Homestead or terrace farming clusters may soon be the ground for a new irrigation concept.
Termed ‘wick irrigation,’ it has been developed by a scientist at the Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (CWRDM) at Kunnamangalam in Kozhikode and has been “successfully” tested on vegetables in grow-bags. It is now ready to be applied in a homestead farming set-up.
The method, which was tested at the centre in the last two years on a variety of vegetables in grow-bags, has several advantages when compared to the other forms of irrigations including surface irrigation or drip irrigation, says scientist Kamalam Joseph, who developed the new method.
When irrigated by ‘wick irrigation,’ which is convenient for those who cannot regularly water or care for the plants, the plants were found to be more healthy, to be flowering fast, and giving higher yield besides other benefits, says Dr. Kamalam, who is the head of the training, education and extension division of the CWRDM.
“It’s a multi beneficial irrigation technology for potted plants,” she says. Effectively addressing the issue of water shortage, as the system requires only minimal amount of water for irrigation, the technology also makes use of plastic bottles that are usually thrown away.
The method has already been demonstrated before Agriculture Minister K.P. Mohanan and other senior officials of the Agriculture Department.
