Irrigation and agriculture have gone hand in hand since humans decided to stop foraging, settle down and start farming. And the basic concept behind it hasn’t really changed much since then—irrigation is still used to deliver water to crops, in order to help them grow and reduce water loss. It protects crops, enhances yields, suppresses weed growth, and prevents soil consolidation.
However, traditional surface irrigation systems tend to waste a considerable amount of water. This is where micro irrigation systems like sprinkler and drip irrigation have a huge leg up, which is leading to growth in the global micro irrigation systems market at a CAGR of 17.89% from 2014-2019.
Micro irrigation systems are hardly a new concept. In 1980, approximately 1.6 million hectares of land used these systems, with that number growing to more than 10 million hectares by 2010.
The growth has been slow and steady, driven primarily by China and India, the world’s top two irrigation countries. Currently, India has more than 2 million hectares of irrigated land under micro irrigation systems. However, many farmers still use traditional flood irrigation systems in the country, which is one of the reasons for the strong market projections—there’s still a lot of room for vendors to grow in developing nations.
More people, less water and less land are driving up demand for micro irrigation
Rising water scarcity
Agriculture accounts for a huge portion of the water used in developing countries. However, a lot of this water is wasted because of inefficient and ineffective irrigation methods.
In China and India, irrigated land represents about 37% and 34% of the total arable land, respectively. However, the penetration of drip irrigation in India is only 2% of arable land and only 0.6% in China. Drip irrigation in these countries is mainly concentrated in large commercial farms, rather than smaller, family-owned plot. While this isn’t great news, environmentally speaking, it does mean that there’s room for market vendors to expand and tap the hidden potential of micro irrigation systems in these developing countries.
Rise in global population
The growing global population has led to increased demand for food, and with per capita consumption increasing steadily, farm income is on the rise.
These farms need to maintain high yields to meet the demand for food, which is, in turn, increasing the demand for modern micro irrigations systems.
Decreasing per capita arable land
Unfortunately, we don’t exactly have endless resources to play with when it comes to expanding global food production, and the availability of land is completely at odds with food demand.
Micro irrigation to the rescue! Again! Farmers are increasingly looking to these advanced techniques to create efficiency in their land use for progressive food production. Since micro irrigation helps increase crop production while using minimal water resources, these systems are in high demand, which will continue to bolster the global market through the projected period.
