Water is becoming scarce in arid and droughtprone areas. Scarce water limits economic
development of these regions. Ceramic pitcher irrigation, one of the traditional subsurface irrigation
methods, is used with water-filled unglazed baked ceramicpitchers, which are buried to their necks in the
soil. Ceramic pitcher irrigation is very attractive for the following reasons: inexpensive, water-saving,
easy to operate, and suitable for uneven terrain (Mondal et al., 1987). In this study, the ceramic pitcher
was buried entirely in a tomato field to evaluate the performance as an underground water emitter for
subsurface irrigation. The main objectives of this study are 1) to investigate the effect of different water
supply pressures on the changes in soil volumetric moisture, yield, and water use efficiency (WUE) for
tomato cultivation, and 2) to develop a cultivation system in which soil moisture content can be
automatically controlled using the ceramic pitcher subsurface irrigation system.