Rain gun for sugarcane cultivation

Background
Rain gun irrigation system is effective in sugarcane cultivation to increase the cane yield by 21%, saving of irrigation water by 32% and to increase the water-use-efficiency by 1.80 times compared to furrow irrigation. Rain gun will save nearly 75% of the electricity and increase the life of motor / pump as well. In surface irrigation, more than 75% of the water goes as deep percolation beyond root zone, but in rain gun irrigation, the percolation loss is negligible.

Early adopter for the technology
Shri.Periyasamy from Kandasamypalayam village of Tirupur distric adopted rain gun irrigation for sugarcane cultivation. He has reported that half an acre could be irrigated within one hour. The extent of area irrigated per day was nearly doubled. If a farmer cultivates 5 acres of sugarcane by surface irrigation, the same farmer can cultivate 10 acres of land by using rain gun with the very same quantity of water and pump. Installing  drip system for one acre sugarcane costs around Rs.25,000 to Rs.30,000, whereas, for rain gun, the cost is around Rs.15,000 to 20,000. Drip irrigation cannot be shifted from one place to another, but the rain gun can be easily shifted to other places.

Scope and utility

• Rain gun sprinkles water over the crop canopy, thereby aids in foliar absorption of water. Since water is applied uniformly over a larger area, conveyance loss minimized and water loss due to deep percolation is avoided.
• In drip irrigation, water oozes out through dripers, which gets clogged by the calcium carbonate and other salts present in water. After a period of one or two years, most of the drippers get clogged. In rain gun, there is no clogging problem.
• The height of the guns can be adjusted according to the height of the plant, thus, the water utilization will be very effective and the guns can be replaced easily from one field to another. Further, cultivation of intercrop is easy since the system height can be adjusted  according to the crop height.
  

  Central unit of fully automated fertigation system	Farmers field under fully automated fertigation system

  
  

Status of the technology
Even though the rain gun technology has several advantages the adoption rate is lower compared to drip irrigation. It is because of lack of awareness among the farmers about the rain gun and it’s advantages. If proper institutional support and validation is done, then the technology will be one of the a viable alternative for surface irrigation sugarcane cultivation.