Chapin

Even though it has not rained for four months the gardens at Mtendere Children's Village in Lumbadzi, Malawi prosper thanks to drip irrigation systems from Chapin Watermatics in upstate New York. Photo: malawi project director.

Chapin bucket kits were developed by Richard Chapin of Chapin Living Water Foundation. This drip irrigation system consists of a 20-litre bucket mounted 1 m above the ground and 30 m of drip tape.

What is a bucket kit?
A bucket kit system comprising two 15-m long drip lines can be used to grow 50 plants such as tomato, egg plant and similar crops requiring a spacing of 60 cm along the plant rows; 100 plants of spinach, cabbage, kale, pepper and similar plants requiring a spacing of 30 cm along the plant rows; or 300 plants of onion, carrot and similar plants requiring a spacing of 10 cm. The standard bucket kit system consists of two drip lines placed 0.5 m apart on a bed with a width of 1 m. A bucket is placed on a stand at one end of the bed and connected to the drip lines. These bucket kit systems can irrigate 10–20 m2, depending on the length of the drip tube and plant spacing.

The bucket should be filled once in the morning and once in the afternoon to supply 30–60 litres of water to the crop per day. The actual amount of water depends on crop water requirements and rainfall. In very dry areas and during the dry season 60 litres of water will be required per day. There is a growing demand for bucket kits. For example, Chapin bucket kits are reported to be in use in over 80 countries world wide and the demand is growing fast. By 2001, more than 5,000 kits had been sold by KARI to Kenyan farmers who have adopted the bucket drip irrigation system. It has been shown that plants that are watered using the bucket system have higher yields.

Construction, operations and maintenance

System components

• 20-litre bucket
• Timber and nail for bucket stand
• 2 pieces x 15 m drip tape
• 2 pieces x 1.5 m supply tubing
• Filter screen
• Washer
• 2 barb fittings
• Male adapter / Female adapter

Set up the system

1. Prepare the field to be irrigated.
2. Mount a 20 or 30-litre bucket (supplied by the farmer) with a 27mm hole (cut with a hole saw, on a drill, or by hand with a sharp knife, at the bottom of the bucket) and place it 1 m above the ground.
3. Assemble the outlet from the bottom of the bucket by connecting the male adapter, rubber washer and female adapter.
4. Install the filter screen at the bottom of the bucket.
5. Install the two supply tubes running from the filter to the barb fittings.
6. Connect the 15-m drip irrigation tape through the drip lock fittings.

How to adapt the system to more than two drip lines
The contents of a Chapin bucket kit enable one to set up 2 x 15 m (two drip lines each 15 m long) or, by using the submain pipe, the kit can be used for 4 rows 7.5 m long or 6 rows 5 m long, depending on the size of the garden. To do this you need the piercing tool, the submain (4.6 m long) and the 3-m micro-tubing included in the kit. This is achieved by:

1. Cutting each drip tape twice (to make 4 lines), or three times (to make 6 lines);
2. Cutting 4–6 pieces of the micro-tube, depending on the number of drip lines;
3. Piercing a hole through the submain using the piercing tool;
4. Connecting each drip line to the submain using the micro-tubes.

Manuals, videos, links

• Bucket Kit Gardening.

Acknowledgements

• Sijali, Isaya V. DRIP IRRIGATION: Options for smallholder farmers in eastern and southern Africa. RELMA, 2001.