Assessing the Effectiveness of Variable-Rate Drip irrigation on Water Use Efficiency in a tomato farm in Chitungwiza

Rabson Njaravani
C16128339a
BSAE
LEVEL 4:1
 BACKGROUND OF THE
PROBLEM
• According to a study carried out by Whelan,and Mcbratney
conventional farming practices manage an agricultural field uniformly
without incorporating he intrinsic variability in topography, soil, crop
growth conditions, and other agronomic factors. This can result in nutrient
leaching, environmental contamination, and reduced profitability
especially when applying high inputs in low yielding areas and vice versa.
 INTRODUCTION

• Drip irrigation is the precise application of water at each and ever

• At Mimishac irrigation Ltd ,there are two types of drip irrigation systems
sold,(the conventional system and the adjustable system .
• This project focusies on evaluating the effec
 PROBLEM STATEMENT
• Water shortages have increased in the Harare province and has led to a
drop in production by farmers and also poor sanitation which has therefore
resulted in people opting for borehole drilling and making use of submersible
pumps to draw water from underground (boreholes). However frequent
breakdown of the submersible pumps used mainly sterling pumps have
become a drawback in accessing water from the boreholes. Therefore
there exist a knowledge gap in the installation and use of Sterling pumps.

Source: African Development Bank Group (2010)

 JUSTIFICATION
• After carrying out the assessment, I would be able to recommend the best
drip irrigation system to farmer with the highest efficiency.This helps to save
water as well as being a cost efficient design
OBJECTIVES
 LIMITATIONS
• It is nearly impossible to attend to all pump failures that are reported at the
company due to other duties that you would have been assigned to.
• The study and the suggested solutions might not be of relevance to other
brands of pumps such as Franklin and DAB pumps.
 METHODOLOGY

FOR OBJECTIVE 1
• Designing of a questioner
• Fifteen questioners to be administered to the workshop staff who perform
installations and twenty to the farmers experiencing frequent breakdown of
sterling pumps installed by our company.
• Sites will be visited for ground truthing and a minimum of ten sites will be
visited.
• Five more sites will be visited during installations of the pumps to equip the
researcher will the proper knowledge of borehole installations
FOR OBJECTIVE 2
• Ten site visits will be carried out for observations.
• Pump performance test will be carried out for ten chosen samples.
• A minimum of three pump test will be carried out for every chosen sample.
• Measuring of the pump head visa vie the discharge it produces.
• Comparing the pump performance with the prescriptions of the
manufacture.
 WORK PLAN
ACTIVITY
ACTIVITY October November
October November ecember
ecember january
january February
February
2019
2019 2020
2020
PROPOSAL
PROPOSAL
LITERATURE
LITERATURE
REVIEW
REVIEW
DATA
DATA
COLLECTION
COLLECTION
RESULTS &&
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
DISCUSSION
REPORT
REPORT
SUBMISSION
SUBMISSION
 BUDGET
Item Number Description Unit Price Qty Total Plan
1. Data bundles $5 300MB $100 RTGS
2. Transport fee $10 15 TRIPS $150RTGS
3 Grand total $250RTGS
NEW MARLBOROUGH
 NEW MARLBOROUGH
• New Marlborough, Harare West from trusted estate agents & private sellers. A
lot of pumps are being installed in Harare West. This year Workskill installed 53
pumps and in 2018 they installed 72pumps. The number of pump installation
is increasing each year.
 REFERENCES
• Beebe R.S (2004) predictive maintenance of pumps using condition
monitoring.( Oxford: Elsevier Advanced Technology)
• Derrick N. (2001) “Production Operation of Submersible Pumps with Closed-
Loop Adjustable Speed Control”(Alcock).
• Jun DENG L. & Jin-fang W Innovating(Oct 2010) design of submersible motor
pump based on TRIZ, IEEE Transactions, Industrial Engineering And
Engineering Management.
• Lijie F.(2002) “Aggregate operation of a new type water pump”, (China
Coal)
• Prasaud M. International journal on advanced engineering technology
• Shiels S. (2001) world pumps ( Chapman & Hall).