The objective of this work was to evaluate the energy consumption and the efficiency of the water pumping stations to irrigate rice crop fields at Arroio Grande, Santa Maria county, RS, Brazil,. 95 water pumping stations were visited, but only 21 were avaluated considering yield. Results showed that 67% of the water pumping stations were under 75% of it is operational efficiency. The ratio CV ha-1 showed great amplitude between the different power sources. For electrical power stations the ratio was 0.93CV ha-1 and for water pumping systems moved by tractors the ratio was 6,30CV ha-1. It was noticed that all power stations operated between 200% and 4250% over what would be normally necessary to irrigate the rice cultivated area. It was also observed that, under safe conditions electric energy could be saved up to 29% by re-evaluating head losses and, 41% if included a substitution of the current equipments pumping systems, for others minimum efficiency of 75%.
pumps efficiency; pumping stations; pumps
