"Govts should not blindly promote micro-irrigation schemes" Water in India has now become a contentious issue due to rise in demand, climate cha...

The video is very detailed,I like it. Rgds John Gakunga

Published November 6, 2016 23:08 by John Waweru Gakunga, Lecturer at Kenyatta University

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Can I suggest for small farmers to plan dryland farming based on drip irrigation and rock cisterns to hold the catchment of terraces above the cisterns.

I designed this idea for seasonally cold mountain pass lots of wind location, flat valley and rain-snow wrong time of year needing to store it; diagram of the cistern:  http://www.mallard-design.com/mdc2010/media/terrace-n-cistern.jpg

Diagram of a wind fence I've tested and believe scales to using 1:1.5 to 1:2 times the slat width will work. How it's better to keep the spacing is you don't get a roll or vortex over the top, it's enough of a weir or weave, traps organics and fines behind at the ground and shades:  http://www.mallard-design.com/mdc2010/media/farm-windfence.jpg

To scale of the farm property plan, 1-acre terracing browns with cisterns under or near them, farmhouse is tiny, garage large winds from upper left 15mph/24kmh average speed a large-scale windfarm visible:
http://www.mallard-design.com/mdc2010/media/site-plot-v1-color.jpg

Finally for small windmill power the cost is the battery-inverter array, that needs funding, the windmills and gensets can be used pipe or rebar and tossed car alternators at that level.

As mini-grid systems powering retails stores & street lighting for small towns you just keep adding them to solar panels when affordable to 2Mwh.

The bonus is small VAWTs gain 10-times more power per hectare than the 100m giant 1.5Mwh ones: "John Dabiri - Opportunities and Challenges for Next-Generation Wind Energy"; 25:13; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAGAcGoyP8Q

Published November 5, 2016 01:35 by Tom Mallard, Living Systems, Industrial-Architectural Design

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