Application and Efficiency of Micro Sprinkler Irrigation

Abstract

Abstract In the presented paper, we evaluated the quality of work and the economics of use of irrigation system consisting of micro-sprinklers. The experiment took place on the football field in countryside of southwest Slovakia. The original irrigation system was replaced with a modern one, using a control unit, rainfall sensor, in-ground distribution pipes and micro-sprinklers. The irrigation system consisted of components forming the main and detailed irrigation equipment for irrigating an area of 4,272 m2. The water source was a drilled well with a depth of 80 m. Detailed irrigation equipment consisted of sector micro sprinklers of two types. We monitored 13 rotary micro-sprinklers on the given playground in total. During the measurements, we proceeded according to the international standard ISO 7749-2, while the rain measuring containers were distributed into eight beams. The value of the quality of the work of individual sprinklers, expressed by the coefficient of uniformity of spraying, reached a maximum of 78.18%, but with total coverage it was higher than 90%. Anova statistical analysis did not show a significant dependence of the quality of work on the type of micro-sprinkler (for micro-sprinklers A1, A2 A3: F = 2.95, P >0.05; for micro-sprinklers B, C: F = 0.35, P >0.05). From the viewpoint of evaluating the economic return, the investment proved to return within the period of 4.2 years.