Mike Kruger has produced a variety of forestry, fruit, lawn and ornamental plant seedlings under intensive conditions in KwaZulu-Natal’s Cramond area since the 1980s. During this time, he has learnt that irrigating his crops with contaminant-free water is an absolute necessity. READ Designing an irrigation system according to soil type Untreated irrigation water can carry […]
A plant’s temperature can serve as an early warning sign of an underwatered and stressed plant, which makes monitoring crop temperatures a priority for many farmers. Infrared cameras can detect heat and convert it into an image, but are large and expensive, making them impractical for most farmers. Infrared sensors are less expensive; however, they […]
Agrico’s new GPS module, which can be used with the company’s other Internet-based control systems on the web-based Rain interface, enables improved control over pumps according to the specific need of the pivots. This can result in impressive energy savings. The module can be installed on any electrical pivot to monitor pressure at the end […]
“If you don’t know when to irrigate and how much water to apply, as well as when not to irrigate, you risk over-irrigating, wasting water and fertiliser, and placing the plant under pressure. There’s also a risk that you may under-irrigate and limit the plant’s production potential,” says irrigation expert and agronomist, Robbie Childs. “The […]
All too often, I come across farmers who do not irrigate practically or economically. Applying too much water ends up wasting money, while watering too little can stress the plants. Many farmers use a weekly irrigation schedule: that is, watering once a week for a set amount of hours. But they do this without determining […]
In 2007, Farmer’s Weekly published ‘Qamata: How deep is the rot?’, a 14-page exposé by Stephan Hofstatter on the state of the Qamata irrigation system. Forming the basis of the feature were documents leaked to Farmer’s Weekly that spoke of the “mysterious disappearance of funds and assets, officials indifferent to, or conniving in, financial mismanagement, protracted and […]
Many emerging farmers don’t have access to electricity or sufficient finance when starting up to buy sprinklers or drip irrigation and so they have to use flood irrigation. But that doesn’t mean it’s an inferior system. For many years, I practiced flood irrigation on about 100ha and harvested up to 150t/ha of cabbage. There are […]
South Africa’s average annual rainfall is 495mm, compared with the global mean of 860mm. It is for this reason that South Africa is considered water-scarce and is classified as one of the world’s 30 driest countries. Most of South Africa’s freshwater resources are supplied by summer rainfall that is often poorly distributed, which leads to […]
Innovative South African technology using ultrasonic sound to clean drip irrigation pipes has been extensively evaluated by the Agricultural Research Council – Institute for Agricultural Engineering (ARC-IAE) in 2003, 2012 and recently. The results of the latest tests are the most promising yet. The technology was developed by local farmer, Leon Lingnau. A long-time user […]
Many of South African rivers from which water is drawn for agricultural irrigation purposes are carrying extraordinarily high pathogenic loads. Produce irrigated using this water are often minimally processed fresh fruit and vegetables or products that are eaten raw. The risks of using this water to produce edible crops have been weighed against the backlog […]
