Impact of Different Drip Emitter Types on Hydraulic Performance and Wetted Zone Characteristics in Okra Cultivation

Drip irrigation system is the most efficient and economical method for irrigation vegetable production. The study aimed to design and evaluate the hydraulic performance of three different types of emitter namely Regular gauge (RG), Compensating pressure (CP) and non-compensating pressure (NCP) using okra as a test of a crop. This study was conducted at the experimental farm of the Faculty of Agricultural Science, Zamzam University in 2023. The treatments were laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Parameters of hydraulic performance of drip emitters were average discharge (Qavg %), discharge variation (Qvar), coefficient uniformity (CU %), coefficient of manufacture variation (CV), emission uniformity (EU %) and statistical uniformity (US %). The results showed that the values of (CU%), (CV), (EU%), (US%) and percentage emitters clogging (Pclog%) were 99.52%, 0.49, 68.01%, 74.14%, 2.8% and 99.32%, 0.36, 52.06%, 63.47%, 1.65% and 99.09%, 0.26, 40.07%, 51.05%, 0.85% for non-compensating pressure (NCP), compensating pressure (CP) and regular gauge (RG respectively. It is considered coefficient uniformity (CU %), was good and found to be within the excellent range while discharge variation (Qvar) was found to be within the desirable range, emission uniformity (EU %), coefficient of manufacture variation (CV), and statistical uniformity (Us %) were found to be within the range of poor, low, acceptable and unacceptable. Thus, the study recommended the best type of emitter was regular gauge (RG), because it has the highest crop yield and water productivity as compared to other emitters, non-compensating pressure emitters (NCP) and compensating pressure emitters (CP)