The introduction of drip irrigation for trees and vines saw a short sprint in the late 70's but actually took off in the 90's.  Early on, these systems were under designed and characterized by poor quality equipment, and often failed.

Today, certainly in grapes, there is no other method which compares with drip. In trees, two lines per tree row (double line drip) is widely used.

Drip for orchard establishment using little water and providing outstanding results to get trees started for the first two or three years.