Investigation and technical evaluation of trickle irrigation systems in Kurdistan province

Although the trickle irrigation systems have a high level of technology, but often unable to provide their potential advantages for several reasons. Therefore, evaluation of irrigation systems can discover their strengths and weaknesses and provide better operation by selecting and modifying management methods. In this study, 11 trickle irrigation systems were selected and evaluated in Kurdistan province. The measurements were performed according to the instructions released by the U.S. Soil Conservation service. The results showed that in most of the systems, the discharge of the drippers were less than their nominal discharge due to the unsuitability of the pressure, clogging and high coefficient of variation of the drippers. The ratio of wet area to total area was between 3.8 to 55 percentages. Emission Uniformity of systems was between 16.59 to 79.4 percentages. Application efficiency of low quarter of the fields varied from 16.6 to 79.3 percentages. Based on this index, only two farms had moderate performance and the performance of the rest were poor. The reasons of poor performance of systems can be imputed to the unsuitability pressure of systems, the pressure difference in the system, the large coefficient of variation of the drippers and weak management of the systems operation.