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    What Is Furrow Irrigation?

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    Aziz Khan Kakar
    Furrow irrigation involves running water in small, slopped channels or "furrows" water moves from the furrow into the crop root zone. Both sources of water losses can be minimized with proper management.

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    What Is Furrow Irrigation?

    Uploaded by

    Aziz Khan Kakar
    157 views1 page
    Furrow irrigation involves running water in small, slopped channels or "furrows" water moves from the furrow into the crop root zone. Both sources of water losses can be minimized with proper management.

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    Furrow Irrigation

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    Furrow irrigation involves running water in small, slopped channels or "furrows" water moves from the furrow into the crop root zone. Both sources of water losses can be minimized with proper management.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    157 views1 page

    What Is Furrow Irrigation?

    Uploaded by

    Aziz Khan Kakar
    Furrow irrigation involves running water in small, slopped channels or "furrows" water moves from the furrow into the crop root zone. Both sources of water losses can be minimized with proper management.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
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    Furrow Irrigation

    What is furrow irrigation? Furrow irrigation involves running water in small, slopped channels or furrows between plant rows or raised beds (Figure 1). Water moves from the furrow into the crop root zone (Figure 2 and Figure 3). Water losses in furrow irrigation Deep percolation refers to water that moves below the root zone and is greater at the beginning of the furrow than at the end. Run-off is water that runs off the end of the furrow instead of infiltrating into the field. Both sources of water losses can be minimized with proper management.
    Figure 1. Corn field under furrow irrigation (Source: UC Drought Management Program) Figure 2. Vertical and lateral water movement within soil in furrow irrigation (Source: UC Publication "Furrow Irrigation" by James C. Marr)

    info sheet

    Key aspects in furrow irrigation management 1) Field slopes should be between 0.05 - 0.5% (a height difference of 5 cm to 50 cm in 100 m). If the slope is too high, then soil can be eroded as water runs too quickly.

    Furrow beginning Ditch

    Furrow end

    Run-off
    Root zone

    2) Furrow length depends on factors affecting infiltration rate (soil texture) and the amount of time the water is running over the soil (field Figure 3. Wetting pattern observed in furrow irrigation (Source: IPO slope and furrow length). CA&ES, UC Davis). a. Furrow length and texture. In long furrows, more deep percolation losses occur at the top of the field since the water needs more time to get to the end of the row. Generally furrow length should not exceed 200m on sandy soils and about 400m on medium-textured soils. b. Field slope. As slope increases, water reaches the end of the field quicker. However, with high field slopes, soil erosion can be a problem. The steeper the land, the shorter the furrows should be. 3) Furrow spacing is affected by the movement of water sideways from the furrow. Rows need to be closer in sandier soils (e.g., 30-60cm) while they can be wider in clay soils (e.g., 75150cm) although the crop also influences row spacing. 4) Flow rate should be high enough to move water quickly to the furrow end to minimize deep percolation, without causing soil erosion. Once water in the furrows nears the end of the furrow, the water flow may be decreased to minimize run-off. Depending on slope and soil texture, it may range between 1 L/s to 12 L/s per furrow. 5) Water distribution and irrigation uniformity are improved by land leveling. 6) Irrigation scheduling
    How long to irrigate How often to irrigate Objective Irrigate to fill the root zone at the end of the furrow while minimizing water losses. Limit plant water stress by matching available soil moisture with water use. Whats important For a given soil texture, design furrow length to run water quickly to the field end while limiting deep percolation and runoff at the end of the furrow. Available soil moisture depends on crop rooting depth and the capacity of the soil to hold water (higher in clay soils, lower in sandy soils). Water use depends on crop growth and weather affecting crop water use.

    Deep Percolation

    Wetting pattern

    Prepared by Maria Paz Santibanez, Nick Madden and Mark Bell 2013.
    References: Irrigation Water Management: Irrigation methods (FAO) http://www.fao.org/docrep/S8684E/S8684E00.htm; Managing Furrow Irrigation Systems http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/live/g1338/build/#target2; Hanson, B. et al, 1994. Water management Series Publication number 93-02: Surge Irrigation. For more information visit: http://ip.ucdavis.edu. Copyright UC Regents Davis campus, 2013. All Rights Reserved.

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