Evaluation of the performance of irrigation systems in the south of Espirito Santo state, Brazil

The utilization of water in the irrigated agriculture must be done in a judiciously and precisely way, not only to optimize the crop yield and the final product quality, but also to guarantee the proper use of water resources. The evaluation of the irrigation systems contributes to minimize the losses during the application of water. This study evaluated the performance of irrigation systems, localized irrigation and sprinkler irrigation, in the south of the state of Espirito Santo. Four irrigation systems were evaluated: mobile sprinkler in an area cultivated with coffee; fixed sprinkler in an area cultivated with pineapple; localized with microsprinkler in an area cultivated with guava; and localized with microspray in an area cultivates with grape. In each irrigation project, tests of uniformity of water application were performed to determine the uniformity coefficients (Christiansen, statistic and distribution) and the irrigation management was evaluated, comparing the irrigation really applied with the irrigation needed to raise the soil humidity to the field capacity. The localized irrigation systems showed greater uniformity than the sprinkler irrigation systems, however, the water depth applied by the sprinkler systems was closer to the appropriate level than in the localized systems.