Desire for Greener Land

Above left: SStakeholders
in n the field (Phooto:
Zeiliguer Anaatoly.)
Drip D irrrigation
n
Above right: : Students man naging water suupply
Russian R Federaation
- Капельнное
орошение (Russian)
and controllinng
pipes of drip p irrigation systtem
at
experimental parcel with dri ip irrigation of
tomatoes (Phhoto:
Zeiliguer Anatoly.) A
Drip D irrigation systems graddually
apply water w into thee
zone around d the stem of
th he irrigated plant.
Drip D irrigation exxperiments
have
been carrie ed out on the left
bank of the e Volga River.
Economic
problems,
regional reforms and shortage s of inveestments
in municipal
water
su upply infrastruccture
led to prooblems
of wate er quality and quantity
of available
water for
in ndustrial, agriccultural
and doomestic
uses. The situationn
is getting worse
with the
ef ffects of regional
climate chhange.
Especia ally during summmer,
the stud dy region has
pr roblems with sshortage
of watter
not just for irrigation of aggricultural
fields,
or gardens,
bu ut also for doomestic
use. Inn
such situatio ons, more efficcient
water us se is required
th hrough introduucing
water-saving
technolog gies. One of these well-known
irrigation
te echnologies is drip irrigation.
Small quantities
of water aare
directly de elivered to the
pl lants by a pipee
system. This technology is the t most effecttive
from the point
of view of
gr reen water usee
efficiency. Correct
applicat tion of drip irriggation
technolo ogy drastically
de ecreases wateer
losses by runoff
and evapo oration as well
as deep perc colation to soil
de epths inaccesssible
to root uptake.
Water ca an be provided to plants from surface water
re eservoirs, wateer
tanks or grouundwater
wells s through a nettwork
of plastic c pipes (under
lo ow water presssure)
and delivvered
through a water drip syystem.
The flow w rate can be Location: Saaratov
Region
ad djusted to the nneeds
of the paarticular
stage of plant growthh,
to soil hydraulic
properties Region: Marrksovsky
Distric ct
an nd to the prevvailing
weatheer
conditions. The low-presssure
supply sy ystem can be Technology area: < 0.1 km m
op perated using a header tankk
or directly by y using a wateer
pump to rais se water from Conservatioon
measure: st
ne earby surface water storage or a groundw water well. The aim of this tec chnology is to Stage of inteervention:
miti
sh how the effecctiveness
of freshwater us sage in irrigatting
vegetable es (tomatoes, land degradaation
pe eppers) at the scale of subsiddiary
plots or small s irrigation systems (seve eral ha in size) Origin: Exterrnally
- recent (
in n a region with scarce water resources both
as a water-ssaving
measure e and an eco- Land use: crropland
friendly
alternattive
to furrow irrigation. Owing
to the relaative
narrownes ss of the drip Climate: semmi-arid,
temper
fe eeders, they aare
prone to blockages fro om organic mmatter,
minera al particles or WOCAT dataabase
referen
di issolved compounds.
To prollong
the lifetim me of the drip irrrigation
equipm ment, it needs cdewocat.uniibe.ch/wocatQT
to o be maintainedd
using prevenntive
and remedial
measures such as visua al inspection of DESIRE site information:
pi ipes and wateer
supply sourcces,
filter installations
as well
as flushing the t tubes and his.eu/en/novvy-russia
dr rip emitters to rremove
deposits.
Related apprroach:
Living t
In n general, a number
of mediuum-scale
farme ers are using fuurrow
irrigation of vegetables on common ( (QA RUS01)
as s their main agricultural acctivity.
Drip-irrigation
technoology
was tes sted with four Compiled byy:
Anatoly Zeili
fa amilies and coompared
to furrrow
irrigation in order to ccompare
water r consumption State Universsity
of Environm
(w water use efficiiency
as rate oof
yield and volume
of water uused
for irrigation)
as well as Date: 20th Feeb
2011 updat
its s impact on ssoil
degradatioon
and ground d-water. The wwater
use effic ciency of drip 2011
irr rigation is 3 - 10 times higgher
than that t of furrow irriigation,
depen nding on local
co onditions and qualification oof
furrow irrigators.
Furthermmore,
this technology
avoids
water w loss throuugh
soil surfacee
evaporation, percolation to deep soil layers
and ground
water, w and runooff
into near wwater
bodies (causing pollution
by chemi icals used for
ag gricultural activvities
at irrigateed
fields like fer rtilizers and plaant
protectors). . The negative
im mpact of furroww
irrigation on ssoil
productivity y is usually veryy
high due to soil s erosion.
Experimentationns
and demonsstration
of drip irrigation weree
done at two le evels. The first
le evel involved laarge-scale
farmms
with the aim m of demonstraating
the considerable
gains
to o be made tthrough
the eefficient
use of water, thrrough
the development
of
re epresentative eexperimental
pplots
on fields used for furroww
irrigation by y two farmers.
During D the growwing
season, we
demonstrate ed these plots tto
local farmers s as well as to
fa armers from otther
municipaliities
and locations
in the reggion.
The seco ond level was
de eveloped for ssmall-scale
farmmers
and hous seholders to demonstrate
the e efficiency of
water w saving in gardening.
2 (10 ha)
tructural
igation / reducttion
of
(