periodic rotation of livestock to different grazing areas to regenerate grasses and other plant life for optimal pasture growth.
Intermittent Irrigation: This type of irrigation involves the strategic application of water to crops at specific intervals to maximize crop yield and reduce water usage.
Precision Irrigation: This type of irrigation involves the use of advanced sensors and technologies to optimize crop plant formation and water usage.
"Irrigation helps to grow crops, maintain landscapes, and revegetate disturbed soils in dry areas and during times of below-average rainfall."
"Irrigation is also employed to protect crops from frost, suppress weed growth in grain fields, and prevent soil consolidation."
"It is also used to cool livestock, reduce dust, dispose of sewage, and support mining operations."
"Drainage, which involves the removal of surface and sub-surface water from a given location, is often studied in conjunction with irrigation."
"There are several methods of irrigation that differ in how water is supplied to plants."
"Surface irrigation, also known as gravity irrigation, is the oldest form of irrigation and has been in use for thousands of years."
"In sprinkler irrigation, water is piped to one or more central locations within the field and distributed by overhead high-pressure water devices."
"Micro-irrigation is a system that distributes water under low pressure through a piped network and applies it as a small discharge to each plant."
"Drip irrigation delivers water directly to the root zone of plants."
"Subirrigation has been used in field crops in areas with high water tables for many years. It involves artificially raising the water table to moisten the soil below the root zone of plants."
"Irrigation water can come from groundwater (extracted from springs or by using wells), from surface water (withdrawn from rivers, lakes or reservoirs) or from non-conventional sources like treated wastewater, desalinated water, drainage water, or fog collection."
"Rainfed agriculture is common in many parts of the world and refers to when irrigation is supplementary to rainfall."
"Full irrigation is less common and only occurs in arid landscapes with very low rainfall or when crops are grown in semi-arid areas outside of rainy seasons."
"The environmental effects of irrigation relate to the changes in quantity and quality of soil and water as a result of irrigation and the subsequent effects on natural and social conditions in river basins and downstream of an irrigation scheme."
"Depletion of underground aquifers through overdrafting."
"Soil can be over-irrigated due to poor distribution uniformity or management wastes water, chemicals, and may lead to water pollution."
"Over-irrigation can cause deep drainage from rising water tables that can lead to problems of irrigation salinity requiring watertable control by some form of subsurface land drainage."
"Irrigation has been developed by many cultures around the world."
"Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been developed by many cultures around the world."