Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Benefits Associated With Center Pivot Irrigation System

By Brenda Patterson


The middle pivot method of watering crops which is regarded as waterwheel method involves employment of a special machine which functions in transferring water in circular patterns to the area being irrigated. This pattern ensures that water is actually distributed in a uniform manner to the entire piece of land. Center pivot irrigation system can actually be used to irrigate a large land within a short duration of time.

This type of machine can also be employed to cover many hectares of land with a very limited duration of time. The irrigating machine usually offers a very effective water supply on the entire portion of land which needs to be covered. There are several pro and con associated with this method of watering crops on the regular practices of agriculture.

In reality the ground methods of watering crops are always viewed to be labor intensive methods. Some of these techniques involves digging water channels on the ground while on the other hand the waterwheel method tends to minimize the level of soil tillage which usually occurs while minimizing the runoff of water together with soil erosion which can actually occur while using the ground methods of irrigation.

One of the main advantages of this method is that it can irrigate a huge portion of land but the surface of the topography must be flat. In all irrigation methods the one type of irrigation which is viewed to surpass the waterwheel especially with regards to water loss is the drip method. Farmers with large farms or ranches, this kind of watering system is ideal for them.

Additionally this method of watering crops gives a farmer a chance to determine the amount of water which plants can be able to receive and the time which the plants should be watered. This method also ensures that there is minimal wastage of water. In most of dry areas both evaporation of water together with drift of wind tends to cause a greater loss of water to planted crops.

The two systems are however regarded to as low pressure systems. The middle pivot system of irrigation is also essential since a farmer can be able to apply his chemicals with a lot of ease. There are also some few disadvantages which are associated with the method of watering crops.

One of such disadvantages is that a farmer tends to actually incur some huge initial costs which are required for the purchase as well as the installation of the middle hinge machine. Maintenance expenses of the machine are also high. It is always argued that these costs are usually compensated when the systems irrigates several hectares of land within a short duration of time.

The drip irrigating method usually makes use of pipes which are buried in the soil and they only last for a period of six to eight years. Waters mains especially in the drip type of irrigation tend to however remain very intact for a subsequent use.




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