Precision Irrigation Works but Adoption Still Lags
Precision irrigation applies water at the right place, time, depth and amount to meet crop needs under changing growing conditions. Although this relatively new practice reduces water use and costs while increasing agricultural productivity, precision irrigation management adoption has been limited. The slow rate of adoption results from a spectrum of reasons, including economics, technical hurdles, agronomic goals and water use policies, among others.
The Irrigation Innovation Consortium (IIC) supports collaborative research and multi-stakeholder dialogues to address these barriers and increase implementation of precision irrigation management. During the five-year period of FFAR funding, IIC-supported research produced breakthroughs in irrigation hardware, software, tools and efficient input management through creative collaborations between industry and university, and by engaging farmers and agricultural and landscape communities across the United States. Additionally, IIC held activities to engage a broad variety of agriculture sector groups and modernize Extension outreach.
Partnership-Powered Knowledge, Tools & Training
FFAR provided funding to IIC to develop technology and fill research gaps while providing interactive training to showcase advanced irrigation management tools and strategies. IIC research engaged a range of partners in a pre-competitive space, including industry, farmers and other agriculture producers, processors, turf managers, nonprofits, government agencies and academic institutions. Through these partnerships, the Consortium serves as an idea incubator, conducting research surveys and needs assessments to refine research priorities and fund projects designed to address urgent knowledge gaps.
For example, IIC partnered with the Irrigation Association to assess the economic impact of the irrigation equipment and services industry. Data on this topic had not been gathered or updated for a decade, even though details on annual spending, industry growth and job creation are essential for farmers, businesses and policymakers to understand the impact of an industry critical to U.S. agriculture and other economic sectors.
Another project brought together academic and industry partners to install or upgrade eddy covariance towers in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska. These towers measure evapotranspiration – the movement of water from ground to air – to provide farmers with accurate, continuously updated data needed to measure crop water use and schedule irrigation. These insights can help producers time irrigation, allowing them to conserve water and/or reduce management costs without negatively impacting crop yields.
The IIC also supported turf research to advance golf course superintendents’ implementation of decision-support technologies to reduce golf course water and energy use through precision management of natural areas beyond the greens.
The consortium engaged and facilitated communication within a large network of irrigation technology and management specialists through numerous multistate irrigation training and demonstration sites, conferences, workshops, webinars and insight panels. IIC-supported activities included:
- A micro-course on using and interpreting data from smart irrigation sensors.
- Extension-led workshops to train producers and crop consultants on a newly developed crop water allocation tool.
- Engaging beef and dairy industry leaders on topics such as managing water risks and relationships between crop and feed management.
Encouraging the adoption of advanced irrigation technologies and management strategies is fundamental to IIC. Among its projects, the consortium supported data analysis and research connected to the Testing Ag Performance Solutions (TAPS) program. TAPS is a multi-institutional platform that integrates citizen and research science to support irrigators, water managers and researchers. TAPS helps these groups understand the impact of advanced irrigation strategies thanks to data collected through no-risk testing and demonstrations in which producers participate in a farming competition focused on agricultural profitability and input efficiency.
IIC further strengthened and expanded the Master Irrigator program to several states in the West, Midwest and South. This program provides irrigation education and equips irrigators with technical resources, irrigation management tools and incentives and improved peer and professional networking capacity.
Real-World Returns on Irrigation Innovation
IIC-led grants equip farmers and stakeholders with tools, strategies and improved access to information about managing water productively, improving irrigation system performance and reducing costs associated with irrigation management. IIC contributions include:
- Completed 56 research projects.
- Conducted research in 30 congressional districts across 12 states.
- Created 64 jobs and maintained 122 jobs through its research.
- Published 16 scholarly manuscripts on its research findings.
- Created an IIC website to share knowledge and best practices publicly.
- Engaged 53 industry and other non-federal partners in IIC research projects.
- Awarded over $5 million in matching grant funds.
- Developed 145 information products, including workshops; conference abstracts, posters and other presentations; webinars, podcasts, and videos; and non-scholarly articles.
Key stakeholders benefiting from IIC accomplishments include:
- Irrigating producers and homeowners
- Commodity groups that rely on irrigated livestock feed
- Agriculture input companies
- Irrigation manufacturers and related technology industries
- Researchers and Extension experts
- Local and regional water utilities, planning commissions and city managers
- State and federal policymakers
Through IIC, farmers are gaining the resources they need to operate thriving, productive farms while supporting healthy ecosystems.