IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agiwat/v221y2019icp25-33.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Pros and cons of furrow irrigation on smallholdings in northeast Brazil

Author

Listed:
  • Araujo, Danielle F.
  • Costa, Raimundo N.
  • Mateos, Luciano

Abstract

Smallholder farming is the basis of agricultural production in developing regions. Irrigation improves the household livelihood and welfare of smallholders. Furrow irrigation is the most common type of irrigation on the small farms of public irrigation schemes set up in the Northeast of Brazil during the 1970s and 1980s. However, furrow irrigation triggers environmental problems related to deep percolation, runoff and soil erosion. The objective of this research was to determine how soil was lost from irrigation furrows as a result of their management and performance. Experiments were carried out in the Curú-Pentecoste irrigation scheme located in the state of Ceará, Brazil. Three inflow rates (corresponding to the three sizes of syphons used to apply water to the furrows) were compared on 60-m long furrows in the two predominant soil classes (sandy loam and silty clay loam) during 4 or 5 irrigation events throughout the irrigation season. Runoff represented between 20 and 70% of the water applied, carrying sediments amounting up to 2.8 Mg ha−1 in 4 irrigation events. Simple irrigation practices that could improve furrow irrigation performance in the scheme are suggested. However, the environmental problems of the furrow irrigation in practice seem inherent to the irrigation method used under those conditions. The paper discusses the adoption and performance of traditional and modern irrigation technology in smallholdings in developing regions.

Suggested Citation

  • Araujo, Danielle F. & Costa, Raimundo N. & Mateos, Luciano, 2019. "Pros and cons of furrow irrigation on smallholdings in northeast Brazil," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 221(C), pages 25-33.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:221:y:2019:i:c:p:25-33
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2019.04.029
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377418306681
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agwat.2019.04.029?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lozano, David & Mateos, Luciano, 2008. "Usefulness and limitations of decision support systems for improving irrigation scheme management," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 95(4), pages 409-418, April.
    2. Hanjra, Munir A. & Ferede, Tadele & Gutta, Debel Gemechu, 2009. "Reducing poverty in sub-Saharan Africa through investments in water and other priorities," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 96(7), pages 1062-1070, July.
    3. Borgia, Cecilia & García-Bolaños, Mariana & Li, Tao & Gómez-Macpherson, Helena & Comas, Jordi & Connor, David & Mateos, Luciano, 2013. "Benchmarking for performance assessment of small and large irrigation schemes along the Senegal Valley in Mauritania," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 19-26.
    4. Jennifer Burney & Daniele Cesano & Jarrod Russell & Emilio Rovere & Thais Corral & Nereide Coelho & Laise Santos, 2014. "Climate change adaptation strategies for smallholder farmers in the Brazilian Sertão," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 126(1), pages 45-59, September.
    5. Poncet, J. & Kuper, M. & Chiche, J., 2010. "Wandering off the paths of planned innovation: The role of formal and informal intermediaries in a large-scale irrigation scheme in Morocco," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 103(4), pages 171-179, May.
    6. Mateos, Luciano & Oyonarte, Nicolas A., 2005. "A spreadsheet model to evaluate sloping furrow irrigation accounting for infiltration variability," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 76(1), pages 62-75, July.
    7. Fabrício Gonçalves & Renato Ribeiro & Raimundo Costa & Julien Burte, 2015. "A Management Analysis Tool for Emancipated and Public Irrigation Areas Using Neural Networks," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 29(7), pages 2393-2406, May.
    8. García-Bolaños, Mariana & Borgia, Cecilia & Poblador, Noemí & Dia, Mamadou & Seyid, Ould Mohamed Vadel & Mateos, Luciano, 2011. "Performance assessment of small irrigation schemes along the Mauritanian banks of the Senegal River," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(7), pages 1141-1152, May.
    9. Lowder, Sarah K. & Skoet, Jakob & Raney, Terri, 2016. "The Number, Size, and Distribution of Farms, Smallholder Farms, and Family Farms Worldwide," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 16-29.
    10. Garb, Yaakov & Friedlander, Lonia, 2014. "From transfer to translation: Using systemic understandings of technology to understand drip irrigation uptake," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 13-24.
    11. Comas, Jordi & Connor, David & Isselmou, Mohamed El Moctar & Mateos, Luciano & Gómez-Macpherson, Helena, 2012. "Why has small-scale irrigation not responded to expectations with traditional subsistence farmers along the Senegal River in Mauritania?," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 152-161.
    12. Graeub, Benjamin E. & Chappell, M. Jahi & Wittman, Hannah & Ledermann, Samuel & Kerr, Rachel Bezner & Gemmill-Herren, Barbara, 2016. "The State of Family Farms in the World," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 1-15.
    13. Bautista, E. & Clemmens, A.J. & Strelkoff, T.S. & Schlegel, J., 2009. "Modern analysis of surface irrigation systems with WinSRFR," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 96(7), pages 1146-1154, July.
    14. Jonas Wanvoeke & Jean-Philippe Venot & Margreet Zwarteveen & Charlotte de Fraiture, 2015. "Performing the success of an innovation: the case of smallholder drip irrigation in Burkina Faso," Water International, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(3), pages 432-445, May.
    15. Mateos, Luciano & dos Santos Almeida, Alexsandro Claudio & Frizzone, José Antônio & Lima, Sílvio Carlos Ribeiro Vieira, 2018. "Performance assessment of smallholder irrigation based on an energy-water-yield nexus approach," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 176-186.
    16. Connor, David & Comas, Jordi & Macpherson, Helena-Gomez & Mateos, Luciano, 2008. "Impact of small-holder irrigation on the agricultural production, food supply and economic prosperity of a representative village beside the Senegal River, Mauritania," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 96(1-3), pages 1-15, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mohammed, Ali T. & Irmak, Suat, 2022. "Maize response to coupled irrigation and nitrogen fertilization under center pivot, subsurface drip and surface (furrow) irrigation: Soil-water dynamics and crop evapotranspiration," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    2. Tong, Xuanyue & Wu, Pute & Liu, Xufei & Zhang, Lin & Zhou, Wei & Wang, Zhaoguo, 2022. "A global meta-analysis of fruit tree yield and water use efficiency under deficit irrigation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    3. Castillo, Gracia Maria Lanza & Engler, Alejandra & Wollni, Meike, 2021. "Planned behavior and social capital: Understanding farmers’ behavior toward pressurized irrigation technologies," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    4. Mazarei, Reza & Soltani Mohammadi, Amir & Ebrahimian, Hamed & Naseri, Abd Ali, 2021. "Temporal variability of infiltration and roughness coefficients and furrow irrigation performance under different inflow rates," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).
    5. Diana Martínez-Arteaga & Nolver Atanacio Arias Arias & Aquiles E. Darghan & Dursun Barrios, 2023. "Identification of Influential Factors in the Adoption of Irrigation Technologies through Neural Network Analysis: A Case Study with Oil Palm Growers," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-13, April.
    6. dos Santos Almeida, Alexsandro Claudio & Mamédio, Mário Roberto & Goelzer, Ademar & Rodrigues, Lucas Araujo & Mateos, Luciano, 2023. "Shared centre pivot. An experience of smallholder irrigation in Midwest Brazil," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 275(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mateos, Luciano & dos Santos Almeida, Alexsandro Claudio & Frizzone, José Antônio & Lima, Sílvio Carlos Ribeiro Vieira, 2018. "Performance assessment of smallholder irrigation based on an energy-water-yield nexus approach," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 176-186.
    2. dos Santos Almeida, Alexsandro Claudio & Mamédio, Mário Roberto & Goelzer, Ademar & Rodrigues, Lucas Araujo & Mateos, Luciano, 2023. "Shared centre pivot. An experience of smallholder irrigation in Midwest Brazil," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 275(C).
    3. Benavides, Juan & Hernández-Plaza, Eva & Mateos, Luciano & Fereres, Elías, 2021. "A global analysis of irrigation scheme water supplies in relation to requirements," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    4. Naouri, Mohamed & Kuper, Marcel & Hartani, Tarik, 2020. "The power of translation: Innovation dialogues in the context of farmer-led innovation in the Algerian Sahara," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    5. Elodie Blanc & Aurelia Lepine & Eric Strobl, 2014. "Determinants of crop yield and profit of family farms: Evidence from the Senegal River Valley," Working Papers 2014-596, Department of Research, Ipag Business School.
    6. García-Ponce, E. & Gómez-Macpherson, H. & Diallo, O. & Djibril, M. & Baba, C. & Porcel, O. & Mathieu, B. & Comas, J. & Mateos, L. & Connor, D.J., 2013. "Contribution of sorghum to productivity of small-holder irrigation schemes: On-farm research in the Senegal River Valley, Mauritania," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 72-82.
    7. Comas, Jordi & Connor, David & Isselmou, Mohamed El Moctar & Mateos, Luciano & Gómez-Macpherson, Helena, 2012. "Why has small-scale irrigation not responded to expectations with traditional subsistence farmers along the Senegal River in Mauritania?," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 152-161.
    8. Luis Bauluz & Yajna Govind & Filip Novokmet, 2020. "Global Land Inequality," PSE Working Papers halshs-03022318, HAL.
    9. Anne Jerneck, 2018. "What about Gender in Climate Change? Twelve Feminist Lessons from Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-20, February.
    10. Mwangi, Joseph Kanyua & Crewett, Wibke, 2019. "The impact of irrigation on small-scale African indigenous vegetable growers’ market access in peri-urban Kenya," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 295-305.
    11. Venot, Jean-Philippe, 2016. "A Success of Some Sort: Social Enterprises and Drip Irrigation in the Developing World," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 69-81.
    12. Salgado, Ramiro & Mateos, Luciano, 2021. "Evaluation of different methods of estimating ET for the performance assessment of irrigation schemes," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    13. Ebrahimian, Hamed & Ghaffari, Parisa & Ghameshlou, Arezoo N. & Tabatabaei, Sayyed-Hassan & Alizadeh Dizaj, Amin, 2020. "Extensive comparison of various infiltration estimation methods for furrow irrigation under different field conditions," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 230(C).
    14. Kamel Elouhichi & Pascal Tillie & Aymeric Ricome & Sergio Gomez-Y-Paloma, 2020. "Modelling Farm-household Livelihoods in Developing Economies: Insights from three country case studies using LSMS-ISA data," JRC Research Reports JRC118822, Joint Research Centre.
    15. Jieming Zhu & Chen Chen & Lie You, 2022. "Engaging Smallholders in Flower Agribusiness for Inclusive Rural Development: The Case of Yunnan, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-15, February.
    16. Galaz, Victor & Centeno, Miguel A. & Callahan, Peter W. & Causevic, Amar & Patterson, Thayer & Brass, Irina & Baum, Seth & Farber, Darryl & Fischer, Joern & Garcia, David & McPhearson, Timon & Jimenez, 2021. "Artificial intelligence, systemic risks, and sustainability," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    17. Bryceson, Deborah Fahy, 2019. "Gender and generational patterns of African deagrarianization: Evolving labour and land allocation in smallholder peasant household farming, 1980–2015," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 60-72.
    18. Duarte, A.C. & Mateos, L., 2022. "How changes in cropping intensity affect water usage in an irrigated Mediterranean catchment," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    19. Lele, Uma, 2022. "Productivity by Farm Size and Food Security," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 323943, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    20. Aliaa Dirani & Gumataw Kifle Abebe & Rachel A. Bahn & Giuliano Martiniello & Isam Bashour, 2021. "Exploring climate change adaptation practices and household food security in the Middle Eastern context: a case of small family farms in Central Bekaa, Lebanon," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 13(4), pages 1029-1047, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:221:y:2019:i:c:p:25-33. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agwat .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.