Drip irrigation in Finland

Merja Myllys1 and Osmo Purhonen2*

1 MTT Agrifood Research Finland, Plant Production Research, FI-31600 Jokioinen, Finland

2 Myllykyläntie 28, FI-20960 Turku, Finland * corresponding and presenting author, purhonenosmo@gmail.com

Contents

• Need for irrigation• Irrigation methods• Drip irrigation; latest results

1. potato crop production2. horticultural crop production

• Future prospects

Picture: Finnish Field Drainage Centre

Precipitation and evaporation in Finland

Need for irrigation

• Boreal climatic zone• Water deficiency from May to July

≈125 mm • Need for irrigation depends on

storage capacity of soil• Drainage is more important than irrigation• Irrigation is also used to prevent frost

damages (20-40 mm/night)

Irrigation methods• Irrigation was introduced late: in 1960’• Sprinkler and boom irrigation are prevailing

methods• 9% of farms have irrigation equipment• 80 000 hectares out of 2.4 milj. hectares can

be irrigated• Irrigation water from natural watercourses• 2% of total run-off is utilized for municipal and

industrial purposes, minor part for irrigation

Irrigation methods

Drip irrigation

• Novel method on field

1) Drip irrigation in potato crop production

• On-farm field experiment; one main farm (all treatments) + four others (some treatments in each)

• Treatments: drip irrigation, sprinkler, boom, subsurface irrigation, no irrigation

• Measurments/observations: water and nutrient status of the soil, yield and yield quality of the potato crop

Drip irrigation in potato crop production

+ All methods increased yield + Drip irrigation increased proportion of

marketable yield (tuber size 35-55 mm)

Drip irrigation in potato crop production

+ Possibility to add liquid fertilizes in the irrigation water increased the important calcium content in the tubers

Drip irrigation in potato crop production

+ Drip irrigation diminished leaching of nutrients during growing season (the red bar indicates how much nutrients are left after harvest)

2) Drip irrigation in horticultural crop production

• Joint series of field experiments• Crops were pickling cucumber, strawberry,

black currant and raspberry• Production practises, work demand, and

economy were studied• Guidelines for farmers were made

Drip irrigation in horticultural crop production

+ Crop benefited from drip irrigation which was started when tensiometres indicated suction of -150 to -300 hPa.

+ Especially berry crops benefited from added fertilizers in the irrigation water

Drip irrigation in horticultural crop production

- Installation of drip irrigation system requires a lot of work

- Production costs per farm increase + Production costs per kg of yield decreased if

the amount of yield exceeded • 8 – 9 000 kg/ha for strawberry• 6 - 9 000 kg/ha for black currant• 55 000 kg/ha for pickling cucumber

Conclusions

• As water reservoirs are plenty in Finland, lack of irrigation water is not the main reason to choose drip irrigation instead of another method.

• Reasons are + the possibility for fertilization during the growing

season+ minimized leaching of nutrients+ efficient use of water and nutrients+ ease of use once installed

Conclusions

• Disadvantages of drip irrigation are - Laborious installing- The fact that drip irrigation cannot be used for

preventing frost damages

Future prospects

• Drip irrigation will be more commonly used in high value perennial crop production

• Due to high installation cost drip irrigation will not be widely used for annual crop production

• Need for irrigation will increase due to climate change

Thank you!