Enhancing the Optimum Water Requirement for the Crop Using the Contemporary Capillary Wick Irrigation Method a Case of an Experimental Demonstration

Indian farming industry is a major industry globally, comprising a complex group of enterprises that consume a lot of water. India is a predominantly agricultural country. Many sectors are directly or indirectly associated with this agricultural sector, such as employment, food, and industrial raw material. Farming entirely depends on the availability of water. The maximum amount of freshwater is utilized in agriculture, mainly using groundwater. Water scarcity and depletion of groundwater in the recent years due to changes in annual rainfall and climate change in India will be a major challenge in the day to come. Micro-irrigation systems are currently being. Innovative indigenous micro-irrigation techniques like the proposed ‘capillary wick irrigation technique’ would eliminate the limitation of drip irrigation that requires not only electricity but also technical know-how on the part of the irrigator for its effective use. The present experimental study seeks to examine the applicability of the proposed innovative indigenous ‘capillary wick irrigation technique’ through a small underground water reservoir for row crops by comparing the same with the farmers’ traditional method (check basin method) of surface irrigation. The experimentation for row crop of fennel (saunf) (scientific name: Foeniculum vulgare), also known as ‘variali’ in vernacular language, was carried out with saline water and on an adverse land. Experimental investigations were conducted by designing and installing capillary wick assembly at an agricultural farm at ‘velavadar,’ district Surendranagar. The effect of wick spacing on the crop yield was also studied by employing T1/1, T1/2, T1/3, T2/1, T2/2, T2/3, T3, and T4 types of arrangements. Crop characteristics like height, stem diameter, and yield were studied under various arrangements. Experiments were also conducted to study the wetting front movement under the proposed capillary wick irrigation assembly. Compared to drip irrigation, the additional water saving by the proposed irrigation method was 17.40%. Compared to the regular farmer’s irrigation method, the water saving by the proposed irrigation method was around 85%. The results demonstrate the successful applicability of the proposed irrigation method even under adverse agricultural regimes.