A new technique for reducing surface evaporation and improving water use efficiency with drip irrigation

Drip is considered as the most efficient irrigation method amongst all the irrigation methods as it wets up only one-third cropped surface area and saves about 40 to 50 per cent of irrigation water depending upon the situation. Of the total water applied through drip, the only loss that takes place is through the surface evaporation and rest is used by the crop roots as ET The water use efficiency of this method can still be improved substantially by further reducing the surface evaporation by any means. A new technique has been presented in this paper which substantially reduces the surface moisture evaporation and improves the water use efficiency. The new technique involves digging of small holes near the plant stem, filling it with sand/gravels and placing the dripper over it so as to allow the water trickling out and directly reaching to the plant roots.