Most people usually use flood irrigation, sprinkler, or drip irrigation to water their crops. Which one do you use?

Flood irrigation is less efficient than sprinkler and drip irrigation.

Flood irrigation is less efficient because when a field is flooded with more water than needed it is all applied to the ground and then the water seeps into the ground too deep for plants’ roots to reach. Flood irrigation is bad for onion production because when you use the flood irrigation, all the topsoil and nutrients are carried off with the runoff.

Sprinkler irrigation is a method of sprinkling irrigation water on the plants, like natural rainfall. Some of the pros of having a sprinkler system is that it is efficient on coarse soil.  Water can be distributed at lower pressure.  One of the cons of using the sprinkler irrigation is deep ruts can be formed.  Sprinkler nozzles can be clogged by using poor water.

Drip irrigation is a system that drips water onto the soil of the plant at a slow rate. A good thing that comes from having a drip irrigation system is that there is no land grading required. It also saves water by minimizing evaporation. Some terrible things about having the drip irrigation are that when you have high iron content water, the holes get clogged. Sometimes rodents and insects will chew on the pipe, causing water leaks.

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