Abstract
Dryland water resource scarcity has been the most challenging issue facing the continuous development of irrigated agricultural systems. Although drip irrigation, especially subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) technology, reduced water loss from soil evaporation and increased water use efficiency (WUE), drip emitter with pumps brought large electric energy consumption and management cost, limiting its application for smallholders in dryland. Therefore, a new subsurface ceramic emitter (SCE) without using pumps, which consisted of a porous ceramic diaphragm, plastic washers, and plastic shells, was designed for smallholders in this study. Then its application effects were estimated using hydraulic, soil bin, pot, and field experiments. The results showed that the discharge of SCE in the air had a positive linear relationship with the working water head. The discharge of SCE in soil presented a power function relationship with the working water head, and the discharge exponent was 0.40. It was recommended that SCE should install at flat farmland with a topographic slope less than ± 5‰ to acquire an acceptable coefficient of uniformity (CU) under the working water head of more than 40 cm. A field experiment in Northwest China showed that SCE with a working water head of 60 cm created a suitable water moisture environment and CU, improving fruit yield and WUE of wolfberry. This provided an alternative irrigation method using SCE with a lower working water head for smallholders in dryland while ensuring a good CU.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
Data will be made available on request.
References
Agostini A, Colauzzi M, Amaducci S (2021) Innovative agrivoltaic systems to produce sustainable energy: an economic and environmental assessment. Appl Energy 281:116102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.116102
Aydinsakir K, Buyuktas D, Dinç N, Erdurmus C, Bayram E, Yegin AB (2021) Yield and bioethanol productivity of sorghum under surface and subsurface drip irrigation. Agric Water Manag 243:106452. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2020.106452
Benouniche M, Kuper M, Hammani A, Boesveld H (2014) Making the user visible: analysing irrigation practices and farmers’ logic to explain actual drip irrigation performance. Irrig Sci 243:405–420. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00271-014-0438-0
Bertuzzi P, Bruckler L, Bay D, Chanzy A (1994) Sampling strategies for soil water content to estimate evapotranspiration. Irrig Sci 14:105–115. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00193132
Cai YH, Zhao X, Wu PT, Zhang L, Zhu DL, Chen JY, Lin L (2019) Ceramic patch type subsurface drip irrigation line: construction and hydraulic properties. Biosyst Eng 182:29–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2019.03.005
Cai YH, Wu PT, Zhu DL, Zhang L, Zhao XN, Gao XD, Ge MS, Song XL, Wu Y, Dai ZG (2021a) Subsurface irrigation with ceramic emitters: an effective method to improve apple yield and irrigation water use efficiency in the semiarid Loess Plateau. Agric Ecosyst Environ 313:107404. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2021.107404
Cai YH, Yao CP, Wu PT, Zhang L, Zhu DL, Chen JY, Du YC (2021b) Effectiveness of a subsurface irrigation system with ceramic emitters under low-pressure conditions. Agric Water Manag 243:106390. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2020.106390
Cai YH, Wu PT, Gao XD, Zhu DL, Zhang L, Dai ZG, Chau HW, Zhao XN (2022) Subsurface irrigation with ceramic emitters: Evaluating soil water effects under multiple precipitation scenarios. Agric Water Manag 272:107851. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2022.107851
Chen Y, Yang B (2018) Experiment and simulation method to investigate the flow within porous ceramic membrane. J Aust Ceram Soc 54:575–586. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41779-018-0186-3
Cogels OG (1983) An irrigation system uniformity function relating the effective uniformity of water application to the scale of influence of the plant root zones. Irrig Sci 4:289–299. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00389651
Duan CX, Chen JF, Li JB, Su SS, Lei Q, Feng H, Wu SF, Zhang TB, Siddique KHM, Zou YF (2022) Biomaterial amendments combined with ridge–furrow mulching improve soil hydrothermal characteristics and wolfberry (Lycium barbarum L.) growth in the Qaidam Basin of China. Agric Water Manag 259:107213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2021.107213
Ghorbani R, Mondani F, Amirmoradi S, Feizi H, Khorramdel S, Teimouri M, Sanjani S, Anvarkhah S, Aghel H (2011) A case study of energy use and economical analysis of irrigated and dryland wheat production systems. Appl Energy 88(1):283–288. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2010.04.028
Gil M, Rodríguez-Sinobas L, Juana L, Sánchez R, Losada A (2008) Emitter discharge variability of subsurface drip irrigation in uniform soils: effect on water-application uniformity. Irrig Sci 26(6):451–458. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00271-008-0116-1
Grant F, Sheline C, Sokol J, Amerose S, Brownell E, Nangia V, Winter AG (2022) Creating a solar-powered drip irrigation optimal performance model (SDrOP) to lower the cost of drip irrigation systems for smallholder farmers. Appl Energy 323:119563. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2022.119563
Hanjra MA, Qureshi ME (2010) The Global water crisis and future food security in an era of climate change. Food Policy 35(5):365–377. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2010.05.006
Kalfountzos D, Alexiou I, Kotsopoulos S, Zavakos G, Vyrlas P (2007) Effect of subsurface drip irrigation on cotton plantations. Water Resour Manag 21(8):1341–1351. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-006-9085-4
Lamidi RO, Jiang L, Pathare PB, Wang YD, Roskilly AP (2019) Recent advances in sustainable drying of agricultural produce: a review. Appl Energy 233:367–385. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.10.044
Lin E, Liu H, Li X, Li L, Anwar S (2021) Promoting the production of salinized cotton field by optimizing water and nitrogen use efficiency under drip irrigation. J Arid Land 13:699–716. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40333-021-0012-6
Liu ZJ, Liu YS, Wang JY (2021) A global analysis of agricultural productivity and water resource consumption changes over cropland expansion regions. Agric Ecosyst Environ 321:107630. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2021.107630
Liu XF, He XF, Zhang L (2022) Simplified method for estimating discharge of microporous ceramic emitters for drip irrigation. Biosyst Eng 219:38–55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2022.04.022
Liu XF, Zhang L, Liu Q, Yang FH, Han MX, Yao SY (2023) Subsurface irrigation with ceramic emitters: Optimal working water head improves yield, fruit quality and water productivity of greenhouse tomato. Sci Hortic 310:111712. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2022.111712
Ma S, Tong L, Kang S, Wang S, Wu X, Cheng X, Li Q (2022) Optimal coupling combinations between dripper discharge and irrigation interval of maize for seed production under plastic film-mulched drip irrigation in an arid region. Irrig Sci 40:177–189. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00271-021-00739-x
Peña-Arancibia JL, Mainuddin M, Kirby JM, Chiew FHS, McVicar TR, Vaze J (2016) Assessing irrigated agriculture’s surface water and groundwater consumption by combining satellite remote sensing and hydrologic modelling. Sci Total Environ 542:372–382. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.10.086
Pierrat E, Barbarossa V, Núñez M, Scherer L, Link A, Damiani M, Verones F, Dorber M (2023) Global water consumption impacts on riverine fish species richness in life cycle assessment. Sci Total Environ 854:158702. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158702
Saccon P (2018) Water for agriculture, irrigation management. Appl Soil Ecol 123:793–796. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsoil.2017.10.037
Schmidt JE, Peterson C, Wang DY, Scow KM, Gaudin ACM (2018) Agroecosystem tradeoffs associated with conversion to subsurface drip irrigation in organic systems. Agric Water Manag 202:1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2018.02.005
Sokol J, Narain J, Costello J, Mclaurin T, Kumar D, Winter AG (2022) Analytical model for predicting activation pressure and flow rate of pressure-compensating inline drip emitters and its use in low-pressure emitter design. Irrig Sci 40:217–237. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00271-022-00771-5
Valentín F, Nortes PA, Domínguez A, Sánchez JM, Intrigliolo DS, Alarcón JJ, López-Urrea R (2020) Comparing evapotranspiration and yield performance of maize under sprinkler, superficial and subsurface drip irrigation in a semi-arid environment. Irrig Sci 38:105–115. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00271-019-00657-z
Wang D, Li G, Mo Y, Zhang D, Xu X, Wilkerson CJ, Hoogenboom G (2021) Evaluation of subsurface, mulched and non-mulched surface drip irrigation for maize production and economic benefits in northeast China. Irrig Sci 39:159–171. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00271-020-00692-1
Wang C, Ye JY, Zhai YM, Kurexi W, Xing D, Feng GX, Zhang Q, Zhang ZY (2023) Dynamics of moistube discharge, soil-water redistribution and wetting morphology in response to regulated working pressure heads. Agric Water Manag 282:108285. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2023.108285
Wu I, Gitlin H (1983) Drip irrigation application efficiency and schedules. Trans ASABE 26(1):92–99. https://doi.org/10.13031/2013.34180
Yang F, Wu P, Zhang L, Liu Q, Zhou W, Liu X (2023) Subsurface irrigation with ceramic emitters improves the yield of wolfberry in saline soils by maintaining a stable low-salt environment in root zone. Sci Hortic 319:112181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2023.112181
Yao CP, Zhang L, Wu PT, Liu Y, Cai YH, Zhou W (2021) Clogging formation and an anti-clogging method in subsurface irrigation system with porous ceramic emitter. Agric Water Manag 250:106770. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2021.106770
Yin LC, Tao FL, Chen Y, Wang YH (2022) Reducing agriculture irrigation water consumption through reshaping cropping systems across China. Agric for Meteorol 321:108707. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2021.10870
Yu YD, Liu JH, Wang H, Liu M (2011) Assess the potential of solar irrigation systems for sustaining pasture lands in arid regions – a case study in Northwestern China. Appl Energy 88(9):3176–3182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2011.02.028
Zavala V, López-Luque R, Reca J, Martínez J, Lao MT (2020) Optimal management of a multisector standalone direct pumping photovoltaic irrigation system. Appl Energy 260:114261. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.114261
Zhang YL, Wang YS (2006) Soil enzyme activities with greenhouse subsurface irrigation. Pedosphere 16(4):512–518. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1002-0160(06)60082-9
Zhang TB, Dong QG, Zhan XY, He JQ, Feng H (2019) Moving salts in an impermeable saline-sodic soil with drip irrigation to permit wolfberry production. Agric Water Manag 213:636–645. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2018.11.011
Zhou W, Zhang L, Wu PT, Cai YH, Zhao X, Yao CP (2020) Hydraulic performance and parameter optimisation of a microporous ceramic emitter using computational fluid dynamics, artificial neural network and multi-objective genetic algorithm. Biosyst Eng 189:11–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2019.11.006
Zhou YQ, Gao XD, Wang JX, Robinson BH, Zhao XN (2021) Water-use patterns of Chinese wolfberry (Lycium barbarum L.) on the Tibetan Plateau. Agric Water Manag 255:107010. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2021.107010
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52079131).
Funding
This study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, 52079131.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
XL was involved in investigation, writing—original draft, and language. MH was responsible for data collection, writing—original draft, and language. LZ performed supervision, funding acquisition, and writing—review and editing.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no known conflict financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Liu, X., Han, M. & Zhang, L. A new subsurface ceramic emitter for smallholders without pumps: design, hydraulic performance, and field application. Irrig Sci 41, 835–845 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00271-023-00877-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00271-023-00877-4