| Water stored in the specially-made earthenware pots buried in the soil and covered with plastic mulch slowly penetrates into soil through the micro-apertures on the pot wall and moistens the soil around the root zone. The results showed that this irrigation technique does not cause surface runoff , water loss through deep penetration and prevent soil surface crust. In drought season, it provides efficient supplementary irrigation, and evaporation is minimized by mulching. Furthermore, fertilizers and chemicals can be added in the irrigation water and transferred to the root zone if necessary. In the mountain areas, with 350 mm annual rainfall, watermelon, seeded watermelon, eggplant, tomato and pepper have been successfully planted by using water stored in the water-harvesting pools. Compared with grain production under mulching, the output increases 3. 5-5. 9 times greater while the input is only about 1/3 of drip irrigation system. |