Volume 43, Issue 4, October 2024, Pages 965–984
Roger Cesaire Ntankouo Njila1, Henri Grisseur Djoukeng2, Carole Epiphanie Gnimpieba Zoleko3, and Barthelemy Ndongo4
1 Agricultural Engineering, Water Management Research Unit, Faculty of Agronomy and Agricultural Sciences, University of Dschang, Cameroon
2 Department of Rural Engineering, University of Dschang, Dschang, Cameroon
3 Agricultural Engineering, Water Management Research Unit, Faculty of Agronomy and Agricultural Sciences, University of Dschang, Cameroon
4 Agricultural Engineering, Water Management Research Unit, Faculty of Agronomy and Agricultural Sciences, University of Dschang, Cameroon
Original language: English
Copyright © 2024 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
In Cameroon, most farmers practice irrigation adapted to their budget and technical capacities. These low budget irrigation schemes are the mostly spread between small scale farmers which constitute the majority of Cameroonian producers, but relatively few studies have been carried out on many of them and few official information exists on them. This study hence focuses on characterization and performance evaluation of one of such systems. Irrigation is carried out from planting to the early development phase, by pumping with fuel as an energy source, and watering the farm with a walker hose, until visible saturation. The output per unit irrigated crop area is of the order of 13583USD/ha for a production of 3000crates sold at an average price of 8USD. This value represents the production output and not only the irrigation output. The relative irrigation supply however was not favorable, as it indicated that the water supplied by irrigation did not cover up to 20% of the plant water needs, most probably due to the high irrigation intervals, causing the plants to be maintained at MAD for long periods of time. Future studies should hence find methods of ameliorating the performances of this system by acting on the farmer’s technical level and social setting.
Author Keywords: characterization, irrigation, non-conventional, performance evaluation, performance indicators.
Roger Cesaire Ntankouo Njila1, Henri Grisseur Djoukeng2, Carole Epiphanie Gnimpieba Zoleko3, and Barthelemy Ndongo4
1 Agricultural Engineering, Water Management Research Unit, Faculty of Agronomy and Agricultural Sciences, University of Dschang, Cameroon
2 Department of Rural Engineering, University of Dschang, Dschang, Cameroon
3 Agricultural Engineering, Water Management Research Unit, Faculty of Agronomy and Agricultural Sciences, University of Dschang, Cameroon
4 Agricultural Engineering, Water Management Research Unit, Faculty of Agronomy and Agricultural Sciences, University of Dschang, Cameroon
Original language: English
Copyright © 2024 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
In Cameroon, most farmers practice irrigation adapted to their budget and technical capacities. These low budget irrigation schemes are the mostly spread between small scale farmers which constitute the majority of Cameroonian producers, but relatively few studies have been carried out on many of them and few official information exists on them. This study hence focuses on characterization and performance evaluation of one of such systems. Irrigation is carried out from planting to the early development phase, by pumping with fuel as an energy source, and watering the farm with a walker hose, until visible saturation. The output per unit irrigated crop area is of the order of 13583USD/ha for a production of 3000crates sold at an average price of 8USD. This value represents the production output and not only the irrigation output. The relative irrigation supply however was not favorable, as it indicated that the water supplied by irrigation did not cover up to 20% of the plant water needs, most probably due to the high irrigation intervals, causing the plants to be maintained at MAD for long periods of time. Future studies should hence find methods of ameliorating the performances of this system by acting on the farmer’s technical level and social setting.
Author Keywords: characterization, irrigation, non-conventional, performance evaluation, performance indicators.
How to Cite this Article
Roger Cesaire Ntankouo Njila, Henri Grisseur Djoukeng, Carole Epiphanie Gnimpieba Zoleko, and Barthelemy Ndongo, “Diagnostic Analysis of a Non-Conventional Irrigation System in the locality of Bafou, West Region of Cameroon,” International Journal of Innovation and Applied Studies, vol. 43, no. 4, pp. 965–984, October 2024.
