Redesign and construction of a motorcycle powered water pumping and irrigation system:

Abstract

Water is an essential component of agricultural productivity and is crucial for food security globally. This project study shows that farmers in Namukombe village, Busitema Sub-County, Syanyonja parish, Busia district, in the eastern part of Uganda have heavily dependent on rainfed agriculture despite having a fresh water body. As a result, over 98% of the crops harvested are rainfed with only 2% of the crops harvested being irrigated, mostly along the banks of River Namukombe. The existing technologies of irrigation are very expensive to install and to maintain, dependent on seasons, static and require technical expertise to operate. These have limited the variety of crops grown, all year-round agriculture, a decrease in crop variety and yield hence a decrease in farmers’ income. This system was redesigned to provide a cheap, simple, portable and mobile irrigation by use a motorcycle to pump water for irrigation. It also gives a detail of the crops commonly grown in this area with their crop water requirements. Design and sizing of the various parts of the irrigation system was done using the relevant formulas and equations mainly from FAO. This project study gives the operation efficiency of each component, as well as a detail of the economic analysis of the system and recommendations for future innovations.