Lowering the cost of solar-powered drip irrigation systems for smallholder farmers through systems-level modeling, optimization, and field testing

The objective of this research is to lower the cost of solar-powered drip irrigation systems and thus make them more accessible to smallholder farmers, who operate farms that are less than 2 ha and normally located in rural communities. Current solar-powered drip irrigation systems that are conventionally sized are expensive due to their oversized pumps and many solar panels. These systems are generally not utilized by smallholder farmers because they are cost prohibitive. Although other irrigation technologies can be less expensive to the farmer, drip irrigation has been shown to reduce water waste and increase yields more than other irrigation methods, two benefits that could impact the livelihood of smallholder farmers, who manage 475 million farms worldwide. Previous work has been conducted to lower the cost of these systems including developing low pressure drip irrigation emitters and cost optimizing a model of the system.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Sheline, Carolyn.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Amos G. Winter, V.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/123733

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/123733