Over irrigation is a common agricultural practice in many parts of the world. The practice involves applying too much water to soil, which leads to problems like: poor plant health, poor yield and reduced sustainability. If you have seen your farmer irrigating the entire field, then you are probably thinking of a better way to get rid of water. Don’t worry, we understand what you mean. The most obvious solution is using water more efficiently. But as we all know that there is no such thing as “too much water” or “not enough water”.

How is over irrigation damaging to soil?

A garden is a microcosm of the soil. The plants, roots and environs are all interacting with each other for better performance or worse. This interdependence works both ways; too much water absorbed by one part causes a problem in another because if that cannot be flushed away, then they can undermine their own health as well as yours (in this case your beautiful crop). If you use any chemicals on how to get rid of weeds from your garden, there is a chance that some of the chemicals could be come into direct contact with soil. The usage of these chemicals causes oxidative stress in soils which ultimately leads to damage and breakdown.

Land degradation

The over irrigation cause land degradation. This is because there are not sufficient nutrients in the soil to support crop growth. Rainwater with excess minerals entered into the microorganisms which disturb its function and as a result, it draws fresh water from roots material for sustenance causing sieve effect . Excess soluble salts (especially sodium), calcium and potassium accumulate at plant-roots interface creating an imbalance of ions within tissue resulting low overall active transport rate due to chlorophyll reduction.

Soil pollution

Excess irrigation results in mass production of toxic sludge on a much larger scale than is needed for agriculture. The runoff from over-irrigation of non-agricultural land brings with it a disaster commonly called ‘soil pollution’.

Lowered yield

Soil that was once good for crops is now no longer suitable to grow any crop at all. This can be so because of many reasons like destruction or degradation of micro-organisms (bacteria and fungi), salinity, chemical pollution from fertilizers, pesticides & metals etc., which negatively affect the productivity level .

Increased weed pressure

The water is so over-rich that your crops can usually be attacked easily by weeds.If you treat the nitrogen level, it causes some plants to grow well but most of them are weak and cannot support themselves above winter frost zone (the area below ground where it begins). In conjunction with this, if there is too much fertilizer in the soil , whether land degradation occurs or not, excess nutrients draw nitrous bases into plant tissues resulting weaker vegetation structure.

Conclusion:

Over irrigation is a problem that has been around for a long time. It happens when you over water your soil, which causes it to rot and the nutrients are washed away. If you’re having problems with over irrigation, then here are some ways to solve the problem: