This book forms the proceedings of the 18th European conference on irrigation and drainage. Water is not a free commodity, and demand is becoming more and more intense for its allocation. This book focuses on the role of irrigation and drainage in the debate on water, and will be used by planners, designers and policy makers internationally.

Management Strategies for Water Use Efficiency and Micro Irrigated Crops presents new research and technologies for making better use of water resources for agricultural purposes. The chapters focus on better management to improve allocation and irrigation water efficiency and look at performance factors as well. Chapters look at irrigation technology, environmental conditions, and scheduling of water application. One section of the book focuses on water management in the cultivation of sugarcane, a very important industrial crop used in many fields. Other sections are devoted to principles and challenging technologies, water use efficiency for drip-irrigated crops, performance of fertigated rice under micro irrigation, and evaluation of performance of drip-irrigated crops. This valuable book is a must for those struggling to find ways to address the need to maintain efficient crop production in the midst of water shortages. With chapters from hands-on experts in the field, the book will be an invaluable reference and guide to effective micro irrigation methods.

From Basic Fundamentals to Advanced Design Applications A culmination of the author's more than 20 years of research efforts, academic papers, and lecture notes, Combine Harvesters: Theory, Modeling, and Design outlines the key concepts of combine harvester process theory and provides you with a complete and thorough understanding of combine harvester processes. Utilizing a wealth of experimental data to promote validated mathematical models, this book presents the latest stochastic and deterministic modeling methods, evolutionary computational techniques, and practical applications. Highly focused on engineering and mathematics, it incorporates the use of simulation software (including MATLAB (R)) throughout the text and introduces a unified approach that can be used for any combine harvester functional structure. The book addresses modeling, simulation, evolutionary optimization, and combine process design. Breadth of coverage includes general technical specifications, developing machine layout as defined by engineering calculations, and design considerations for major subassembly processes. Comprised of 15 chapters, this text: Provides examples of current combine systems/elements design throughout the book Incorporates applications/exercises inspired by the author's engineering and research experience Uses both SI (metric) and imperial/U.S. measuring units throughout Combine Harvesters: Theory, Modeling, and Design contains principles, calculations, and examples that can aid you in combine process modeling and simulation, the development of combine process and driving task-based control systems by considering a top-to-bottom design of combine assembly and components.

This new book, the fourth volume in the Innovations and Challenges in Micro Irrigation book series, examines the potential of solar energy and other emerging energy technologies in micro irrigation to create sustainable energy sources. The authors discuss a variety of innovative micro irrigation system designs, with a special focus on solar energy and photovoltaic (PV) energy.

With a roster of international contributors, this volume offers an abundance of solutions to address agricultural water management challenges in today's water-scarce areas of the world. The authors present studies on farmer-friendly irrigation scheduling methods, model-based analysis of crop water requirements, ways to optimize surface irrigation systems, and hydraulic design and management of surface water systems. The book goes on to highlight ways to improve soil properties by taking into account spatial, temporal, and spectral variability in soil properties. The volume also covers various innovative research studies on soil and water productivity of vegetable cultivation under water-stressed areas, application of coir geotextiles, and the role of biofertilizers in controlling soil degradation and maintaining fertile topsoil. Crop management strategies to enhance the efficient use of marginal and saline lands for nonconventional crops are also discussed. The book is divided into four sections, covering: engineering interventions in irrigation management technological interventions in management of soil properties technological inventions for soil and water conservation crop management for non-conventional use This volume will serve as an invaluable resource for academicians, researchers, engineers, agronomists, extension officers, students, and farmers in the broad discipline of agricultural and biological engineering.

discusses the complexity of a number of topical debates about current land and wildlife management at a range of spatial scales. explores the underlying historical context. demonstrates how the findings from this project relate to agricultural and conservation policy more broadly as well as how they are applicable to similar projects throughout Europe.

Micro irrigation, also known as trickle, drip, localized, high frequency, or pressurized irrigation, is an irrigation method that saves water and fertilizer by allowing water to drip slowly to the roots of plants, either onto the soil surface or directly onto the root zone, through a network of valves, pipes, tubing, and emitters. It is done through narrow tubes that deliver water directly to the base of the plant. Clogging is a menace in the success of drip irrigation systems, and the situation is more complex under subsurface drip irrigation. Irrigation planners and engineers have found a variety of innovative methods to help to minimize clogging. This book emphasizes the implications of micro irrigation clogging, especially under the subsurface placement of laterals. The book offers remedies to decrease clogging and methodologies to improve the performance of micro sprinklers. This valuable resource addresses this critical problem, covering: Challenges in clogging under subsurface drip irrigation Principles, practices, and management of emitter clogging Efficiency of acidification for unclogging of emitters Performance characteristics of micro sprinklers The book will serve as a reference manual for professionals in biological and civil engineering, horticulture, soil and crop science, and agronomy, as well as for graduate and undergraduate students in related fields. It will be a valuable reference for professionals who work with micro irrigation/wastewater and water management and for technical agricultural centers, irrigation centers, agricultural extension services, and other agencies that work with micro irrigation programs.

This new book, Sustainable Micro Irrigation Design Systems for Agricultural Crops, brings together the best research for efficient micro irrigation methods for field crops, focusing on design methods and best practices. Covering a multitude of topics, the book presents research and studies on: Indigenous alternatives for use of saline and alkali waters Hydraulic performance Distribution of moisture Fertigation technology Buried micro irrigation laterals Drip irrigation scheduling Rainwater harvesting Adoption and economic impact of a micro irrigation model This book is a must for those interested in irrigation planning and management, namely, researchers, scientists, educators, and students.

Closed circuit trickle irrigation is a form of micro irrigation that increases energy and water efficiency by using closed circuit drip irrigation systems designs. Modifications are made to traditional micro irrigation methods to reduce some of the problems and constraints, such as low compressor water at the end of irrigation lines. This approach has proved successful for the irrigation of fruit trees and some vegetable and field crops. Closed circuits of drip irrigation systems require about half of the water needed by sprinkler or surface irrigation. Lower operating pressures and flow rates result in reduced energy costs, and a higher degree of water control is attainable as well. Plants can be supplied with more precise amounts of water, and disease and insect damage is reduced because plant foliage stays dry. Fertilizers can also be applied through this type of system, which can result in a reduction of fertilizer and fertilizer costs. This new volume in the Research Advances in Sustainable Micro Irrigation book series presents a diverse collection of research on closed circuit irrigational technology and design and provides studies of its use on such crops as wheat, maize, yellow corn, soybeans, rice, and snap peas. The book explores: * Soil moisture and salinity distributions under modified sprinkler irrigation * Performance of sprinkler irrigation * Design considerations for closed circuit drip irrigation systems * Performance of bubbler irrigation * Energy and water savings of drip irrigation systems * Automation of mini-sprinkler and drip irrigation systems * Water and fertilizer use efficiencies for drip irrigated maize * Evaluation of emitter clogging for drip irrigated systems This book will be valuable for those interested in irrigation planning and management, namely, researchers, scientists, educators, upper-level students, agricultural extension services, and others.

This book examines the tablon system, a type of irrigated, raised-bed horticulture found in the present-day village of Panajachel in Guatemala. It demonstrates how individual Mayan farmers use the tablon system as a strategy for adapting to the demands of a local economy.

This new book, Sustainable Practices in Surface and Subsurface Micro Irrigation, offers a vast amount of knowledge and techniques necessary to develop and manage a drip/trickle or micro irrigation system. The information covered has worldwide applicability to irrigation management in agriculture. Focusing on both subsurface and surface micro irrigation, chapters in the book cover a variety of new research and information on: * Irrigation water requirements for tanier, vegetables, bananas, plantains, beans, and papaya * Irrigating different types of soils, including sandy soils, wet soils, and mollisols * New applications for micro irrigation using existing technology, such as meteorological instruments and MicroCAD * Meteorological instruments for water management

Proceedings of a seminar held in Silsoe, UK, 26-28 March 1990.

Sediment deposition threatens the performance of many irrigation systems. Because of the high impact on irrigation performance and crop production, many studies have been done on how to deal with sediment deposition. In this research, the Delft3D model, originally developed for hydro-morphologic modeling of rivers and estuaries, was adapted for the use in irrigation systems simulations and applied to different case studies. This research addresses two shortcomings of previous studies of sediments in irrigation systems. Firstly, while previous studies primarily used 1D models, this research uses a 2D/3D model. The use of 2D/3D models in irrigation systems is significant because the non-uniform flow around structures such as offtakes, weirs and gates, leads to asymmetric sedimentation patterns that are missed by 1D simulations. Secondly, whereas previous studies mostly considered non-cohesive sediments, this research simulates cohesive, non-cohesive and a mix of both sediment types. This is important for irrigation systems that draw water from natural rivers that carry a mix of cohesive and non-cohesive sediments. The findings of this research are important for irrigation system maintenance and gate operation. It is also essential for the development of canal operating plans that meet crop water requirements and at the same time minimizes sediment deposition by alternating gates.

Irrigation Development in Africa: Lessons of Experience is a veritable encyclopedia of information on African irrigation. It describes a significant subset of the African irrigation experience, from traditional flood recession systems to large projects like Gezira and Bura.

Better water management will be crucial if we are to meet many of the key challenges of this century - feeding the world 's growing population and reducing poverty, meeting water and sanitation needs, protecting vital ecosystems, all while adapting to climate change. The approach known as Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is widely recognized as the best way forward, but is poorly understood, even within the water sector. Since a core IWRM principle is that good water management must involve the water users, the understanding and involvement of other sectors is critical for success. There is thus an urgent need for practical guidance, for both water and development professionals, based on real world examples, rather than theoretical constructs. That is what this book provides. Using case studies, the book illustrates how better water management, guided by the IWRM approach, has helped to meet a wide range of sustainable development goals. It does this by considering practical examples, looking at how IWRM has contributed, at different scales, from very local, village-level experiences to reforms at national level and beyond to cases involving trans-boundary river basins. Using these on-the-ground experiences, from both developed and developing countries in five continents, the book provides candid and practical lessons for policy-makers, donors, and water and development practitioners worldwide, looking at how IWRM principles were applied, what worked, and, equally important, what didn t work, and why. Published with the Global Water Partnership

In 1947, British India-the part of South Asia that is today's India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh-emerged from the colonial era with the world's largest centrally managed canal irrigation infrastructure. However, as vividly illustrated by Tushaar Shah, the orderly irrigation economy that saved millions of rural poor from droughts and famines is now a vast atomistic system of widely dispersed tube-wells that are drawing groundwater without permits or hindrances. Taming the Anarchy is about the development of this chaos and the prospects to bring it under control. It is about both the massive benefit that the irrigation economy has created and the ill-fare it threatens through depleted aquifers and pollution. Tushaar Shah brings exceptional insight into a socio-ecological phenomenon that has befuddled scientists and policymakers alike. In systematic fashion, he investigates the forces behind the transformation of South Asian irrigation and considers its social, economic, and ecological impacts. He considers what is unique to South Asia and what is in common with other developing regions. He argues that, without effective governance, the resulting groundwater stress threatens the sustenance of the agrarian system and therefore the well being of the nearly one and a half billion people who live in South Asia. Yet, finding solutions is a formidable challenge. The way forward in the short run, Shah suggests, lies in indirect, adaptive strategies that change the conduct of water users. From antiquity until the 1960's, agricultural water management in South Asia was predominantly the affair of village communities and/or the state. Today, the region depends on irrigation from some 25 million individually owned groundwater wells. Tushaar Shah provides a fascinating economic, political, and cultural history of the development and use of technology that is also a history of a society in transition. His book provides powerful ideas and lessons for researchers, historians, and policy

New evidence that the ancient Mayas practiced intensive, often irrigated, agriculture on a massive scale has forced revision in current thinking about that civilization. Yet, little study has focused on the heirs of this agricultural tradition; in areas of highland Guatemala, Mayan farmers today carry on forms of intensive, irrigated horticulture t

Originally published in 1990, Onions and Allied Crops, is a comprehensive account of the edible allium, examined across three volumes. The collection examines the major economic and dietary importance of edible alliums in most countries, and brings together contributions from experts across multiple disciplines, including food scientists, economists, agriculturalists and biochemists. These books address selection and breeding of locally adapted cultivars and the development of cultural techniques, allowing for cultivation across the tropics, to the sub-arctic regions. As such the collection examines the allium as a major agricultural asset and the impact this has had on many economies. These volumes will be of use and of interest to food scientists, economists, agriculturalists and biochemists alike.

Fluctuation in rainfall in Ogun-Osun River Basin, Nigeria in the recent times is a challenge to crop production. Therefore, agronomic practices need to be designed to improve water productivity under rainfed conditions. Improving water productivity requires vapour shift or transfer whereby soil physical conditions, soil fertility, crop varieties and agronomy are applied in tandem and managed to shift the evaporation into useful transpiration by plants. Water conservation practices: Tied ridge, Mulch, Soil bund, Tied ridge plus Soil bund, Tied ridge plus Mulch, Mulch plus Soil bund and Direct sowing were used in cultivating Soybeans for two rainy seasons in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Full and deficit irrigation application during reproductive stages were used with in-line drip irrigation for two seasons. Seasonal rainfall influenced the water storage in the soil. Transpiration, seed yield and water productivity were related to Total Intercepted Photosynthetically Active Radiation. Yield and economic productivity increased under water conservation practices. Productivity decreased most when irrigation was skipped during seed filling and the production costs under drip system are high. Rainfed cultivation of soybeans when rainfall and solar radiation are optimum, is the best option. The AquaCrop model was calibrated and validated to predict canopy cover, aerial dry biomass, seed yield, soil water content, crop water use, and water productivity under full and deficit irrigation conditions. The model performed the best in simulating aerial dry biomass under full irrigation. The simulated and measured data compare adequately and the performance of the model was satisfactory.

Irrigated agriculture remains to be the main option to boost the economy in Sudan in general. It can rise the living standard of the majority of the population; particularly those who are attached to farming and livestock. With the expected increase in population in the next decades, water management of large irrigation systems will become a key issue to increase productivity and assure future food security. Sediment transport in irrigation canals makes water management very complicated. This study focuses on water management in Gezira Scheme, Sudan. This scheme is irrigated from the Blue Nile River, which is characterized by a high sediment concentration. The aim of the study was to reduce the impact of fine sediment deposition in irrigation canals by improving the operation and maintenance procedures. A numerical model has been developed to simulate the cohesive sediment transport in irrigation canals. This model is a useful tool for the operators and decision makers to assess different options of operation in terms of sediment transport. This study found that sediment deposition in the canals can be minimized if the operation based on crop water requirement is adjusted at a certain period during the flood season.

The prospects for the future are clear. Agriculture will have to respond to changing patterns of demand for food and combat food insecurity and poverty amongst marginalized communities. In so doing, agriculture will have to compete for scarce water with other users and reduce pressure on the water environment. Moreover, water managers have to unlock the potential of agricultural water management practices to raise productivity of water, spread equitable access to water, and conserve the natural productivity of the water resource base. This PhD thesis presents field tests combined with modelling work on the cultivation of irrigated Teff (Eragrostic Tef) in the Awash Rift Valley of Ethiopia. The field experiments were conducted during the dry season for two years. The results of these studies revealed that dealing with improvement of water productivity is closely related to the irrigation practice of regulated deficit irrigation and has a direct effect on yield, as the amount of water applied decreases intentionally the crop yield drops. Overall, this research has demonstrated the potential and the limitations of combining experimental fieldwork with modelling to optimize agricultural water productivity for Teff cultivation. Focusing on only experimental fieldwork is a single approach, and is hardly ever sufficient for achieving the best solutions to current water management problems. New guidelines on using the combined effort of experimental work in the field to produce field experimental data and using models are clearly needed. It is to these needs as well as to the required increase of Teff production under water scarce conditions that this research provides its main contribution.

Contents:
1. Las Abejas and the Acteal Massacre 2. Methodological and Theoretical Frameworks 3. The Struggle for Land and Dignity in Chiapas 4. The Juxtaposed Meanings of Acteal 5. The Cultural and Religious Frameworks of Las Abejas 6. The Political and Human Rights Frameworks of Las Abejas 7. Las Abejas' Construction of Nonviolent Resistance 8. A Syncretic Identity of Resistance

Sub-Saharan Africa has an irrigation potential of about 42 million hectares of which only 17% is developed. Despite several investments in irrigation the growth is slow. This study aims at helping to achieve sustainable irrigation in sub-Saharan Africa, through gaining a better understanding of productive irrigation water use and effective management of irrigation development. The study is conducted in the White Volta sub-basin specifically in Northern Ghana and Southern Burkina Faso which have been experiencing rapid irrigation development since the mid 1990s. The study identified growing markets for irrigated products as an important driving force behind the expansion of irrigation which has given rise to new technologies. The new technologies have spread because they gave farmers direct control over water sources. These new technologies allow relatively small farm sizes which can be adequately managed by the surveyed farmers. As a result high productivities are achieved. The hydrological impact of upscaling irrigation in the sub-basin is sustainable and will maximize the overall benefits derived from water resources in the Volta Basin.

Initially associated with hi-tech irrigated agriculture, drip irrigation is now being used by a much wider range of farmers in emerging and developing countries. This book documents the enthusiasm, spread and use of drip irrigation systems by smallholders but also some disappointments and disillusion faced in the global South. It explores and explains under which conditions it works, for whom and with what effects. The book deals with drip irrigation 'behind the scenes', showcasing what largely remain 'untold stories'. Most research on drip irrigation use plot-level studies to demonstrate the technology's ability to save water or improve efficiencies and use a narrow and rather prescriptive engineering or economic language. They tend to be grounded in a firm belief in the technology and focus on the identification of ways to improve or better realize its potential. The technology also figures prominently in poverty alleviation or agricultural modernization narratives, figuring as a tool to help smallholders become more innovative, entrepreneurial and business minded. Instead of focusing on its potential, this book looks at drip irrigation-in-use, making sense of what it does from the perspectives of the farmers who use it, and of the development workers and agencies, policymakers, private companies, local craftsmen, engineers, extension agents or researchers who engage with it for a diversity of reasons and to realize a multiplicity of objectives. While anchored in a sound engineering understanding of the design and operating principles of the technology, the book extends the analysis beyond engineering and hydraulics to understand drip irrigation as a sociotechnical phenomenon that not only changes the way water is supplied to crops but also transforms agricultural farming systems and even how society is organized. The book provides field evidence from a diversity of interdisciplinary case studies in sub-Saharan Africa, the Mediterranean, Latin America, and South Asia, thus revealing some of the untold stories of drip irrigation.

The book presents documentary evidence of the insufficiency of rehabilitation works to close the gap between the irrigation service and actual area irrigated of publicly funded national irrigation systems in the Philippines. It outlines a methodology for formulating a modernisation plan for national irrigation systems with focus on the mostly ungauged, medium to small canal irrigation systems. The proposed methodology adaptively modified some known modernisation concepts and techniques and integrated them in a more holistic framework in the context of changing weather patterns and river flow regimes. It includes in-depth review of rehabilitation works; system diagnosis; revalidation of design assumptions on percolation and water supply; characterisation of system management, irrigation service and demand; and drawing up of options and a vision for the modernised irrigation systems. Central to the proposed modernisation strategy is the logical coherence among the design of physical structures, system operation and water supply so that improvements of irrigation service are possible. The book discusses the development of the proposed methodology and demonstrates its utility in two case study irrigation systems.