irrigation

• irrigation is used to supply extra water to farming areas to increase or maintain production when the water supply is unreliable or low, it can increase crop yields as well as income, and so helps to reduce poverty which is a major cause of food insecurity
• countries with acrid or semi acrid climates including parts of europe and north america tend to use irrigation
• this can be done in many ways such as large scale schemes such as canals and dams (asian dam in egypt)
• water can be delivered to the plants roots through pipes that are full of tiny holes and which spread across fields, it can be computerised or manual and water is not wasted and evaporation is minimilised
• fields can be flooded in a controlled way, the water is pumped by hand, animal or machine along canals controlled by small dams from a river or well (used in rice paddles in asia)
• sprinklers are often found in farms in HICs and can be permanent or movable, the water is delivered to a central point in the field and then to plants by sprinklers (found in maize fields in france)
• buckets and watering cans are used by hand
• irrigation reduces poverty, increases income and increases crop yields
• however irrigation can also push people off the land used for reservoirs, cause increased waterlogging of soil due to lack of drainage, cause a competition for water from irrigation schemes leading to water scarcity for subsistence farmers and there is a cost to set up the schemes