Furrow irrigation avoids flooding the entire field surface by channelling the flow along the primary direction of the field using 'furrows,' 'creases,' or 'corrugations'. Water infiltrates through the wetted perimeter and spreads vertically and horizontally to refill the soil reservoir. Furrows are often employed in basins and borders to reduce the effects of topographical variation and crusting. The distinctive feature of furrow irrigation is that the flow into each furrow is independently set and controlled as opposed to furrowed borders and basins where the flow is set and controlled on a border by border or basin by basin basis.








Furrows provide better on-farm water management flexibility under many surface irrigation conditions. The discharge per unit width of the field is substantially reduced and topographical variations can be more severe. A smaller wetted area reduces evaporation losses. Furrows provide the irrigator more opportunity to manage irrigations toward higher efficiencies as field conditions change for each irrigation throughout a season. This is not to say, however, that furrow irrigation enjoys higher application efficiencies than borders and basins.








There are several disadvantages with furrow irrigation. These may include: (1) an accumulation of salinity between furrows; (2) an increased level of tailwater losses; (3) the difficulty of moving farm equipment across the furrows; (4) the added expense and time to make extra tillage practice (furrow construction); (5) an increase in the erosive potential of the flow; (6) a higher commitment of labour to operate efficiently; and (7) generally furrow systems are more difficult to automate, particularly with regard to regulating an equal discharge in each furrow. Figure 5 shows two typical furrow irrigated conditions.

Figure 5. Furrow irrigation configurations (after USDA-SCS, 1967)

(a) graded furrow irrigation system



(b) contour furrows