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__NOTOC__<small-title />[[Image:Pepsi_drip_icon.png|right|80px]][[Image:Nica_drip_icon.png |right|80px]][[Image:Pepsi_drip.PNG|thumb|right|300px200px|Pepsi drip. Low cost plastic hose, used for drip irrigation. Photo: Netherlands Water Partnership.]]
Drip irrigation provides farmers the most efficient way to grow crops in water scarce areas through providing water at a controlled and regular rate to the root zone. Historically it has been too expensive for small-plot farmers, but now it is available at low cost and also adapted for small-scale farming and can reduce water losses by 30 - 70% when compared to conventional methods of crop irrigation, while greatly reducing labour and accurately delivering fertilizers. This makes cultivation during the dry season possible, with resulting yield increases of up to 30%. Drip irrigation is thus less vulnerable to drought than other irrigation systems.
'''Easy drip irrigation''' is an improvement of the Pepsi drip that consists of sun resistant lay-flat hoses and micro tubes that have a lifetime of 1-2 years. This option is being developed by IDE and applied in Asia. Practica foundation is testing different options in Nicaragua, Tanzania, Zambia and Ghana.
===Suitable conditions ===
* Drip irrigation is often the favoured method of irrigation, for example on steep and undulating slopes, for porous soils, for shallow soils, fields having widely varying soils, where water is scarce, where water is expensive, and where water is of poor quality.
* Drip irrigation is suitable for any plot under 0.4 hectare (one acre), but their modular design allows for expansion above that.
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! width="50%" style="background:#efefef;" | Advantages
! style="background:#ffdeadf0f8ff;" | Disadvantages
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| valign="top" | - Reduces water consumption. <br>
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[[Image:Nica_drip.PNG|thumb|right|200px|Nica drip system working with 1 m pressure and made of local produced plastic hose. Photo: Netherlands Water Partnership.]]
===Construction, operations and maintenance===[[Image:Nica_dripChapinBucketSystem.PNGjpg|thumb|right|300px200px|Nica The Chapin bucket drip system working with 1 m pressure and made of local produced plastic hose. Photo]][[Image: Netherlands Water PartnershipDrumIrrigation.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Pouring water into the drum for drip irrigation.]]
Drip irrigation systems consist of water storage, water filtration, water conveyance and distribution, and water application sub-systems. Common preparation requirements and features are as follows:
* Prepare the area to be irrigated. This could be simple land preparation or involve the formation of planting beds.
Nica drip: 3-5 years.
===Costs===
* Cost/ha: Pepsi drip: US$ 60 (plastic hose only). Easy drip: US$ 200 to 400.
* Nica drip: (Nicaragua) US$ 300 to 600, depending on crop and material use.
* In Nepal, costs ranged between $0.11 and $0.17 per m2 of irrigated area, depending on the scale of irrigation.
===Field experiences===[[Image:solar market garden.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Solar Market Garden project hooks up solar panels to a drip-system. Photo: [http://www.self.org/benin.shtml Solar Electric Light Fund.]]]
* Zimbabwe study: [http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CF4QFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwwwoar.icrisat.org%2Fjournal%2Fvolume5%2Faes%2Faes3/2386/1/Can_drip_irrigation_improve1.pdf&ei=or6IT_v6F4SRiQKtttjRCw&usg=AFQjCNGn3_ShgoWdh07v0N9SF3hjGVo94Q&sig2=hTcIVLO36LI3yuvdDXmGlg Can drip irrigation improve the livelihoods of smallholders? Lessons learned from Zimbabwe].<br>{|style="border: 2px solid #e0e0e0; width: 20%; text-align: justify; background-color: #e9f5fd;" cellpadding="2"<!--rsr logo here-->|- style="vertical-align: top"|[[Image:akvorsr logo_lite.png|center|60px|link=http://akvo.org/products/rsr/]]<!--project blocks here-->|- style="vertical-align: bottom"|[[Image:project 819.jpg |thumb|center|140px|<font size="2"><center>[http://rsr.akvo.org/project/819/ RSR Project 819]<br>Water, Food & Sanitation for School + Community</center></font>|link=http://rsr.akvo.org/project/819/]] |}
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====Solar Market Garden Project====
For the first time, women farmers in the rural villages of Bessassi and Dunkassa, in northern Benin, are able to grow vegetables and fruits during the six month dry season, improving food security and nutrition for themselves and their families. Farmers are also increasing their income by selling excess crops in the market. Now entering its third year, [http://wwwweb.selfstanford.orgedu/beningroup/solarbenin/data/SolarMarketGardenInfo/Solar%20Market%20Garden.shtml pdf SELF's Solar Market Garden project] has proved that solar energy can provide long term solutions to hunger, malnutrition and poverty in developing nations.
In addition, since December 2010, the villagers of Bessassi and Dunkassa now have access to clean drinking water via water wells powered by custom arrays of solar-panels ranging from 1.2 - 4 kW. This particular combination is not only a long-term solution, but can also be replicated all over the African continent.
The IFAD-supported Scampis project (2009–2012) changed the lives of 30,000 vulnerable farmer households after they adopted low-cost, user-friendly technologies. Old flip-flop sandals were collected by otherwise unemployed people and used as material to make parts for micro-irrigation equipment in Madagascar. As well as providing a local source of materials for irrigation, this activity promoted recycling and created jobs for street workers who collect the old sandals, and for small businesses that make the irrigation parts.
===Manuals, videos, and links===
* This [http://www.arrakis.nl/reports/ShortManual_drip_irrigation_June_07_lr.pdf Drip Irrigation manual] is set up by Arrakis.
* [http://www.cgiar.org/consortium-news/micro-irrigation-beats-hunger/ Micro-irrigation shows new ways to beat hunger.] CGIAR, August 2011.
* [http://www.ideorg.org/OurTechnologies/DripIrrigation.aspx An Entryway Into High Value Produce Markets.] iDE.
====Videos==== {| style="border:1px solid #fofofo; font-size: 125%"|-|{{#ev:youtube|9DfdtG6Yf14|200|auto|On the Farm: <br>Drip Irrigation Technology}}|{{#ev:youtube|uWNlDKxRMmk|200|auto|Drip irrigation in Sugarcane - <br>A Successful Erode farmer}}|{{#ev:youtube|o7v_zC0LNw0|200|auto|Growing Corn with <br>Drip Irrigation by NDJ}}|} ===Acknowledgements===* CARE Nederland, ''Desk Study : [[Resilient WASH systems in drought -prone areas]].'' October 2010.
* Sijali, Isaya V. [http://www.samsamwater.com/library.php?cat=irrigation Drip Irrigation; Options for smallholder farmers in eastern and southern Africa]. Sida’s Regional Land Management Unit, 2001.