Laser technology to level farm land saves water and energy

Dharini Parthasarathy at the Thomson Reuters Foundation: Life in rural India evokes an image of a farmer levelling the land with an ox-drawn scraper. It’s one of the most basic preparations before sowing, as uneven land does not bode well for water absorption and farm productivity.

But for many farmers, animal power is being replaced by machines. A laser land leveller - a machine equipped with a laser-operated drag bucket - is much more effective and quicker at ensuring a flat, even surface. A flat surface means irrigation water reaches every part of the field with minimal waste from run-off or water-logging.

Mechanisation is good news for farmers, as climate change and variability pose unprecedented challenges to agriculture. The need of the hour is climate-smart agriculture practices and technologies that save on scarce resources like water and energy but increase yields and incomes.

A portfolio of climate-smart practices can equip farmers to adapt to changing weather patterns amid depleting natural resources. For instance, groundwater in north-western India has been declining at alarming rates due to the overuse of electric pumps, largely thanks to subsidised electricity, and inadequate recharge from erratic rainfall....

The Bhakra Main Channel in the Punjab, shot by Zerit, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Modern irrigation systems boost carbon emissions

Environmental Research Web: As water scarcity increases in the Mediterranean, there is pressure on the agriculture industry to reduce water losses, improve efficiency and boost water productivity. In recent years, government-subsidized pressurized irrigation systems have replaced traditional low-efficiency surface irrigation schemes in many countries, in an attempt to minimize water losses and improve efficiency.

But researchers are warning that, despite making water savings, these modern irrigation systems are increasing the food-production system's contribution to climate change.

"These pressurized irrigation systems use more energy and therefore have higher carbon emissions than traditional gravity-operated systems," said Andre Daccache, from Cranfield University, UK. "We have carried out the first large-scale assessment of agricultural water demand in the Mediterranean region and estimated the carbon-dioxide emissions associated with water abstraction for irrigation."

...The calculations also revealed that Spain, which is becoming more reliant on groundwater and on pressurized systems to irrigate crops, uses three times the energy of Egypt, a country that almost exclusively employs water from the River Nile and is still largely dependent on traditional gravity-fed systems.

"While Spain is saving water with these new irrigation systems, it is clear that its carbon-dioxide emissions will be higher," said Daccache. "We were expecting to see a difference in energy use between countries but we were surprised by the size of the difference. The problem is that Spain with a dry climate and scarce surface-water resources does not have many options when it comes to irrigation technologies."...

An irrigation sprinkler in Adaja, Spain, shot by David A. Nafria, Wikimedida Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 Unported license 

World losing 2,000 hectares of farm soil daily to salt-induced degradation

A press release from United Nations University: Salt-spoiled soils worldwide: 20% of all irrigated lands — an area equal to size of France; Extensive costs include $27 billion+ in lost crop value / year. UNU study identifies ways to reverse damage, says every hectare needed to feed world’s fast-growing population.

Every day for more than 20 years, an average of 2,000 hectares of irrigated land in arid and semi-ari
d areas across 75 countries have been degraded by salt, according to a new study — Economics of Salt-induced Land Degradation and Restoration — published today by the UNU Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH).

Currently an area the size of France is affected — about 62 million hectares (20 percent) of the world’s irrigated lands, up from 45 million hectares in the early 1990s. Salt-induced land degradation occurs in arid and semi-arid regions where rainfall is too low to maintain regular percolation of rainwater through the soil and where irrigation is practiced without a natural or artificial drainage system.

Irrigation practices without drainage management trigger the accumulation of salts in the root zone, affecting several soil properties and reducing productivity. “To feed the world’s anticipated nine billion people by 2050, and with little new productive land available, it’s a case of all lands needed on deck,” says principal author Manzoor Qadir, Assistant Director of the Water and Human Development programme at UNU-INWEH. ”We can’t afford not to restore the productivity of salt-affected lands.”

Zafar Adeel, Director of UNU-INWEH, notes that the UN Food and Agriculture Organization projects a need to produce 70 percent more food by 2050, including a 50 percent rise in annual cereal production to about 3 billion tonnes....

Campbell's River in the Murray-Darling Basin, shot by Rangasyd, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license 

Reorganization of crop production and trade could save China's water supply

Seed Daily via SPX: China's rapid socioeconomic growth continues to tax national water resources - especially in the agricultural sector - due to increasing demands for food. And, because of the country's climate and geography, irrigation is now widespread, burdening rivers and groundwater supplies.

One solution to these growing problems, however, might be to reorganize the country's crop production and trade, especially in agricultural provinces such as Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang and Hebei, according to new report issued by Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and School of Engineering and Applied Science and scientists in China and Japan.

The researchers report in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that reducing agricultural production in these provinces and importing food commodities from other provinces or nations instead could help China conserve more water. These provinces all use large volumes of water to produce crops that are later exported to wetter regions.

If balanced with more water-efficient irrigation systems locally, restructuring these regions could reduce national water use while avoiding an excessive geographically centralized agricultural production.

"Our analysis provides a framework for understanding how such policies would benefit China's water use in the future," said study co-author Denise Mauzerall, professor of environmental engineering and international affairs. In particular, corn production and trade at the domestic level might be an area to target as changes could significantly reduce national water use for irrigation."...

Irrigation of rice fields, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China, ca.1900-1919. A lantern slide taken by American missionaries

Kenyan irrigation scheme offers solutions but raises questions

IRIN: One of the largest irrigation schemes in Kenya’s history, the recently launched 400,000-hectare Galana-Kulalu Food Security Project, will focus on the production of crops, livestock and fish for both domestic consumption and export.

But will the project succeed in its stated aim of alleviating the country’s persistent food deficit while creating a million jobs? Or will it turn out to be another white elephant that lines the pockets of a well-connected few?

“Previous [irrigation] projects could not survive since the communities were not involved. They felt short-changed. We were given a raw deal. Only a few people benefitted,” Jefferson Kingi, the governor of Kilifi, told IRIN. Kilifi and Tana River are the two counties set to host the project.

“Massive projects such as this, like many others, are always opportunities for government officials and corrupt politicians to make quick money. It is incumbent upon the government to ensure it is not hijacked by corruption cartels,” PLO Lumumba, a constitutional lawyer and anti-corruption activist, told IRIN.

The government has already allocated some US$42 million to finance the first phase of the project….

A 28-member farming group in Machakos, Kenya farms a 4-acre plot where they grow oranges, avocado, vegetables, maize. Shot by McKay Savage, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Threat of water wars is real, says Pakistani climate change scientist

Shahid Husain in the News (Pakistan): In an interview with The News on Friday, Dr Qamar uz Zaman Chaudhry, senior adviser on Climate Change Programme and deputy regional director, Asia, LEAD Pakistan, identified threats to the country due to climate change and global warming.

He agreed that “water wars” were real, and said food security was directly linked to climate change. Dr Chaudhry is in town as a resource person at a three-day Saarc workshop on “Climate Change Impacts on Coastal and Aquatic Resources”. The workshop has been organised by the Saarc Coastal Zone Management Centre, Male, Maldives, in collaboration with the Climate Change Division, Pakistan.

Excerpts follow: Q: In a statement to the press, Ismail Seageldin, vice president of the World Bank, said in August 1995: ‘Many of the wars of this century were about oil, but wars of next century will be over water.” Do you agree? A: I fully agree that future wars will be on water because of water stress created by climate change stresses. This war and confrontation will not only be between countries but also between provinces, different users because there will be competing demands between different stake holders/partners.

Q: How can these wars be avoided? A: First of all, we need to assess the climate change threats and then particular impacts on water resources. We need to prepare our water development systems and need to plan rational use of available water resources. Pakistan being an agricultural country, the major user of available freshwater is agricultural sector, using 80 percent of water. Present irrigation practices results in wastage of more than 30 percent of this share of water. The foremost action should be to reduce these wastages in agriculture...

A well pump in Pakistan, shot by Mo, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Sensors allow for efficient irrigation, give growers more control over plant growth

Seed Daily via SPX: As water use and runoff regulations become more stringent and concerns about dwindling water supplies become more of an issue, finding ways to increase the efficiency of water use for horticultural operations is crucial.

A new study contains answers that can help horticultural growers address regulatory and cost concerns. Amanda Bayer, lead author of the research study, explained that most often horticultural best management practices (BMPs) are used to conserve water, but that BMPs do not account for water requirements of plants.

"Soil moisture sensors can be used along with an automated irrigation system to irrigate when substrate volumetric water content drops below a set threshold, allowing for precise irrigation control and improved water conservation compared with traditional irrigation practices," Bayer said.

...Bayer explained that the studies were conducted in two different U.S. Department of Agriculture hardiness zones (Tifton 8b, Watkinsville 8a) to compare plant responses under different environmental conditions. "We found that plant growth increased with increasing water content threshold in both greenhouse and nursery settings," the authors said...

Furrow irrigation in 1911

Recycled sewage water found safe for crop irrigation

Science 2.0: Low levels of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) were in crops irrigated with recycled sewage water, according to the first study conducted under realistic field conditions.   The research, which eases some concerns over using treated wastewater for agriculture, was launched because drought and water shortages in the American southwest and in other arid parts of the world are using water recycled from municipal sewage treatment plants to irrigate food crops as the only option.

Water from toilets and sinks enters those facilities from homes and offices, and undergoes processing to kill disease-causing microbes and remove other material. Processing leaves that water, or "effluent," from most sewage treatment plants clean enough to drink. Traditionally, however, sewage treatment plants simply discharge the water into rivers or streams.

The effluent still may contain traces of impurities, including the remains of ingredients in prescription drugs, anti-bacterial soaps, cosmetics, shampoos and other PPCPs that are flushed down toilets and drains so they wanted to know what levels remain.

"The levels of pharmaceuticals and personal care products that we found in food crops growing under real-world conditions were quite low and most likely do not pose any health concern," said Jay Gan, Ph.D., who led the study. "I think this is good news. These substances do not tend to accumulate in vegetables, including tomatoes and lettuce that people often eat raw. We can use that information to promote the use of this treated wastewater for irrigation."

Sprinkler irrigation, shot by Fir0002, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Irrigation scheme locks horns with Kenya’s pastoralists

IRIN: The Kenyan government is planning to introduce large-scale irrigation in the country’s dry lands to improve food security and unlock agricultural potential – but critics have blasted the US$170 million scheme as unviable, and a threat to the pastoralist economy.

The government has set aside one million acres of land for irrigated agriculture over the next five years in the historically underdeveloped northeast. Half a million acres of this land will be used to grow cereals and 300,000 acres to grow sugarcane. The remainder will be used for horticultural crops.

“The government… [aims] to exploit the agricultural potential in ASAL [arid and semi-arid lands],” Daniel Barasa, head of the National Irrigation Board, told IRIN.  According to Vision 2030, Kenya’s economic blueprint for the next 17 years, the country’s chronically food insecure arid and semi-arid regions need special attention to help them develop.

Vision 2030 calls for the provision of water, infrastructure, pasture, fodder and veterinary services; establishing strategically located disease-free zones to increase livestock productivity and quality; unifying the efforts of different ministries and other stakeholders to coordinate development of the region; and putting more land under cultivation.

But experts are calling for caution in rolling out large-scale irrigation schemes in the ecologically fragile pastoralist areas.  “Such schemes usually incur high costs, are technically complex, and dependent on heavy machinery. This means that the sustainability of the schemes is ultimately dependent on external commitment and expertise to succeed,” Jeremy Lind, research fellow at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and member of the Future Agricultures Consortium, told IRIN...

Livestock in Kenya, USAID photo

On-demand water helps communities adapt to climate change

Brian English in Care2: …Global Communities has introduced these impoverished farmers to one of the most advanced drip irrigation systems on the market. Developed in Israel, and recently brought to Honduras by John Deere, it is capable of distributing water under low pressure and economizing it with a precision never achieved before. A very small piece of engineering inside the half-inch diameter plastic tubing – which looks like a miniature maze – controls the flow of water exiting each hole and provides a consistent drip rate. The rate of water can be regulated by a set of valves according to what the different crops need, and sections of the network can be turned on and off.

The impact of this irrigation system, and seven other reservoirs constructed by Global Communities, has been nothing short of a green revolution for Daniel and almost 1,000 others directly benefiting from these systems. Compared to youth-led revolutions occurring in many countries today, this revolution is being led by the older generations, those who stayed in this unforgiving land while their children have migrated north, many to the United States to work in agriculture.

This green revolution is also keeping young adults home instead of migrating north. Daniel’s four sons stood nearby as we toured their field. They wore hooded tops with headphones dangling from their ears, watching us closely with a palpable urge to be recognized for their role in creating this bounty. If these boys choose to leave, there is reason for their father to be concerned: the journey north has become fraught with the risks of human trafficking as gangs and drug cartels from Tegucigalpa through to the US-Mexico border have expanded….

California's Central Valley irrigation intensifies rainfall, storms across the Southwest

UC Irvine News: Agricultural irrigation in California’s Central Valley doubles the amount of water vapor pumped into the atmosphere, ratcheting up rainfall and powerful monsoons across the interior Southwest, according to a new study by UC Irvine scientists.

Moisture on the vast farm fields evaporates, is blown over the Sierra Nevada and dumps 15 percent more than average summer rain in numerous other states. Runoff to the Colorado River increases by 28 percent, and the Four Corners region experiences a 56 percent boost in runoff. While the additional water supply can be a good thing, the transport pattern also accelerates the severity of monsoons and other potentially destructive seasonal weather events.

“If we stop irrigating in the Valley, we’ll see a decrease in stream flow in the Colorado River basin,” said climate hydrologist Jay Famiglietti, senior author on the paper, which will be published online Tuesday, Jan. 29, in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The basin provides water for about 35 million people, including those in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Phoenix. But the extra water vapor also accelerates normal atmospheric circulation, he said, “firing up” the annual storm cycle and drawing in more water vapor from the Gulf of Mexico as well as the Central Valley. When the additional waves of moisture bump into developing monsoons, Famiglietti said, “it’s like throwing fuel on a fire.”

Famiglietti, an Earth system science professor in the School of Physical Sciences, and colleague Min-Hui Lo, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California Center for Hydrologic Modeling who is now at National Taiwan University, painstakingly entered regional irrigation levels into global rainfall and weather models and traced the patterns.

“All percent differences in the paper are the differences between applying irrigation to the Central Valley and not applying it,” Famiglietti said. “That’s the point of the study – and the beauty of using computer models. You can isolate the phenomenon that you wish to explore, in this case, irrigation versus no irrigation.”...

An irrigation canal in the Central Valley, shot in 1972

Global irrigated area at record levels, but expansion slowing

KTIC Radio: In 2009, the most recent year for which global data are available from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 311 million hectares in the world was equipped for irrigation but only 84 percent of that area was actually being irrigated, according to new research conducted by the Worldwatch Institute for its Vital Signs Online service (www.worldwatch.org). As of 2010, the countries with the largest irrigated areas were India (39 million hectares), China (19 million), and the United States (17 million), writes report author Judith Renner.

...The increasing availability of inexpensive individual pumps and well construction methods has led to a shift from public to private investment in irrigation, and from larger to smaller-scale systems. The takeoff in individual groundwater irrigation has been concentrated in India, China, and much of Southeast Asia. The idea of affordable and effective irrigation is attractive to poor farmers worldwide, with rewards of higher outputs and incomes and better diets.

"The option is often made even more appealing with offers of government subsidies for energy costs of running groundwater pumps and support prices of irrigated products," said Renner, a senior at Fordham University in New York. "In India's Gujarat state, for example, energy subsidies are structured so that farmers pay a flat rate, no matter how much electricity they use. But with rising numbers of farmers tapping groundwater resources, more and more aquifers are in danger of overuse."

If groundwater resources are overexploited, aquifers will be unable to recharge fast enough to keep pace with water withdrawals. It should be noted that not all aquifers are being pumped at unsustainable levels----in fact, 80 percent of aquifers worldwide could handle additional water withdrawals. One troubling aspect of groundwater withdrawals is that the world's major agricultural producers (particularly India, China, and the United States) are also the ones responsible for the highest levels of depletion....

A floating pumping station on the Nile River, shot by Rémih, Wikimedia Commons,  under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Reduced tillage doesn't mean reduced cotton yields under drip irrigation

Terra Daily via SPX: Loss of production may be one concern cotton producers have on the Rolling Plains when considering switching to reduced- or no-tillage systems, said Dr. Paul DeLaune, Texas AgriLife Research environmental soil scientist in Vernon. Not only will cotton growers not lose production with subsurface drip irrigation, their economics will improve, according to DeLaune's latest research article that will appear in the July-August issue of Agronomy Journal.

DeLaune's study on cotton production as affected by irrigation level and transitioning tillage systems was designed to identify water management strategies that conserve and protect water resources within semiarid environments.

"We found that tillage has no impact on yields, the net returns are greater and, because we can deficit irrigate, we can save energy and water," he said.

The three-year study included five irrigation regimes, from 0 percent to 133 percent of evapotranspiration replacement, and evaluated four tillage systems - conventional till, reduced till, no-till and no-till with a terminated cover crop, he said. Treatments were replicated three times in a randomized complete block design.

The results showed lint yields were not affected by tillage or the interaction of tillage and evapotranspiration replacement, DeLaune said. The greatest lint yields and net returns were achieved at 100 percent evapotranspiration replacement. Optimum lint yields and net returns were achieved at 104.5 percent evapotranspiration and 102 percent evapotranspiration, respectively...

A cotton field in West Texas, shot by Calsidyrose, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

The carbon footprint of China's irrigation system

Water Online: China's groundwater irrigation system is responsible for polluting the atmosphere with more than 30 million tonnes of CO2 per year - according to research from the University of East Anglia. Groundwater used for crop irrigation in China has grown from 10 billion cubic metres in 1950 to more than 100 billion recently.

A research paper, published today in Environmental Research Letters, estimates that the pumping systems which support this immense irrigation network annually produce 33.1 MtCO2e (33.1 mega tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent).

China is the largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, with around 17 per cent of emissions coming from agriculture. Irrigated agriculture in China produces 70 per cent of the country's grain. But it takes some 500 litres of water to grow the wheat for one small loaf of bread.

Greenhouse gas pollution is caused by the huge amount of energy needed to pump water from underground – in some areas from an average depth of 70 meters. This research is the first to calculate how much pollution is being created.

...The results account for more than 0.5 per cent of China's total CO2 emissions. For comparison, this is similar to the total amount of CO2 that the whole of New Zealand emits in one year...

Mulanpo Irrigation System built in the 11th century (Song Dynasty) in Putian, Fujian province of China, shot by 湖畔老, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Australia's plan to drought-proof food bowl

TVNZ (New Zealand): Australian farmers face deep cuts to irrigation water use under proposals unveiled today to help protect the country's vast food bowl. The plan is set to spark a new fight for Prime Minister Julia Gillard's beleaguered Labor government.

After angry farmers last year staged protests and burned copies of a government water plan, officials released a new, scaled-back proposal to cut water use by 25% across the Murray-Darling river basin. This area is the size of France and Spain and produces 90% of Australia's fresh food.

The draft plan would restore the health of the Murray-Darling basin against climate change that is expected to bring more droughts like one which ravaged the country for over a decade until 2009, Environment Minister Tony Burke said.

However, Burke acknowledged many farmers and affected states would be unhappy. "There will be arguments up and down the Basin. That's why we've gone (110 years) since Federation without having sensible reform and getting this right," Burke said.

Australia is the world's driest inhabited continent and climate scientists expect it to be hard hit by global warming. Devastating floods which finally broke the last drought earlier this year are thought by many scientists to be a sign of increasing unpredictability of the country's climate...

The Murray River at Loxton, shot by Dwayne Madden, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Harvesting floodwaters tops Philippine climate change plans

Inquirer News (Philippines): President Benigno Aquino III is studying an 18-year National Climate Change Action Plan that includes a proposal to collect and store for irrigation purposes rainwater that ends up flooding Metro Manila and coastal and riverside towns. Elisea Gozun, presidential assistant for climate change, said Mr. Aquino had directed climate change experts to shape the framework of a program that would continue even after the end of his term in 2016.

Speaking on the sidelines of a July 14 bamboo development forum at the Baguio Country Club, Gozun said government agencies had been consulted and would incorporate their climate change projects as part of their allocations from the 2012 General Appropriations Act.

Harvesting floodwater was a proposal made by Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson for the Department of Public Works and Highways’ (DPWH) body of environmental projects, she said. “The idea was to mainstream climate change projects, so for the public works sector, the government reviewed the half a billion pesos allocated for flood control,” Gozun said.

She said Singson’s solution “was to capture floodwater and use this for irrigation,” which would support the action plan’s food program designed to withstand a scenario of extreme weather changes...

A flooded river near the city of Alimodian flows dangerously close to buildings. In the wake of Typhoon Fengshen, portions of the Island of Panay were hit hard and much damage was done. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jennifer S. Kimball (Released)

Irrigation can shield Africa’s farmers from the effects of climate change

Jaco Maritz in How We Made It In Africa: Farmers in northern Ethiopia are struggling under the impact of climate change. Until a few years ago farmers in this hot and dry area could at least count on the occasional moderate rain. These days there is either no rainfall or it is in the form of torrential downpours leading to flash floods.

…A German-Israeli team, supported by the Ethiopian government, has started a project to show farmers how to irrigate their fields more efficiently. With the help of the local farmers, they have established a pilot project utilising drip irrigation to irrigate vegetables. Conduits that convey water from the reservoir to a tank next to the field has been repaired. Farmers also received training on how to determine how much water their crops need. The idea is that the project will lead to greater adoption of the drip irrigation technology in other parts of the country.

Irrigation has a proven potential to boost levels of agricultural productivity on the continent, as well as address the effects of climate change. Africa is, however, dramatically underserved in terms of irrigation. A 2009 research report by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) states that African countries irrigate only about 6% of their collective cropland, compared with a world average of 18%. In sub-Saharan Africa, only 4% of farmland is under irrigation.

…The report also found that African countries produce 38% of their crops (by value) from cultivated land on which water is managed, suggesting that additional investment in irrigation would pay large benefits. The disproportionate contribution to agricultural production of Africa’s small irrigated area suggests that returns on additional investment in irrigation would be high, both in terms of greater food security for the continent and greater production of export-quality agricultural goods.

Drought and unpredictable rainfall patterns caused by climate change increases the need for irrigation. McKinsey & Company notes that even before global warming was a problem, many parts of Africa were particularly affected by droughts, heat waves and floods. As climate change becomes more of an issue, African agriculture will increasingly suffer because of unusual weather….

Satellite image of Ethiopia, from NASA

Golf courses that reuse water irrigate too much, study suggests

Science Daily: Irrigation is one of the most controversial aspects in the sustainable management of golf courses. Researchers from the Canary Islands have spent 25 years analysing the practices relating to reclaimed water at one of the oldest golf courses in Spain. The results show that plants on the course receive 83% more water than they need.

"Excessive amounts of water are used, and this cannot be justified from any perspective," María del Pino Palacios Díaz, lead author of the study and a researcher at the Department of Animal Pathology, Animal Production and Food Science and Technology at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, said.

Despite the high cost of water (around €0.4 per cubic meter), the amount of water used on golf courses in the Canary Islands continues to be "excessive." On the golf course studied, plants receive more than 83% more water than they need, which reduces the risk of substances accumulating in the soil, but increases the risk of contaminating the aquifer.

The researchers have confirmed this on the basis of a "detailed" analysis of the nutrients and other substances contained in the reclaimed water, and by studying how this is absorbed by the soil and plants, how it travels through the unsaturated area, and the likelihood of it reaching the aquifer.

The research, which has been published in the Spanish Journal of Agricultural Research, also looked at the effect of re-using water reclaimed from desalinated urban water on soil fertility and the health of the greens between 1982 and 2007 at the Royal Golf Club of Las Palmas, one of the oldest courses in Spain and a "model" club in terms of how it is managed…

A golf course in Varadero, Cuba, shot by Gardenparty, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Food producers to benefit from innovative crop irrigation systems

Cranfield University: A four year research project led by Cranfield University aims to improve energy and water efficiency and crop quality through developing an innovative approach to irrigation practices. Rising energy costs, increasing water regulation and supermarket demands for premium quality produce are forcing growers to address the impacts of irrigation on crop quality whilst simultaneously reducing energy and water consumption. Nearly three-quarters of all field vegetable crops, the most important crop in the UK after potatoes in terms of crop value, are irrigated using overhead methods which are inefficient in energy and water use, therefore affecting crop quality.

40,000 ha of outdoor vegetable crops are irrigated in a dry year. The total annual running costs are estimated to be £16.5 million, of which the energy (pumping) costs account for over three quarters of all in-field costs. New technologies to improve the targeting of water application and improved crop response crop quality could reduce water and energy annual running costs by up to 20%, or almost £3.5million.

The ‘precision irrigation’ approaches being developed at Cranfield combine knowledge of soil, crop and equipment management practices to improve irrigated production, water application and water use efficiency, - more ‘crop per drop’ - and reduce the ‘non-beneficial’ losses such as soil erosion, and reduce energy costs, thereby improving post harvest quality of crops and reducing crop wastage in the supply chain.

Dr Jerry Knox, Project Leader, said “Making maximum use of soil moisture and rainfall, knowing precisely where and when irrigation has to be applied, and then applying it accurately and uniformly, are the fundamental steps in the ‘pathway to water efficiency’”….

An irrigation canal in northerm Peru, shot by Alfredobi

Irrigation hiding climate change effects in some regions

The Hindu (India): Expanded irrigation might mitigate the effects of climate change in some areas, a new study has revealed. But some major groundwater aquifers, a source of irrigation water, are projected to dry up in coming decades from continuing overuse, and when they do, people may face the double whammy of food shortages and higher temperatures.

“An important question for the future is what happens to the climate if the water goes dry and the cooling disappears? How much warming is being hidden by irrigation?” asked Michael Puma at Columbia University’s Earth Institute and its affiliated NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. On one hand, earth’s oceans and vegetation have been absorbing a growing share of emissions with declining rates of absorption. But humans are also cooling the planet to some degree, by releasing air-polluting particles that lower temperatures by reflecting the sun’s energy back into space.

…In warm, dry regions, irrigation increases the amount of water available for plants to release into the air through a process called evapotranspiration. When the soil is wet, part of the sun’s energy is diverted from warming the soil to vaporizing its moisture, creating a cooling effect.

The study suggests that irrigation may be altering the pattern of the Asian monsoon, the rains that feed nearly half of the world’s population….

Mechanik & Welle & Wasserförderung & Schöpfwerk from 1623