IMPORTANCE OF UNIFORM FIELD LAYOUT WHEN USING DRIP IRRIGATION

A s important as drip/spray-tube irrigation is to all year round production in vegetable farming, it requires to be laid and roll up many...

As important as drip/spray-tube irrigation is to all year round production in vegetable farming, it requires to be laid and roll up many times within a calendar year. This often occurs when the field needs to be prepared for another crop cycle and at the on-set of raining season when the drip/spraytube irrigation is no longer needed on the field. The question now is; how do you return the drip tape to exactly the same bed when you need to reuse it or ensures that it fits the bed length on another field without cutting and joining it? 

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There are many irrigation systems but we would focus on the most common ones which are drip and spray tube irrigation systems. Factory made irrigation materials often comes in bundle of Thousands of meters which is required to be cut to size by farmers and according to the length of their beds. Knowing fully well that the cost of irrigation materials is relatively high, therefore, using it repeatedly for many years is essential to offset its cost on the long run. The only ways to ensure durability are:

• Have a uniform field  vis-à-vis bed length which encourages cutting the drip into the same length 
• Roll it up properly and store away from the sun and any form of damage such as rodent attack when not in use

Importance of uniformity of fields/beds in Farm layout 

When designing a farm and layout of field/beds formation, uniformity of beds’ length and clear-cut major and minor walk ways are important for many factors. With regards to this article, it helps to ensure that the drips are cut uniformly. Here are the advantages of uniformity in drip length 

•  It makes using and re-using of drips easy
•  It encourages rolling up of drip during raining season and or off season and when the field needs to be worked on by tractor or otherwise. 
•  It reduces the total quantity of drip to be bought for a large farm which uses different portions on the farm in succession and not all at once 
•  It prolongs the durability of the drip material since it can be rolled up and stored without the fear of non-uniformity when it needs to be reused 
•  It saves man-hour re-using the drip since all used drips are of the same length, hence can be used interchangeably. 

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How to join  drip tape together using cost effective method

Not all field or farm land are uniform in shape hence it poses difficulty having exact bed length throughout the whole farm. In this regard, it would require that drips are joined together when there is a need to reuse them especially. Drips can be joined together using drip joiner sold with or separately from whole drip package. The cost can be high and if you have a reason to look at your budget, you can make use of small flexible hose cut into 3 cm each. The two ends of the drip to be joined together are connected by this hose and tied with car/motorcycle rubber tube. This saves you a lot of cost. 

 There is no doubt that having a uniform bed length hence uniform drip tape makes irrigation and use/re-using of driptape easier on a well-planned farm layout. Adopting this goes a long way in helping your farm moves towards a desired outcome. 

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