Impact of Irrigation Management and Emitters Type on Clogging in Sari District

Water crisis is one of the basic problems in the arid and drought prone areas like Iran. This condition in the recent years has aggravated due to drought phenomenon. Thus, using poor water quality has increased in areas where good quality is not available. In this study, in order to investigate clogging, 5 types of emitters including Micro flapper, Netafim, Corona, Axios and Iran Drip were tested at two different flow rates (8/6/4/2 L/h). The experiment was carried out in Samandak village in Sari district and had four irrigation management treatments including untreated well water (S1), acidification (S2), acidification-fertigation (S3), and fertigation (S4). The results showed that the Netafim emitter (8 L/h) had minimum clogging while the micro flapper (2 L/h) had the maximum clogging among all of the tested emitters. Also, acidification treatment (S2) had minimum clogging. The results indicated that in a given type of emitter, the flow rate reduction due to clogging decreased with increasing emitter flow. Statistical analyses of the data showed that the effects of irrigation management factor and emitter factor were significant in variation of flow rate, but there was no significant interaction between these factors. Study of the discharge coefficient of variation and coefficient of uniformity revealed that acidification was a management strategy in the control of emitter clogging and maintenance of high uniformity in the trickle irrigation systems.