__NOTOC__<small-title />[[Image:Pepsi_drip_icon.png|right|80px]][[Image:Nica_drip_icon.png |right|80px]][[Image:Pepsi_drip.PNG|thumb|right|250px200px|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|250px200px|Nica drip system working with 1 m pressure and made of local produced plastic hose. Photo: Netherlands Water Partnership.]]
===Construction, operations and maintenance===[[Image:ChapinBucketSystem.jpg|thumb|right|250px200px|The Chapin bucket drip system.]][[Image:DrumIrrigation.jpg|thumb|right|250px200px|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:
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.]]]
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.
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===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.
