Topic

Water systems

Water systems covers landscape-scale water management for small farms — keyline design and layout, swale construction on contour, and the long-term maintenance of earthworks over successive wet and dry seasons. Articles explain how to read a slope, position banks and channels to slow water movement, and keep structures functional over years.

2 articles in this topic on agripure.

PIONEER · WATER·5 min read

How to read keyline on a quarter-acre — a Pakistan smallholder primer

Keyline design has a reputation for being something you do with a bulldozer across a thousand acres. It is not. The idea P. A. Yeomans set out in the 1950s is fundamentally about reading how water…

SECONDARY · WATER·5 min read

Swale maintenance in year seven (not what year-one taught you)

A swale in year one is an earthwork. A swale in year seven is an ecosystem, and the maintenance it needs is the opposite of what year one taught you. The contour ditch you dug to catch and sink rai…