The common practice in ...

The common practice in Zimbabwe is pumping water to a night storage reservoir then gravitate it to the fields through canals. In some cases no pumping is necessary. For communal irrigation schemes in Zimbabwe, the idea is to reduce operation cost for rural irrigation farmers. However, most pressurized irrigation systems require pumping. What is the orientation of the irrigation canals in relation to the fields for the farms you visited in Indonesia? If the fields are at a lower elevation than the canals, pumping is unnecessary unless it's a pressurized system and required pressure cannot be achieved through gravity alone. If fields are at higher elevation than the canals, pumping is necessary.