Irrigation - what does that mean? The use of irrigation for the land

Irrigation of fields is one of the most important conditions of fertility. Providing plants with liquid affects the chemical processes that take place in them, the air and temperature regime, and the functioning of the soil at the level of microbiology.

An event that solves the issues of delivery and uniform distribution of liquid on farmland, which is subjected to drought in natural conditions, is called agricultural irrigation. This definition allows us to understand the meaning and purpose of the described process in agrarian science.

Methods of watering the agricultural land

For the delivery of liquid to the agricultural land use methods:

• Sprinkling;
• Surface irrigation;
• Drip irrigation;
• Intrasoil irrigation.

Sprinkling

Sprinkling is a method of irrigation of lands with the presence of plants, in which the root system is shallow, provided by an automated method of distributing the liquid. It is made by the method of artificial rain with established volumes of water. This method usually uses fertilizers that are able to dissolve in water, as well as disinfectants (substances suitable for destroying pests). Sprinkling is classified, in turn, into:

• Impulse irrigation is the irrigation of land in small volumes,
• Sparing irrigation;
• Providing a moisture regime of the subsoil atmospheric layer.

This method is used mainly in areas with an unstable wet climate, in the presence of difficulties in the relief, as well as with a high standing of groundwater.

Drip irrigation

The next method is drip irrigation. This watering, which gives the fluid the ability to penetrate deep enough into the soil to penetrate, and fertilizer to the root system of plants. Provides an established frequency of watering. The positive side of the described process is feeding the rhizosphere. The consumption of liquid, energy and fertilizers is about two to five times less than for the commonly used irrigation process. In this case, the supply of water to a culture is carried out in an environmentally friendly and harmless way. It is used in the presence of complex terrain relief where insufficient aquatic balance is determined, where extremely high water permeability occurs. This method is popular in the production of irrigation process of vineyards, berry, vegetable crops and gardens with fruit trees.

Intrasoil irrigation

Intrasoil irrigation is a method of flooding the root system of plants. Water supply of plants is carried out by special subsoil moisturizers, this creates favorable conditions for permanent provision of roots with liquid, or necessary for plants nutrients. The advantage of this technique are:

• This is a fully mechanized way;
• Creation and subsequent maintenance of looseness of soil;
• Effective water supply;
• Supply the root system with all nutrients required for normal growth.

Such irrigation is used in the area where the soil has a large capillary conductivity, there is no close standing of mineral groundwater. Thus, intrasoil irrigation of fields is a wonderful way out for farmland, however it requires certain investments.

Surface irrigation

Surface irrigation of the land is a process in which the liquid concentrates above the surface of the earth. This method of irrigation is classified into the following subspecies:

• With a large volume of water (flooding);
• By grooves;
• Using a special baubler nozzle;
• With the use of a small amount of water (or micro-pores). This watering is the most economical one.

When planning the irrigation system, it should be provided that infrequent and small irrigation volumes of water are ineffective, do not provide sufficient moisture for the land. The lack of fluid in the soil creates an imbalance in the molecular tension of water, leading to an insufficient hydro balance, and this, in turn, will lead to the death of the flora. The best moistening can be achieved in the case of a competent approach to planning the irrigation system. To achieve the correct mode of water supply, it is necessary to take into account the soil structure, its water-permeable index, chemical composition, thermal index and aeration.

Irrigation of farmland: regime

To create a favorable moistening of the earth during the vegetation period, that is, at the end of winter hibernation, a special watering regime is determined, that is, a combination of indicators: the amount, timing and volume of the liquid. It must create in the soil the hydro balance necessary for the culture in question in specific climatic conditions and for economic purposes. This process requires strict adherence to the requirements of agrotechnical measures.

The irrigation regime of any crop in certain agroclimatic conditions must comply with the following requirements:

1. Water demand of plants in a certain period of their development, and in relation to fruit crops, and also obtaining high yields with a certain agrotechnics with the addition of fertilizers in certain periods.
2. Realization of exact regulation of water, nutrient, salt and temperature regimes of soil.
3. Increase in soil fertility, inadmissibility of erosion, excessive flooding, that is, waterlogging and salinization of lands.
4. The correct organization of labor, which creates an increase in its productivity through the use of modern automated methods.
5. Accounting for changes in climatic, economic and agrotechnical conditions to exclude significant fluctuations in years and seasons in them.

Therefore, in order to determine the irrigation regime of a particular crop, it is necessary to know the total volume of irrigation water that is required for plants during the vegetative period under the proposed (or used) farming techniques and natural conditions. This volume of water can be determined by analyzing climatic, soil and some other conditions.

Influence of irrigation on subsoil processes

The transition from irrigated to irrigated field cropping creates a profound impact on soil formation in the form of transformations of the soil physical state, its salt composition, temperature characteristics and aeration, chemical and bacterial intrasoil processes, the rate of accumulation and decay of soil organic matter.

Irrigation of soil is a mechanism that has a positive effect on the physical composition of the soil, leading to a reduction in its resistance to plowing, and provides it with physical ripeness. In the process of processing, such soil is more easily subject to the process of crumbling and loosening.

Irrigation water brings a certain amount of silt particles in an agitated state, which settle on the surface of the fields as fertile deposits. After a sufficiently long period, this irrigation layer reaches a solid level. Thus, a new soil is formed.

Irrigation provides better conditions for intrasoil microorganisms. In conditions of the necessary moisture regime of the soil, microbiological processes (nitrification) are activated. The irrigation has a huge effect on nodule bacteria, which are not formed in arid regions on the surface of the roots of legumes.