The History of Irrigation

Irrigation systems can be pretty impressive nowadays. Hundreds of acres of land, thousands of pounds of produce, all requiring hundreds of thousands of gallons of water. Modern irrigation technology is mind-bogglingly advanced, but how did we get to this point? How did humans go from only farming next to fresh water sources to being able to grow food anywhere on Earth?

Irrigation is defined as the process of watering land through artificial, man-made means rather than just precipitation or other natural waterflow.

Irrigation and the ability to reliably grow crops was essential to the rise of civilizations across the ancient world. 

The first evidence of man-made irrigation was found in the Jordan River Valley, at around 6,000 B.C. Surrounding ancient civilizations, including Egypt and Mesopotamia, built canals to utilize the rise and fall of the Nile, Euphrates, and Tigris rivers and bring water to their crops.

As civilizations began farming more and more, they required more advanced ways of watering their crops, so they began to engineer new irrigation technology. The earliest irrigation technology includes the olla and the water wheel.

Ollas are clay pots that are buried alongside plants and then filled with water. The soil takes as much water as is needed through the porous ceramic due to the laws of water concentration. When the concentration of water within the surrounding soil gets low, the water will move through the porous ceramic into the soil, providing the plants with the perfect amount of water. Ollas are essentially ancient irrigation sensor and distribution systems!

Another major advancement was the water wheel. Scholars believe that water wheels were invented in India around 400 B.C., and quickly spread from there. The invention of the water wheel sparked a new method of moving water without expending any manpower. The force of the river and the turn of the wheel was enough to move the water, making the water wheel humanity’s earliest pieces of automated machinery.

However, as civilizations and farms grew bigger, people needed to get more creative with their irrigation—so they began to tap into the groundwater.

At around 1000 BC in what is now Iran, ancient engineers invented qanats. Qanats are underground aqueducts that draw from underground springs. They utilize gravity to bring the water wherever it is needed. 

From there, above ground aqueducts were born. The Roman aqueducts might be the most famous, but they were actually invented by the Assyrians. In fact, Assyrian aqueducts were so effective at delivering water that they transformed the city of Ninevah into an abundant garden of exotic plants. According to ancient texts, there was so much water that the king had an artificial wetland built and imported plants and animals to fill it.

The Greeks and Romans quickly embraced aqueduct technology as well. Just like the Assyrians, they began with underground springs and utilized gravity to deliver water to their cities and farms. They were such an effective way of moving water that in addition to irrigating fields, they supplied fresh water to public bathhouses, fountains, and people’s homes throughout the empires.

Fast-forwarding to a more current age, Thomas Savery invented the first steam-powered pump in 1698, allowing for fast, easy, automated groundwater pumping.

In modern times, irrigation technology has exploded. After World War II, more attention and resources were spent on civil projects and infrastructure, and irrigation engineering rapidly advanced. 

In 1948, after the Great Plains were largely abandoned after being dubbed “The Dust Bowl” and thought to be unusable, a farmer named Frank Zyback invented a circular sprinkler system—crop circles. This new method of irrigation restored agriculture to the Great Plains, and changed the American method of food production forever.

Today, experts estimate that around 680 million acres of land are irrigated. Irrigation and the advancement of water technology hasn’t slowed down, and continues to develop every day. The inclusion of moisture sensors, automatic and timed distribution, fertigation skids, and nanobubble tech is commonplace within irrigation systems. We’ve come a long way from digging channels next to a river, and irrigation technology isn’t stopping now.

Don’t get left behind-- TC Control Group can help you stay on top of the times. Our expert engineers and cutting-edge partners stay at the forefront of irrigation technology. Indoor growing and irrigation is the future, so why not become a part of the industry's next phase? Contact us today to be a part of history.