Drip irrigation plan

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has approved a five-year Rs 15 billion, drip irrigation project to tide over the escalating water scarcity in the country. The approval of the project comes in the wake of a warning that Pakistan might experience severe drought in the near future as, according to the Meteorological Department, there is no likelihood of rainfall in the coming two months.
The global climate change has badly disrupted the weather patterns in Pakistan, as elsewhere in the world. This is apparent from the fact that the country has received 40 percent less than normal rainfall and up to 25 percent less snowfall.
Lack of adequate rainfall, particularly in the catchment areas, reduces the water flow into the dams. Drip irrigation represents one of the most efficient water conservation systems ever designed by man, and is particularly popular in water-scarce regions like the Middle East.
According to the Agriculture Ministry's projections, adoption of drip and sprinkler irrigation systems will result in water conservation of approximately 40 to 50 percent, increase in agricultural productivity by 30 to 100 percent, 25 to 40 percent saving in the use of fertilisers and 40 to 45 percent increase in cropping intensity.
Collectively considered, these positive points can be translated into greater cost-effectiveness of agriculture system in Pakistan. The Prime Minister has called for identifying the districts and crops for initiating the pilot project.
He has also called for launching an awareness campaign in the mass media to apprise the farmers of the benefits of drip irrigation system.
A well-designed drip irrigation system has many advantages over the traditional methods of irrigation. Above all, it loses practically no water to run-off, deep percolation or evaporation.
Further, irrigation scheduling can be precisely managed under this system to meet the crop's water requirements. It also holds the promise of increased crop yield and quality. Further, drip irrigation decreases water contact with crop leaves, stems and fruit, which curtails the likelihood of onset of various plant diseases. Often growers or irrigation professionals refer to the "subsurface drip irrigation" or SDI.
When the drip tube can be buried below the soil surface it is less vulnerable to damage during cultivation or weeding. Water use can be managed more efficiently with SDI because it can avoid water loss due to evaporation, runoff and wetting of soil below the root zone.
Further, it can maintain near perfect moisture levels in the root zone of the plants, ensures targeted supply of water, entailing minimum possible loss of the precious commodity. Agricultural chemicals can also be used more efficiently with drip irrigation.
Since only the crop root zone is irrigated, nitrogen already in the soil is less subject to leaching losses. Another benefit is that smaller quantities of insecticide are required for pest control. Next, drip irrigation is adaptable to fields with odd shapes or uneven topography.
Under this system, irrigation uniformity is also improved so that it is no longer necessary to "over-water" parts of a field to adequately irrigate the more difficult parts. Fertiliser cost and nitrate losses can also be reduced through use of drip irrigation system.
According to experts, drip irrigation systems typically can cost anything from 500 dollars to 1,200 dollars per acre, which means considerable initial investment, but its maintenance is relatively less expensive. If drip system is successfully introduced in Pakistan it can revolutionise our agriculture sector, which accounts for 24.7 percent of the country's GDP. A balanced mix of traditional irrigation methods and drip system, therefore, needs to be worked out to derive optimum benefit.