Water is a limiting factor in agriculture and horticulture. For increasing productivity of a given area it is necessary to increase growth effective days by supplying water for long duration.
Clay emitters are porous small earthen tubes which are connected serially with each other with rubber tube and embedded under the soil surface. They are found effective device to accomplish the task of supplying water directly in the root zone of the crop without electricity and labor force.
Since in practice emitter irrigation system is embedded in the soil, the moisture emitted on the surface of emitter is immediately absorbed by the bulk soil. The absorption and spread of moisture is because of osmotic potential and capillarity.
The moisture emitted by the emitter radiates in all direction in the form of capillary water and form a wet sphere having water at 50% and above of field capacity.
The emitter irrigation system is very simple to make, install, operate and repair even at village level. This system can be made functional even for limited number of valued plants (say 500 to 5,000), and it does not require even power supply all the time to keep it operational.
From the following table it will be evident that to produce one kilogram of Sugar Cane water requirement is 422 liters in flood irrigation; 156 liters in drip irrigation system and only 52 liters in Emitter Irrigation system. This means that Emitter system of irrigation is 8 times more efficient than the flood irrigation and 3 times more efficient than the drip irrigation system
Technology Transfer: The system is being made popular amongst the select group of small and marginal farmers.
