Overview:
Rainguns are medium to large range sprinklers ideal for irrigating 0.5 acres to 2.5 acres (1 hac.) in a single operation / through one sprinkler and are especially beneficial for field crops like Sugarcane, Maize, Barley, Pulses, Tea, Coffee & certain leafy vegetables. They assure a huge cost and maintenance advantage compared to other irrigation formats like drip irrigation.
Advantages of Raingun for Field Crops:
- Being a permanent / semi-permanent or portable system, its initial cost per hectare is comparatively much lesser than other micro-irrigation systems like drip systems.
- Although the increase in yield varies from crop to crop, still a 15-20% increase in yield can easily be achieved using Rainguns.
- Agro technical advantage is achieved by creating microclimatic conditions conducive for plant growth, for e.g. washing of leaves at regular intervals leads to good photosynthesis which finally results in a good output from field crop.
- Foliar application of fertilizers can be done easily for nutrients uptake and nitrogen.
- Helps in controlling pests as frequent washing of leaves does not allow settling of pest eggs, hence the cost of pesticides is saved.
- By operating Rainguns at optimum pressure, fine water droplets can be created to maintain optimum air and water ratio in the soil. Especially in sugarcane, there is a substantial increase in sugar content in crops that are irrigated through Rainguns. Thus, benefiting the farmers & processors.
- Field Crops are dense and have a height of 5 to 10ft, Raingun operations are easily visible as compared to drip irrigation, which is very difficult to monitor.
- Rainguns are very durable and have no issue with water quality, thus eliminating the cost of chemigation, which is required in drip irrigation due to frequent clogging of drippers.
- Very low, almost negligible maintenance is required compared to drip irrigation, as the entire system is installed on the surface or subsurface, with much fewer components.
