Less water, more strawberries: A new approach to drip irrigation

Our analysis showed the ring-shaped emitter, a cost-effective alternative to conventional subsurface drip irrigation emitters, enabled higher water-use efficiency than the conventional SDI emitter as it better retained water in the root zone. While subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) is effective in improving agricultural water-use efficiency and hence suppressing pressure on freshwater resources, its capital and maintenance costs are a hindrance to its dissemination. The use of the ring-shaped emitter for SDI systems, which entails less capital and maintenance costs, led to more root water uptake, less water loss by evaporation and deep percolation than the conventional point-source emitter in our 24-hour simulations of soil water dynamics for strawberry cultivation. Further testing of the ring-shaped emitter’s performance in field in a longer timeframe will aid in its practical application.