Simple Drip Irrigation In Kenya

Simple drip irrigation in Kenya is a system by Grekkon Limited for small farms, or urban plots. Our drip kits in Kenya are for subsistence vegetable production, common as kitchen gardens. This drip irrigation system in Kenya operate by gravity flow of water from a raised water tank

 

Common vegetables are; cabbage, tomato, capsicum, chilies, pumpkin, butternut, kales, collards, onion, garlic, and spinach. Others are traditional African vegetables such as; terere, blacknight shade, murenda and so on. Other crops are fruits such as; water melon, pawpaw, passion, banana, tree tomato/ tamarillo, and strawberry. Or spices such as; rosemary, lemon grass, citronella, geraniums, and mint

How do you set up simple drip irrigation in Kenya?

To make a small drip irrigation system, follow these steps below;

1. Add a tank connector to the water tank
2. Join the tank connector to a female adaptor
3. Connect a 32mm / 1″ diameter high density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe to the female adaptor
4. Add a control valve with 32mm /1″ diameter water filter on one side, and male adaptors on the other side
5. Connect a venturi fertigation unit to the main line (optional)
6. Have an elbow at the edge where the HDPE pipes drops down, and another one at the point where it touches the ground
7. Connect your drip irrigation tapes to this HDPE line

 

 

Price of simple drip irrigation in Kenya; 2 row vegetables

Acreage	Size in Meters Square	Price in KES
Kadogo drip kit	50 to 200	KES 3,500
1/8th acre	506	KES 17,500
1/4 acre	1,024	KES 33,000

 

Drip fittings (16mm) to add

I. Vegetables

a. Off-takes. From the 32mm PE pipe to the drip line. Your drip emitter spacing is 15cm, or 20cm, or 30cm

b. Rubbers. They prevent leakage between at the point of off-take and HDPE pipe connection

c. Drip to drips. They connect one drip line to the other if here is damage on the line

d. End caps. They are plugged at the end of the drip line to keep in water

 

II. Fruits

i. Starter connector. It connects the 32mm PE pipe to the 16mm HDPE line. Your drip emitter spacing is 15cm, or 20cm, or 30cm

ii. Button drips. They evacuate water from the 16mm HDPE pipe to the plant base

iii. End lines. They are plugged at the end of the 16mm HDPE line to keep in water

iv. PE to PEs. They connect one HDPE line to the other if here is damage on the line

 

 

How do you prepare land for drip irrigation in Kenya?

• Map out the area of drip kit installation
• Plough to a fine tilth. The number of times the ploughing is done depends on the soil condition at the time of ploughing
• Prepare planting beds. The width of beds will be 0.8M for one or 2 row drip lines, 1M for 3 rows of drip tape and 1.2M for four. The number of drip liner per bed depends on the crop type. Leave a distance of 0.3M to 0.4M between the beds. The beds are 0.3M high. Beds provide proper water drainage for the crop when growing. These beds are done with a bed maker, or manually

 

What is the cheapest drip irrigation system?

The cheapest drip irrigation system is one whose main line or sub main line comprises of poly vinyl chloride (PVC) pipes. these pipes are cheaper than HDPE pipes