Farm water comes from a number of different sources and therefore its quality varies from one source to another. Water sources include dams, boreholes, wells, rivers, and town water channels, and recycled water. Water from various sources may be of unsuitable quality for its intended purposes such as irrigation, stock, household, or other farm activities. It is important that the correct water quality problems that affect the usage of the farm as well as the productivity of crops are identified. Water quality can have adverse effects on plants growing on the farm, soils, livestock present in the farm, irrigation equipment operational in the farm, water for domestic usage, and the general farm activities.

This describes the acidity or alkalinity of water. The PH of the soil can affect the growth of plants, irrigation equipment, pesticide efficiency, and the quality of drinking water. Water that has a PH that is below 7 is acidic and that which has a scale above 7.5 is alkaline in nature. Most of the natural waters that exist are between PH 5 and 8. The accepted PH for farm water is 6.5-7.5.

The iron bacteria will develop in the water where the concentration range of iron is 0.3 to 1.5 mg/l. concentrations that are above 1.5 mg/l tend to favor the development of iron deposits. The irrigation systems that are used for fertigation should use water that has high iron content.

This refers to the measure of the number of exchangeable sodium cations in water or in soil. In water, it is expressed as a sodium absorption ratio(SAR). If the SAR is greater than 3, the water is sodic and is a potential hazard in soils.

It is important to consider water processing system design in the development of an efficient water treatment system. The treatment system must be designed with a number of fundamental water treatment processes. These processes include coagulation, sedimentation, PH measurement, and filtration process.