Recreational farm operators agree that in terms of obstacles, leisure farms should increase the workforce to promote food and farming education, strengthen professional food and farming education interpretation capabilities, and develop a teaching model of experiential learning. Hands-on learning can create learners’ motivation for learning. By combining exciting hand-made courses guided by agricultural and environmental issues, the learning effect can be deepened. Rain-fed agriculture accounts for about 80% of the world’s farmland and two-thirds of global food production, nonetheless, about 41% of the Earth’s land area is dry land with approximately 300 to 500 mm of erratic annual rainfall.Majority of the world rural farming population depends on rainfed agriculture which is even higher in sub-Saharan Africa. Two thirds of the world food production come from rainfed agriculture which has low productivity (about one third of its yield potential) as a result of moisture deficits that causes substantial yield losses and food insecurity .Maize, an important cereal crop after wheat and rice with regards to cultivation area is usually grown under rainfed conditions in sub-Saharan Africa where water scarcity for agricultural production is expected to increase in a number of water deficit countries.

Maize is an efficient user of water in terms of total dry matter production whose crop factor relating to crop water requirements with reference to evapo-transpiration differs between growth stages (Wang et al. , 2009) .During the flowering and grain filling (mid-season to late season stages),ebb and flow bench shortage of soil moisture often occurs under rainfed conditions which can severely affect plant yield (Wang et al. , 2009) . The continuous water deficit during the flowering and the yield formation period determines the optimum irrigation method for maize production in the semi-arid areas. “Supplemental irrigation which involves the addition of limited amounts of water to essentially rainfed crops to improve and stabilize yields when rainfall fails to provide sufficient moisture for normal plant growth” can help alleviate soil moisture stress and increase plant yield during critical growthstages. Gembloux et al. (2015)  indicated farmers willingness to adopt supplementary irrigation techniques. However, financial constraints and knowledge for scheduling supplementary irrigation still remains a challenge to farmers and extension officers.The aim of this study is to explain the different steps needed in the design of a supplementary irrigation system for maize production during the raining season.Four main soil types can be identified in the area: ferruginous soils, gravellysoils, vertisols and brown soils. The leached ferruginous soils are sandy on the surface and sandy/clayey at greater depth with low fertility levels.

The topography is very flat, 4x8ft rolling benches with an average altitude of 280 m. The vegetation is mostly characterized as arboreous and shrubby savannas. Agriculture is practiced as the main economic activity of the area where access to land is by kinship and inheritance. The main crops cultivated include millet, sorghum, maize, rice,ground nut, cowpea, cotton and soybean. The estimated irrigation water requirement is 300 mm. Irrigation water requirement is the part of water requirement for plant growth that should be added through irrigation to stabilize yield production. Irrigation water is the difference between crop evapotranspiration and effective rainfall plus any soil water content or ground water contribution in the soil profile.Since there is loss of water through soil evaporation, the irrigation water requirement must account for it. The irrigation water requirement is therefore calculated as the difference between effective rainfall and crop water need plus water loss due to soil evaporation. When soil water is below 7 mm, irrigation is required, so irrigation water requirement must account for it as well as any irrigation water loss due to inefficiency of the irrigation system. Table 2 illustrates the monthly water budget during the maize growing period of maize indicating the irrigation water requirement for each month for the study area in terms of gross irrigation application dose. Irrigation scheduling is the process used by irrigation system managers to determine the correct frequency and duration of watering.