Case study · Agriculture · EPC · Overseas
Large-scale agricultural irrigation, Oman
A drip and fertigation system engineered from crop water demand and source capacity, then delivered and commissioned as a single design-and-build contract.
- Oman
- Overseas project
- Drip + fertigation
- Irrigation method
- ETc-based
- Design basis
- EPC
- Design + build
- Client / sector
- Agricultural estate · Open-field crops
- Location
- Oman
- Major components
- Pumping · filtration · fertigation · mainline & sub-mains · dripline · automation
- Execution scope
- Design · procurement · installation · commissioning
- Climate
- Arid, high evapotranspiration, long irrigation season
- Engagement
- Design + build (EPC)
Engineering challenge
High crop demand, long distances and a source that sets the limits.
In an arid climate the crop’s water requirement peaks for months at a time. The source could only deliver so much flow, the blocks sat far from the pump station, and every block had to be irrigated within a fixed daily window — so the hydraulics, not the equipment list, decided what was possible.
Our approach
A design basis built from the crop and the source.
We established peak demand from ETc and crop coefficients for each block, checked it against source capacity and the available irrigation window, and agreed an operating philosophy with the client before a single pipe was sized.
Hydraulic solution
Zoning, mainline sizing and pressure management.
Blocks were grouped into shifts so every zone runs at its design pressure inside the window. Mainlines and sub-mains were sized on velocity and friction loss, residual pressure was verified at the critical points, and air release, flushing and surge protection were designed in along the long runs.
- Anonymised drawing
- Zone plan
- Anonymised drawing
- Mainline hydraulic profile
Pumping & filtration
Pump duty from the system, filtration from the water.
The pump duty point was derived from the calculated system curve and verified against the manufacturer’s curve, with VFD control to hold pressure across shifts. Filtration was selected on source water quality and emitter requirement, with NRVs, air valves and pressure regulation at the head control.
- Anonymised drawing
- Pump duty & curve
- Anonymised drawing
- Head-control schematic
Automation
One controller running shifts and fertigation.
A central controller sequences the irrigation shifts and fertigation dosing, with sensors and remote monitoring so the farm team can see flows and pressures without walking every block.
06 · Outcome
Commissioned against the design basis.
Flows and pressures were tested zone by zone against the design, the controller was programmed for the operating shifts, and the farm team was trained before handover — with as-built drawings, O&M manuals and AMC support to follow.
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