Marcill Venter says when farmers invest in an irrigation system, the initial cost is relatively low, but the operational costs over the lifetime of the system can be very high.

She has developed the Soil Water Irrigation Planning and Energy Management, or the (SWIP-E) programming model, in order to determine irrigation pump hours.

Venter said in a statement the heart of every irrigation system is the water pipes. She says the system design, in turn, impacts certain factors which determine the investment and operating costs.

The model, developed in collaboration with the department’s Dr Bennie Grové, determines irrigation pump hours through a daily groundwater budget. It also takes into account the time-of-use electricity tariff structure and change in kilowatt requirements arising from the mainline design.

She says this model can help farmers invest in a system with the lowest total cost.

Source: Statement