Drip Irrigation for 1 Acre

What a 1-acre system is

One acre is roughly 4,000 square metres — enough for a full crop cycle of tomatoes, onions or kale, a young orchard, or a split of vegetables and a small block of trees. At this size, a complete system typically includes: a water source and (where needed) a pump, one filtration stage, a short mainline, submains to the beds, drip lines with emitters matched to the crop, valves for 2–4 zones, and flush points at the line ends.

Water source — the decision that sets everything else

• Elevated tank or hillside source: gravity can run the whole acre with no pump — the cheapest running cost there is. The tank should hold several days of irrigation for the crop.
• Borehole: the standard on many one-acre farms. Check the yield (litres per hour) against the system's demand, and the lift from the borehole to the field — that's what sizes the pump. Borehole water usually needs a disc filter.
• Dam or river: usable, but plan a sand/media filter plus a disc stage, and a pump or lift if the water sits below the field.
• Rainwater harvesting: valid where the catchment is good; the tank becomes the sizing question (a few thousand litres for small crops, more for intensive ones).

Whatever the source, the design records its quantity and quality — because a system designed for water you don't actually have is just an expensive guess. See irrigation water quality.

Drip lines and emitters for the crop

Starting points for common varieties and spacings — the design confirms from your actual planting layout and soil.

Filtration at one acre

One filter is usually enough at this scale: a disc filter for borehole or clean tank water, a sand or media filter (with a disc stage where the emitters are fine) for dam/river water. Sized to the pump's flow. The filter is not the place to save money — a blocked-emitter season costs more than the filter it would have prevented. Details in the filtration guide.

Zoning, valves and flushing

Split the acre into 2–4 zones: by block, by crop (if mixed), or by distance from the head so each zone's run time stays reasonable. Each zone gets a valve; every drip line ends in a flush cap. The flushing routine — opening the ends for a few minutes on a schedule — is what keeps a one-acre system clog-free, and it takes minutes, not an hour.

Pump sizing

The pump must deliver the system's design flow at the required pressure, from the source to the highest, farthest zone. For a typical one-acre vegetable system that's a modest pump — the calculation is in the design, not a label. Where power is the constraint, a solar pump sized to the same flow is increasingly the default off-grid choice; see irrigation pumps.

Installation at this scale

A professional installation of a standard one-acre system typically takes a few working days: setting the head (filter, valves, pump), laying and joining the mainline and submains, laying the drip lines to the design, and testing zone by zone before handover. "Laid and connected" should mean "tested" — a zone that isn't pressure-tested is a zone that leaks in week three. The installation service page covers the process.

Cost, indicated

Complete one-acre systems in the current (2026) market are commonly quoted between roughly KSh 95,000 and KSh 200,000 depending on crop, lines per bed, water source and pump. Gravity-fed setups sit at the lower end; pump-fed with heavier filtration at the higher end. The cost guide breaks down each contributor — and your exact number comes from the quote.

Expanding from one acre

If the plan is to grow to two or three acres, the cheap insurance is in year one: lay the mainline route for the future blocks, and specify the filter and pump with headroom. It adds little to the first cost and turns the expansion into "add lines" instead of "rebuild the head". Mention the plan in the quote request and the design will carry it.