Drip irrigation is a form of irrigation that saves water and fertilizer by allowing water to drip slowly to the roots of many different plants, either on the soil surface or directly over the root zone, through a network of Valves, pipes, tubes and emitters. It is made through the narrow tubes that deliver the water directly to the base of the plant. It is chosen instead of surface irrigation for several reasons, often including concern about minimizing evaporation.
Primitive drip irrigation has been used since antiquity. Fan Sheng-Chih Shu, written in China during the first century BCE, describes the use of buried, unglazed clay pots filled with water as a means of watering. Modern drip irrigation began its development in Germany in 1860 when researchers began experimenting with underground irrigation using clay pipe to create combined irrigation and drainage systems. The research was later expanded in the 1920s to include the application of perforated pipe systems. The use of plastic to contain and distribute water in drip irrigation was later developed in Australia by Hannis Thill.
The use of a drip irrigation plastic emitter was developed in Israel by Simcha Blass and his son Yeshayahu. Instead of releasing water through small holes easily blocked by tiny particles, water was released through larger, longer passages using velocity to reduce water inside a plastic emitter. The first experimental system of this type was established in 1959 by Blass who later joined (1964) with Kibbutz Hatzerim to create an irrigation company called Netafim. Together they developed and patented the first practical surface drip irrigation emitter. In the United States, the first drip tape, called Dew Hose, was developed by Richard Chapin of Chapin Watermatics in the early 1960s.
Modern drip irrigation has become the most valued innovation in the world in agriculture since the invention of the impact sprayer in the 1930s, which offered the first practical alternative to surface irrigation. Drip irrigation can also use devices called micro-spray heads, which spray water in a small area, rather than dripping emitters. These are generally used in tree and vine crops with wider root zones. Subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) permanently or temporarily uses a drip line or buried drip tape located at or below the roots of the plant. It is becoming popular for irrigation of row crops, especially in areas where water supply is limited or recycled water is used for irrigation. To determine the most appropriate drip irrigation system and components to be used in a specific installation, careful consideration of all relevant factors such as topography of soil, soil, water, crops and agroclimatic conditions .