Convinced at Last on Drip Irrigation

Subbu was "high" when I called him today.  He was so happy he did not want to talk to me further because his next best action was driving him mad.

He was thrilled that the drip irrigation pipes that he assembled worked very well.  No big deal for anyone who has heared the term drip irrigation in all magazines and advertisements. But is it another story when you actually "do it".

As mentioned earlier stories,  he had put the drip pipes around  the jasmine plants and other fence trees.  But due to lack of wind there was no water that was getting pumped by the windpump on to the overhead tank.  This tank would create required pressure to drive water to far off.

On laying the drip pipes,  we had taken a call that we will not take any professional help, but assemble ourselves.  We will also not go for any "filters and pumps" as in conventional system.  Ours will be simple low cost system where only pipes will be involved.  We would use gravity to drive water into pipes and leak out through rubber tubes where required.  Ofcourse we should maintain  the system "clean" to prevent clogging. That's all.

He said "Sir, actually this is the pipe I brought second time. The first time what I brought was not of good quality and it did not work. This is working well".  That is true, I had already advised him to buy sturdier 0/5 inch black rubber pipe instead of the widely commercialized flat drip tapes.  They will work only when you pump water with a force.  We donot have electricity or pump to drive the water.    Using a tank perched at 15 feet high, we  create enough gravitational force  to drive water to farthest corner of this 3 acre farm.

Anyway Kandan was very happy. He don't have to run around watering the stray plants manually.  In this hot summar it is very difficult to "carry" water on shoulders using plastic pots to water the stray plants.

Subbu is on his way to Tirunelveli to buy a bigger roll or pipes.

Can We survive this summer ?

Around 10th July, 2014 I had made this simple diagram on microsoft sketch.
This was just for myself. I did not communicate this to Subbu.
Had I done, he would have got confused.
So I had to go step by step

It has always been at the back of my mind and that of Subbu's.  Now it has come to the forehead and lingering over.    Can we survive this summer.  Till last summer, we did not have any water source. We used to pump the water using handpump.  This is the first year, I have the pukka plan in place, complete with all ideas put into action.

Here is the quick review of it.

Step 1 :   After the installation of the windmill followed by a ready made plastic tank at 15 feet. For this we fabricated an iron frame.  Initially it did not support the weight, later it was reinforced. From this overhead tank of 1000 liters, water is sometimes directly taken for irrigation using the green hose. Otherwise overflow should go to the large cement tank

The water  tank atop an iron frame.  Pumped water comes into this.
The small tank at the bottom ground level was the first tank we constructed before the windmill.
today it is used to excess store water, panjagavya water etc.

Step 2 : We constructed a simple water Tank of large capacity (30 feet x 10) feet with unfinished bricks on the outer wall.  Water from windmill will fall into this. Notice a small thin water flow at the end. Underneath this tank we can open the valve which will let the water to the rainwater tank through an underground PVC pipe that we had laid earlier.

The main water tank.  windpump water will fall into this.  I believe this is getting filled in one week now.
This is full of moss growth. There are fishes in it.

Step 3 : The final destination. Rain water tank as it stands today. Note the water has hit the bottom. The tank is only 6 feet deep.

This is the open inlet to collect water from all directions and direct to
the rainwater tank. It is in the place where you are standing.
This is artificially made. Earlier the ground was flat.

The rainwater catchment tank. All drain water comes here.  This is fully muddy.
There are plenty of fishes growing here. Concern is that water level is receding. one full tank of water from cement tank will raise few inches of water here. 

From this muddy tank, if we need to pump water, we need the kerosene engine pump which is kept ready.

I am afraid, with current generation rate of water, if we will be water positive or negative during peak summer. Crossing fingers and waiting.  Subbu told that we need to sustain for atleast 2 more months? Why did he say 2 months? what will happen after that? Is he expecting rain or closing down of few patches ? Need to discuss further. I need to check the last year rain pattern.

We are anyway going to take risk by planting more plants.  Hey where is Kandan ? Has he come from his sick bed. I wanted him to prepare sowing mappillai samba rice on a small patch.

***

Farm Photo Update - Progress on Water conservation

Overhead Tank Installed. This will create pressure using gravity

Elegant Windmill in the backdrop

Banana is slowly sprouting

JCB digging Rainwater catchment mini Pond.
Swale overflow will come here

Overflow fish water tank foundation near windpump 25 x 10

Rainwater pond 30 x 30 feet ready

Trench for submerging main water pipe to carry water across.

Where is Swale ? Subbu completly forgot to send the photo. Perhaps he is shy to share that. The more we are obsessive about anything, workers wish they donot want to expose their ignorance.  Moral of the story - donot over explain anything. They get scared.