Furrow irrigation is an irrigation where farmers flow water down small trenches running between their crops. Furrow irrigation works well for row crops, tree crops, because water does not directly contact the plants, crops that would be damaged by direct inundation by water such as tomatoes, vegetables, potatoes and beans.
For more information about advantages and disadvantages of furrow irrigation you can read article in the below :
Advantages to furrow irrigation
There are several disadvantages with furrow irrigation. These may include:
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| Furrow Irrigation |
Advantages to furrow irrigation
- lower initial investment of equipment
- minimizing water loss inefficiencies in gravity irrigation systems will allow irrigators to save money and labor.
- lower pumping costs per acre-inch of water pumped.
- furrow irrigation practice can minimize irrigation costs and chemical leaching and result in higher crop yields.
Disadvantages of Furrow Irrigation
- an accumulation of salinity between furrows;
- an increased level of tail water losses; and the solution is to build retention ponds along the edges of fields that help capture this runoff, allowing it to be pumped back to the upslope side of the field for use in further irrigation cycles.
- the difficulty of moving farm equipment across the furrows;
- the added expense and time to make extra tillage practice (furrow construction);
- an increase in the erosive potential of the flow;
- needing to level and remove any small hills that would have been bypassed by the gravity flow of the water because difficulties of furrow irrigation is ensuring uniform dispersion of water over a given field.
- generally furrow systems are more difficult to automate, particularly with regard to regulating an equal discharge in each furrow
- That's all of furrow irrigation advantages and disadvantages that is the oldest oldest methods of irrigation.