[[Image:Pepsi_drip_icon.png|right]]
[[Image:Nica_drip_icon.png |right]]
[[Image:Pepsi_drip.PNG|thumb|right|300px250px|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.
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[[Image:Nica_drip.PNG|thumb|right|250px|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|300px250px|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|250px|Pouring water into the drum for drip irrigation.]]
==Construction, operations and maintenance==
[[Image:ChapinBucketSystem.jpg|thumb|right|300px|The Chapin bucket drip system.]]
[[Image:DrumIrrigation.jpg|thumb|right|300px|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.
