CAPILLARY WICK SYSTEM

Introduction
Water scarcity in the world has a huge impact on food production. Without water people do not have a means of watering their crops and, therefore, to provide food for the fast growing population. According to the International Water Management Institute , agriculture, which accounts for about 70% of global water withdrawals, is constantly competing with domestic, industrial and environmental uses for a scarce water supply. In attempts to fix this ever growing problem, many have tried to form more effective methods of water management. Such methods include irrigation management, irrigation technologies such measured irrigation and hydroponics systems. Kenya being classified as a water scarce nation and Agriculture consuming 70% of its available water, water saving irrigation strategies could substantially increase the water available for other uses.
One of the efforts of ensuring water use efficiency is the use of drip irrigation, although it is not being used by many small scale farmers who cannot afford installing the system, hence they apply water manually using buckets and hosepipes, methods that are laborious and not efficient in water utilization. Therefore, there has been a need to develop irrigation systems which are simple, affordable and also with capacity for improved crop water productivity.
The Capillary wick irrigation system is the simplest of all types of hydroponic systems. That’s because traditionally it doesn’t have any moving parts, thus it doesn’t use any pumps or electricity. However some people still like using an optional air pump in the reservoir. Because it doesn’t need electricity to work, it’s also quite useful in places where electricity cannot be accessed, or is unreliable. Capillary Wick Irrigation System (CWS) is a sub-irrigation system that involves the use of a device that delivers water by capillary movement from a reservoir to the plant growing medium. Sub-irrigation systems save on labour, time and water costs compared to conventional watering systems
Lurrywick Consultancy
Plants that are grown in pots are more economical and efficient than overhead irrigation systems. Capillary Wick Irrigation System is suitable for greenhouse production to increase efficiency of water and nutrient use in production of crop plants. The system results in higher quality produce, there is reduced water loss as there is no runoff, reduced labor costs, reduced incidences of diseases among other advantages such as saving on time and operational costs. This innovative method is also easy and cheap to install and operate and thus suitable for small scale farmers in Kenya.
This system is not currently used in Kenya and is therefore necessary to evaluate its performance in order to determine its suitability in greenhouse vegetable production. Use of locally available material can ensure that the system is affordable to the resource poor farmers.

Larry Mwendwa a BSc Agriculture graduate from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology and owner of Lurrywick consultancy, is recognized for his love of solving food insecurity problem through hydroponics technologies. In an attempt to experiment and evaluate the effectiveness of capillary wick system using local materials such as plastic wastes, he established that this system is beneficial to vegetables farmers especially to farmers in the dry lands of Kenya, because the system is capable of reducing water use to about 60% less than the conventional irrigation methods. Therefore for farmers with less rain harvested irrigation water, borehole or near water sources can utilize this technology, first for household food and surplus to generate income. This system is therefore a good model for sustainable substituent and commercial vegetable production.