Desire for Greener Land

Drip D irrrigation
n
Turkey
- Damla Sulama (Turkiish)
Drip D irrigation is a method ddesigned
for minimum m use oof
water and labour
for the
optimum
irrigaation
of plants in arid and se emi-arid regioons.
In n drought–affected
regions, fruit trees, vin neyards, vegettables
and oth her field crops
su uch as maize, sugarbeet, pootatoes,
onion,
etc. are wateered
by drip-ir rrigation using
pi ipes with dripfeeed
points. Thhis
saves water r and maximumm
benefit is ac chieved with a
minimum m of waater.
In this sysstem,
plant roo ots receive waater
at the righ ht time and in
su ufficient quantities.
Labour exxpenses
with th he system are low, but the first
investment
ex xpenses are hiigh.
At current prices, it costs s about 2000 UUS$
per ha, which
varies with
th he density of thhe
network requuired
for the sp pecific crop.
Above left: MMain
and secondary
pipe
organization oof
a drip irrigat tion system (Phhoto:
http://www.neetafim.com.tr)
Above right: : Drip irrigation n of potato croppland
within the Karapnar
hotspo ot (Photo: Mehmmet
Zengin)
Depending D on thhe
size of the ffield
to be wate ered, a main nnetwork
of PVC C pipes able to
co ope with the pressure
necesssary
to convey y water to secoondary/lateral
pipe systems.
These
pipes aree
mostly 2.5cmm
in diameter and a have dripfeeed
points at th heir ends. The
sy ystem is suitabble
for water cconservation,
because b it enables
watering to be focused
where w required, , i.e. close to the root zone of the crops, but without wasting w water.
However, H increaased
use in rainfed
areas will
increase the ooverall
water demand. d From
th he viewpoint off
surface sealinng
of the soil, it has advantaages
since it causes c wetting Location: Ko
on nly in limited aareas.
Problemms
such as salinization
and leeaching
of nutr rients are also Region: Kara
re educed by limitting
the waterinng.
At the same
time, the meethod
considera ably increases Technology
fa arm income as excessive wattering
is avoide ed.
Conservatio
Stage of inte
The
basic land use types targgeted
with the e technology aare
perennial tr ree crops (i.e. degradation
or rchard and stoony
fruit crops)
and annual crops c with individual
plant stems s such as Origin: expe
po otato, maize aand
sunflower. Maize is used d as fodder. It is particularly useful in arid Land use: cr
an nd semi-arid reegions
where eevapotranspiration
is high, suurface
waters are a scarce and Climate: sem
gr roundwater is threatened duue
to high exploitation.
It ggrows
under all a topographic WOCAT data
co onditions.
cdewocat.uni
DESIRE site
From
the viewpooint
of human eenvironment,
the
technology is profitable fo or farmers who his.eu/en/kar
ha ave a pressurized
pumping system conne ected to a grouundwater
sour rce. The basic Related appr
co osts are for thee
planning of thhe
irrigation sys stem, the hardd
PVC pipes an nd its set-up in (QA TUR03)
th he field. Thesse
services are provided by specializzed
companie es, while the Compiled by
maintenance m
of the system caan
be done by the t farmers theemselves.
The volume of the Selcuk, Facu
cr rops produced in this system is high and int tended for commmercial
use.
Date: 1 st onya
apnar
area: 1 km
Mar
2
on measure: st tructural
ervention: prevention
of land
eriments - recen nt (