Your agro clinic

A farmer sprays vegetables on his drip-irrigated farm. Before designing and setting up any irrigation system, you should know the land's dimensions. FILE PHOTO | NMG

What you need to know:

  • A smart phone always has an in-built map powered by “Google” where dropping a pin by long press (2-3 seconds) or sharing location on screen will bring co-ordinates.
  • Same like maps, apps also do manual measurement by dropping pins on selective points or real time (GPS) measurements by walking with device.
  • It also tracks and provides elevation change (height difference) to enable you to purchase correct water pump for right job.
  • So, the next time you need to measure something, leave the tape measure in the toolbox and use your phone.

Measuring your farm dimensions to have efficient irrigation design

I want to lay out a drip irrigation system on my farm but I do not know the exact measurements. I was told that I can use my phone to do the work, please explain.
Mercelio

Before designing and setting up any irrigation system, you should know land dimensions. These include the liner distances (length and width), area (acreage) and slope percentage.

But do you know that you do not need to use a tape measure to do the work. There is an easier way of doing this, thanks to smart phones.

A smart phone always has an in-built map powered by “Google” where dropping a pin by long press (2-3 seconds) or sharing location on screen will bring co-ordinates. Sharing these co-ordinates with irrigation expert or entering to “GOOGLE EARTH PRO” will allow you measure all farm dimensions.
Here is the second option. For farming land, do a minor survey. Go to “Google Play Store”, search “Land Area Measurement” and you will get hundreds of apps ready to serve you. Most of them are free to download, others require nominal charges.

However, all are user friendly. With few clicks, you have all data in your hands. These type of apps measure distance with remarkable accuracy.

Users can choose from a variety of units including feet, metres and miles and square feet or square metres and acres.

Same like maps, apps also do manual measurement by dropping pins on selective points or real time (GPS) measurements by walking with device.

Don’t forget to save measured plot before you start to measure the next. You can share the data via email, text message or through social media.

This information can be quite handy when estimating the cost to build a fence, road, lay a waterline or simply calculate how far livestock have to travel to water.

It also tracks and provides elevation change (height difference) to enable you to purchase correct water pump for right job.

Third and easiest option is to share “live locations” to your irrigation expert via “WhatApp” by moving all corners, boundaries and water source of your land.

This should be marked properly and possible also by images. Let your irrigation expert work on your behalf to join all coordinates and do the mapping of your land.

Sometimes dropping pins are not accurate, so you will have variations. But always it is better to have some data than nothing.

So, the next time you need to measure something, leave the tape measure in the toolbox and use your phone.
All the above methods require good and stable internet connections, with activate data bundle.