Performance evaluation of micro-irrigation devices

Abstract

Several micro-irrigation emitters were evaluated for their individual performance and were compared among themselves on the basis of different performance parameters, and the results were used to analyse the credibility of the claim of the manufacturers. The emitters were tested for their quality of the workmanship, uniformity of flow rate and for their distribution performance. A total of thirty micro-sprinklers (ten models in three replications) were evaluated. The distribution performance of each of the devices was described by different performance parameters. The performance parameters used for this purpose were uniformity coefficient, coefficient of variation, distribution characteristic etc. The distribution patterns (densograms) were drawn and carefully studied to analyse the nature of distribution performance of the emitters. The values of the performance parameters were used to grade the devices using different statistical and ranking tools. It is generally concluded that only the manufacturer data should not be taken into consideration while selecting the irrigation devices and from the farmers’ point of view it is safer to depend more on the technical information resulting from scientific investigations.