Ancient Inventions Codexery

Drip irrigation

Modern drip irrigation was invented in Israel in the 1960s.

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Drip irrigation delivers water drop by drop to the exact location of individual plants using tapes, tubes and nozzles.[1] A properly installed drip system can save as much as 80% of the water normally used in other irrigation types.[2] In 2023, a Haaretz article reported that drip irrigation was used by only 3% of farmers globally, primarily for row crops, greenhouses, and vineyards.[3]

Quick Facts

Field
Agricultural irrigation
First modern development
Israel, 1960s

Facts from the source article.

How it changed

Primitive drip irrigation using buried clay pots was described in China during the first century BCE.[4] Modern drip irrigation began in Germany in 1860 with subsurface clay pipe experiments.[5] In the 1920s, researchers expanded the work to perforated pipe systems.[6] Simcha Blass and his son Yeshayahu developed a plastic emitter that used friction to slow water through larger passageways.[7]

Goldberg and Shmueli (1970) demonstrated that a surface trickle-irrigation system worked well with saline water in the Arava desert.[8] By the late 1960s, many farmers in North and South America and Australia shifted to drip irrigation.[1] In California, only 5% of irrigated land used drip irrigation by 1988, but by 2010 that figure reached 40%.[9] Hannis Thill, working in Australia, later advanced the use of plastic materials for holding and distributing water in drip irrigation systems.[6]

According to a 2012 National Geographic report, China and India were the most rapidly growing nations for micro-irrigation, and globally over ten million hectares were irrigated with these methods.[10]

What the maker and period sources say

A 2016 study on Indian sugarcane cultivators notes that drip irrigation systems are expensive due to piping and filtration equipment.[2] The same study states that a well-designed drip system can save as much as 80% of water compared to other irrigation methods.[2] The "History of Drip Irrigation" account reports that Blass found inspiration in a dripping faucet near a thriving tree in Israel.[1] That account also states that by 1986, 11 sugar plantations in Hawaii had completely shifted to drip irrigation, with one spanning 37,000 acres.[1]

References

  1. "The History of Drip Irrigation". facts only, no text reused. gardenguides.com
  2. Internet Archive scan: "Factors Determining Drip-Irrigation System in Indian Agriculture – Evidence from Sugarcane Cultivators" (2016-06-30). facts only; machine OCR of the scan. archive.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Drip irrigation" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Degani, "How Israel achieved one of the most secure water economies, drip by drip", Haaretz, 2023-08-14 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Drip irrigation" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: s:zh:氾勝之書 以三斗瓦甕埋著科中央，令甕口上與地平。盛水甕中，令滿。; Bainbridge, "Buried clay pot irrigation: a little known but very efficient traditional method of irrigation", Agricultural Water Management, June 2001, p. 79–88 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Drip irrigation" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: R. Goyal, "Management of drip/trickle or micro irrigation", Apple Academic Press, 2012, p. 104 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Drip irrigation" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The History of the Drip Irrigation System and What is Available Now", www.irrigation.learnabout.info (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Drip irrigation" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The History of Drip Irrigation" (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Drip irrigation" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Goldberg D, Shmueli, M (1970) "Drip Irrigation—A Method Used Under Arid and Desert Conditions of High Water and Soil Salinity" Transactions of the ASAE 13 (1): (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Drip irrigation" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Zilberman, "The Diffusion of Process Innovation: The Case of Drip Irrigation in California", 26 July 2015 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Drip irrigation" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Drip Irrigation Expanding Worldwide, National Geographic, 25 June 2012, accessed 1 August 2019; Drip Irrigation Expanding Worldwide, National Geographic, 25 June 2012, accessed 1 August 2019; Tova Cohen, Israeli irrigation firm Netafim sees 50 pct earnings rise by 2020, Reuters.com, 21 March 2018, accessed 1 August 2019; Drip Irrigation Expanding Worldwide, National Geographic, 25 June 2012, accessed 1 August 2019; Rivulis Irrigation buys Greek co Eurodrip, Globes, 11 January 2017 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Drip irrigation (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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