Agricultural Engineering and Land Planning Collection

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Sprinkler perfomance evaluation at Mtibwa Sugar Estates
(Sokoine University of Agriculture, 1994) Emmanuel,Marealle
ABSTRACT A perfomance evaluation study aimed at evaluating Mtibwa sprinkler irrigation system was carried out at Mtibwa sugar estates,Morogoro. The specific objectives were:(1)To investigate whether the application rate,duration of application and operating pressure of the current system meet the sugar cane water reqirement with respect to the prevailing soil moisture deficit.(2) To investigate sprinkler irrigation performance parameters whether the system is operating as designed and give recommendatons in relation to low yield difference between irrigated and rainfed cane.The results showed that about 20 % of all sprinkler irrigated blocks had coefficient of uniformity below 80 %.The pressure recorded ranged from 1.8 to 3.2 bar and 73 % of all blocks had sprinklers operating below the designed pressure of 3.2 bar.From the performance parameters the study showed that about 38 % of all blocks required longer duration of irrigation than the current practiced one. The longer required duration per set is identified to be due to low application rate which is also caused by low operating pressure at the pump stations and consequently to the sprinklers. Therefore,the low yield and insignificant yield differences between irrigated and rainfed sugar cane is caused by poor performance of the sprinkler system.This led to inadequate application of water.