Small Scale Farmers should Adopt Modern Irrigation techniques for Sustainability in Agriculture

Irrigation is the artificial way of applying water on land and soil for crops to grow efficiently. The old way of farming was focused more on subsistence than selling products in the market. Most farmers grow crops for their personal consumption usually in a small land so irrigation was done in a small scale and was labor intensive and inefficient. Traditional method of irrigation produced inefficient crops as they don't get watered properly. In the face of this Nigerian economic problem, small farmers should pay attention to new techniques that will boost their small farms into big businesses that can improve the economy.

In modern times, irrigation has changed from what it used to be to become more machine intensive and sophisticated.

Surface irrigation system

 Filling the land completely with water. example crops like rice are able to get a sufficient amount of water to grow effectively.






Drip Irrigation

Supplying water at the root of the plants. water is piped through different locations in the field and distributed by high pressure sprinklers.




Center pivot irrigation

it is a sprinkler that consist of several segments of pipes joined  together and supported by trusses, mounted on wheeled towers with sprinklers along it's length. Water is fed from pivot at the center of the arc.





Sprinkler

This is very important in areas where change in temperature of earth, environment and humidity is required for growth of crops. Due to continuous spray of water, there is improvement in physical conditions of earth and composition of soil.




Modern irrigation techniques are preferable these days. they are efficient, effective and increases crop yield.

Why you should use modern irrigation techniques

1. it controls wastage of water
2. there is increase in demand for food crops and delay in waiting for rain.
3. rainfall alone is inadequate and does not grow crops efficiently.

References
www.biologydiscussion.com/articles/traditional-and-modern-irrigation-methods
www.slideshare.net/jatinagarwal3/modern-irrigation-techniques