Evaluation of the Efficiency of the Micro-irrigation Systems in Gardens of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province of Iran

Abstract

The supply of food security of the society requires the stability of the water resources, that’s requiring the management of optimal water consumption. For this purpose, a research project was conducted to evaluate the efficiency and improvement of optimal water consumption in the gardens of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province. After identifying micro-irrigation plans in the province, 16 plans were selected randomly in different climates and levels. The evaluation indexes were selected based on the instruction of the U.S. Soil Conservation Service (SCS) and American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Parameters of the absolute emission uniformity (EU), the statistical uniformity of Coefficient (Us), efficiency reduction factor (ERF), and flow rate coefficient of variations were obtained. The results indicated that 43.7 percent of the projects being studied had a very good statistical emission uniformity and 31.3 percent showed a Poor and average statistical emission uniformity and 25 percent of the projects had an unacceptable statistical emission uniformity. The flow rate non-uniformity of the droppers and the resulting low coefficients indicated the manipulation of the droppers. The average ERF is 0.717 in the selected projects, which is due to the non-supply of the pressure required in the irrigation systems. The dependence of the Farmers and agricultural operators on government’s aids is one of the main challenges and obstacles of the growth of agriculture and stable productivity in the region.