Irrigation system diagram main country of buyer

When they talk about an irrigation system design, they immediately imagine universal solutions - but this is the first mistake. Last month I was sorting out an order from Uzbekistan, where the client required a “standard scheme”, but in the end they had to completely redesign the system after the first season - their groundwater turned out to have increased mineralization, which was not taken into account in the original design. The main country of the buyer always dictates the nuances: in some places it is critical to take into account seasonal floods, in others it is the wind load on the highways, and in some regions it is necessary to combine drip irrigation with sprinkler systems due to the specifics of local crops.

Why does geography change everything?

Here I look at the map of supplies over the past three years: Kazakhstan, Egypt, Turkmenistan - everywhere we have to adapt not just the parameters, but the very logic of the system. In Kazakhstan, for example, winter temperatures drop to -40°C, and if you do not lay pipes at a depth below the freezing level, you will end up with ruptures in the main lines in the spring. At the same time, customers often save on antifreeze valves, considering this an “extra option?” — then we get emergency calls in the off-season.

But in Egypt there is another problem - sandstorms. Standard filters clog within a week, so you have to install multi-stage cleaning with pre-cleaning gravel filters. By the way, the developments of Shandong Linyao Intelligent Agriculture Technology LLC performed well here - their combined filtration systems with backwashing were specially designed for difficult soils.

That is why before designing I always request geodetic reports and data on water sources. Once in the Tashkent region, they had to completely change the arrangement of valves after it turned out that the water intake was coming from an artesian well with a high iron content - without an aeration installation, the entire system would have failed in six months.

Equipment that really works

Nowadays there is a lot of talk about “smart” systems, but in practice it often turns out that farmers need simple, reliable solutions. For example, frequency converters are certainly a useful thing, but in some regions of Central Asia with power outages, their use without stabilizers is simply dangerous.

This is where the experience of cooperation with https://www.lyzhihuinongye.ru came in handy - their engineers proposed a custom solution with redundant power supplies for critical system components. By the way, I like their approach to the design of hydraulic structures - they always take into account the possibility of manual control in case of automation failures.

I would especially like to note their developments in the field of remote control of valves - the telemetry system is adapted to work in conditions of poor Internet coverage, which is important for remote agricultural regions. Last year, such a system was tested in Karakalpakstan - even with a minimal cellular signal, control was maintained via SMS commands.

Typical mistakes when adapting projects

The most common is the transfer of European standards to Asian conditions. I remember a project for cotton fields in Uzbekistan, where they initially proposed a scheme with daily watering - but local agronomists insisted on cycling once every 4-5 days due to the characteristics of the soil. I had to recalculate all the hydraulics.

Another point is taking into account the human factor. In some regions, operators are accustomed to manual control and do not trust automation. Therefore, now I always provide hybrid solutions - the possibility of manual duplication of critical functions. This is especially important when working with Shandong Lingyao LLC - their equipment allows such flexible configurations.

A separate story is the calculation of the productivity of pumping stations. Once we selected equipment according to standard formulas, and then it turned out that during the peak of the irrigation season, all neighboring farms work simultaneously - the pressure in the common channel drops by half. Now I always reserve a performance margin of 25-30% for such cases.

Economic aspects of choosing schemes

When you analyze the main countries of buyers, you see a direct correlation between the cost of the system and the functional requirements. For example, in Turkmenistan they are ready to invest in full automation, while in some regions of Kazakhstan the minimum cost of ownership is more important.

It is interesting to observe how the approach to irrigation changes depending on the crops - for cotton, simpler schemes are usually chosen, while for orchards they are ready to implement complex systems with soil moisture sensors. The flexibility of the supplier is especially important here - for example, Shandong Linyao Intelligent Agriculture Technology LLC offers modular solutions that can be expanded gradually.

Now many clients are asking about the possibility of integration with weather stations - this really saves water up to 20-25%. But it is important to understand that such systems require qualified maintenance. In Uzbekistan, we organized training seminars for local technicians - without this, even the most advanced irrigation system scheme will not work effectively.

Prospects for technology development

If we talk about trends, I see a gradual transition to precision irrigation. But this is not yet economically justified everywhere. For example, for grain crops in Kazakhstan, traditional sprinkler machines are sufficient, while vegetable growing in greenhouses already requires complex systems with precise dosing.

I noticed that recently there has been a growing demand for combined solutions - when one system can work as both a drip system and a sprinkler system. This is especially true for farms with varied crop rotation. By the way, on the website www.lyzhihuinongye.ru there are interesting cases on such hybrid systems for intensive gardens.

I think that in the coming years, the main progress will be in the field of predictive control - when the system not only reacts to current sensor data, but also predicts the need for watering based on the weather forecast and plant development phases. But this will require serious work with algorithms and local agronomic models.