Technical Evaluation of Low-Head Drip Irrigation System

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the low-head drip irrigation system in Bangladesh. The research was conducted at the Department of Irrigation and Water Management's Hydraulic Lab at Bangladesh Agricultural University. The experimental setup consisted of varying the water supply head from 0.91–1.83 m and placing a lateral drip pipe of 15.24 m on horizontal tables. Catch cans were placed beneath the emitter tubes to collect the emitted water, and the water container was placed on a wooden table, whose height was altered to create different supply heads. The variation in water distribution was demonstrated by emission uniformity (EU) and flow variation (FV) along the drip line. This study discusses how the EU and FV values change with varying water head and lateral length, demonstrating that these factors impact computed results. The results show that the EU increased with an increase in supply head, while the FV decreased with an increase in the head. The bucket drip irrigation system was found to have EU values ranging from 33–42% and FV values from 44–51% under the fluctuating head ranging between 0.91–1.83 m, indicating that the method is not only incredibly inefficient but also expensive.