Increase cassava yield sixfold
Drip Irrigation significantly enhances Cassava yield
It is possible to increase cassava root yields sixfold when the quantity of water supplied by precision drip irrigation matches that of the season’s rainfall.
Superior Raceways is offering to build for you at your cassava farm a raceway fish tank to grow 1,000 pieces of tilapia or catfish per harvest cycle of three to four months. Twelve litres of water will be pumped into your fish tank per minute by a solar-power borehole we can construct for you at your cassava farm.
Using waste waters from your fish tanks to drip-irrigate your cassava ensures maximum harvest root yield with minimal weed growth, reducing herbicide application costs. Inconsistent rain becomes irrelevant when you use superior wastewater precision drip irrigation.
Increase cassava yields up to 160 percent with use of mineral fertilizer in your drip irrigation system
Conserve water
Superior Raceway’s precision drip irrigation produces about the same root yields as flood irrigation – around 60 tonnes per hectare – using 50 percent less water.
100% land utilization
Drip irrigation uniformly irrigates 100% of your field, avoiding dead corners or unused plots, even on slopes or in odd-shaped fields. Drip is also a great solution for sandy soil where more frequent irrigation is a must.
More profit with less resources
Drip irrigation delivers a yield range of 60 tons per hectare consistently, year over year, regardless of weather conditions.
Harvest more cassava per kilogram of fertilizer
Drip irrigation’s high nutrient application efficiency ensures maximized production per fertilizer unit. It enables precise, measured nutrient application according to the crop’s development stage, ensuring optimal crop nutrition with zero leaching.
Drip irrigation fosters zero evaporation or runoff, so it creates the best water use efficiency (WUE) index possible.
Long lasting performance
A subsurface drip irrigation system can last for up to 20 years, and many of the components, like filters, valves and conduction pipes, can last even longer.
Easy operation, minimal maintenance
Drip systems have no moving parts or complex mechanisms, so, when compared to pivots, they require less maintenance and endure less breakdowns. Drip irrigation systems can be operated and programmed remotely, requiring less working hands per hectare.
Should I use on-surface or subsurface drip irrigation?
Subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) systems are most suitable for large-scale operations. Compared to on-surface systems, they require a higher initial investment but deliver additional benefits like lower labor requirements and operational simplicity. SDI systems favor modern tillage practices such as no-till or minimum tillage.
On-surface systems are more suitable for small to medium-sized farms. They require a lower initial investment but carry a higher operational cost related to seasonal dripline deployment and collection. On-surface systems can be designed as 100% portable, making them a good fit for rented plots, allowing farmers to take their investment with them. Moreover, on-surface systems provide more flexibility in rotational crops.
Why should I choose drip irrigation over center pivot irrigation for my maize crop?
Drip irrigation fits all plot shapes and sizes, all soil types and all topographies. You can use pressure compensating dripper lines that maintain the same flowrate across different pressure levels so every plant in the field gets exactly the same amount of water and nutrients, no matter the elevation changes or distance from the water source. In fact, you get much better yields and maize quality, which are a direct result of water stress and fertilizer availability.
If I have a lot of rainfall, will drip still be a good investment?
Definitely. While having ample rainfall is obviously a huge advantage, rain is never timely enough or consistent enough to allow the crop to reach its full yield potential. This is even more evident with sandy soils that have a lower water holding capacity. On top of that, drip is also a nutrient delivery system that allows you to fertigate and control the nutrient levels in your soil in a precise and economical way. Applying all of your fertilizer in just a few applications can be wasteful, especially under rainy conditions that provoke leaching. Splitting your nutrient application throughout the season guarantees that your corn crop gets what it needs when it needs it. This is what makes drip systems the perfect tool for increasing productivity in previously rain-fed plots.
ADD VALUE FOR MORE PROFIT
Produce fuel ethanol from your cassava. In 2012, China produced 780 million litres of bio-ethanol from 6 million tonnes of dried cassava.
Produce High Quality Cassava Flour (or HQCF), a substitute for wheat flour in bread and confectionery. Starch extracted from cassava is used in many food products. Extract starch at almost any scale – in backyard artisanal production units and in large-scale fully mechanized factories. Semi mechanized starch production can yield 10 tonnes of starch a day.
Produce modified cassava starch. Modified cassava starch is raw material for production of sweeteners, fructose, alcohol and monosodium glutamate, and in plywood, paper and textiles. In modern starch extraction plants, daily output is as high as 300 tonnes.
ANIMAL FEED
Use the roots and leaves of cassava as ingredients in commercial animal feed. Mill sun dried cassava chips and mix with soymeal to make nutritious animal feed. Animals raised on cassava diets have generally good health, good disease resistance and a low mortality rate, and require few if any antibiotics in their feed.
Dry cassava leaf meal (or “cassava hay”) is usually obtained by cutting the plant tops at 2.5 to 3-month intervals during the cassava growth cycle. Research has shown how supplementation with 1 to 2 kg of cassava hay per animal per day increases the milk yields of dairy cows and may enhance milk quality and storability.
LINKAGES TO MARKETS
Superior Raceways is transforming the cassava industry in Africa with the development of profitable value chains and linkages to markets. We enhance the quality, volume and reliability of production with our precision drip irrigation. We promote private investment in cassava processing and foster associations that link growers and processors.
Every day should be a good day for your cassava crop
> Maximize water efficiency
> Improve plant health
> Boost cassava crop productivity
> Reduce plant stress
> Maintain consistent soil moisture conditions