Overview of Drainage and Irrigation
The basic difference between drainage and irrigation lies in the method used to achieve a desired result. Irrigation applies water to create soil conditions favorable for plant growth. Drainage removes excess water from soil to create favorable plant growth conditions.
- Irrigation systems deliver water to crops in specific intervals and amounts. Irrigation provides crops necessary water supporting growth and development, ensuring higher yields and reducing crop failure risk from water stress. Drainage prevents soil waterlogging while irrigation supplies adequate water to crops for healthy growth when rainfall is insufficient. Both practices are essential for efficient agricultural water management.
Importance of Drainage in Agriculture
One sure way of making the environment more habitable in a populous city is by installing irrigation and drainage systems. These solutions help in reducing air pollution, natural disasters, and help with energy generation.
- Drainage is employed in the reclamation of wetlands and as a concomitant of irrigation in the agriculture of arid regions. It provides better drainage than a surface system because it removes water from the soil to the depth of the drain, providing plants a greater mass of soil for root development, permitting the soil to warm up faster in the spring, and maintaining a better balance of bacterial action, the air in the soil, and other factors needed for maximum crop growth.
Significance of Drainage Systems in Agriculture
Why Does Drainage Matter? You might have an irrigation system that adequately waters all of your plants, but is your drainage system working well too? All irrigation systems for commercial lawns need proper drainage in order to achieve the best results.
- At present, about 299 Mha (or 18%) of the arable and permanent cropped areas worldwide are irrigated, and although drainage is an important component of irrigation, only 22% of these irrigated lands are drained. As a consequence, salinity and waterlogging problems affect about 10–16% of these areas because the natural drainage is not sufficient for controlling soil salinity levels. Additional artificial drainage is needed to address this problem. Although the total area under irrigation continues to grow, very little is being invested in drainage systems to sustain the investments in irrigation.