Research and Innovation Toward a Sustainable Future

At the Center for Irrigation Technology (CIT) at California State University, Fresno, Director Charles Hillyer, PhD, and his staff are testing irrigation equipment, administering and conducting research primarily focused on irrigation, and working to educate farmers and other stakeholders on new technologies. Although irrigation technology keeps advancing, every agricultural irrigation system — no matter how complex — serves the same purpose: delivering water efficiently to support sustainable crop production.

“The fundamental problem all irrigation technologies are trying to resolve is how to make agriculture sustainable,” Hillyer says. “In a great many regions, we are using more groundwater than is going in the aquifers, and we can’t do that forever. Being sustainable is in everyone’s best interest.”

The balance between innovation and profitability

It’s no surprise that every farmer’s primary goal is to yield a profitable crop, and irrigation is central to that goal.

“Most of these irrigation systems were designed with profitability in mind,” Hillyer says. “Farming is a business, and irrigation is a way to increase production and mitigate risk depending on the climate you’re in. Irrigation is a risk-management tool, and we need irrigation to maintain that production level. Some farms wouldn’t be economically viable without it.”

While improved technology and sustainability are both top of mind for manufacturers and farmers alike, there is a delicate balance between the two, and every farmer will ultimately have to evaluate the pros and cons of every change or addition to their irrigation system.

“Irrigation systems can be expensive, and farmers have to decide if it is worth it to upgrade given their circumstances,” says Kevin Hecht, president of Crop Quest, based in Dodge City, Kansas. “There is always something new, but is it proven? We are talking about a substantial investment, so it depends on how much farmers want to try something new because they are at risk if something were to go wrong.”

From his experience consulting with farmers in different regions of the country, Hecht says that nobody wants to waste water, even though there is sometimes a stigma that farmers want to pump as much water as they can.

“Being sustainable is at the forefront of their minds, and they’re going to do what makes the best sense for them,” Hecht says. “These producers are very good at what they do, growing crops and food for the world, and they utilize the technology and understand it.”

On the cutting edge

From his seat at CIT, Hillyer says he has seen many startup companies move through the Water, Energy and Technology (WET) Center, a business incubator and startup accelerator also housed at Fresno State.

“Based on what I’m seeing from startup companies moving through the WET Center, their portfolio is more than irrigation,” Hillyer says. “I’ve seen quite a few water treatment technologies, a few low-cost valve-control systems that are designed as add-ons, and quite a few soil add-ons or crop treatment products that improve water use.”

Hillyer says he has seen applications for remote sensing gaining traction. “Being able to measure water use or plant status from space offers a powerful cost savings, with virtually no effort,” Hillyer says. “It’s very appealing technology, and it has really improved a lot over the last decade or more.”

“In California, with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, groundwater sustainability agencies have to be able to quantify how much water is being used, both surface water and groundwater, and they are quantifying it using sensing technologies from California companies,” Hillyer adds.

Remote sensing has the potential to solve a key question for farmers. “Remote sensing is trying to solve how much water a crop is using, and if you can answer that question, it’s a lot easier to come up with a quantitative answer of how much water I should apply, which is the question farmers are asking,” Hillyer says. “Remote sensing makes that easier on a per-acre basis, from a scalability point of view, and it doesn’t involve the grower installing or maintaining anything, which makes the business model a bit more appealing, as well.”

Different motivation for different regions

Because every part of the country has different rules and regulations, the need for farmers to embrace efficient technology or water management practices varies.

“In Colorado, it is dependent on snow melt,” Hecht says. “Rulings in various states could restrict water for wildlife. In Western Kansas, there is a declining aquifer. A lot of those things drive the decisions we make.”

In regions where irrigation is imperative, Hecht says some farmers are using tracking systems to alert them to potential issues in the field. “A gear box can go out and the sprinkler can stop or stay in one spot until you fix the issue or turn it off, and the monitors would tell you that it isn’t moving or that something is going on,” Hecht says. “Some people have been using the technology for years, and some, depending on where you’re at, may not use it at all. Some areas may only use their sprinklers once or twice a year; they’re not really watering much unless they really need to, so it may not be worth it to them.”

Exploring efficiency

While he says that there has been an assumption that agricultural irrigation is efficient for years, Bill Golden’s research at Kansas State University is focused on determining how efficient agricultural irrigation really is.

“The focus of my research is to try to put together data sets that test and identify how efficient we are,” Golden says. “We are very motivated because we have seen farmers reduce water use and maintain profits, and what this says is farmers weren’t as efficient as they thought they were.”

With the investment a farmer makes into a crop, it’s understandable that farmers tend to err on the side of caution. Golden says that producers are generally risk averse. “Water is cheap, and while it might be down in the ground, once you purchase the equipment, one or two more inches of water doesn’t cost that much,” Golden says. “They have $1,000 an acre invested in corn crop, in seed, land rent and fertilizer. If you have that much investment and you’re not sure if you have enough water in the soil to carry it to harvest, the tendency is to put more water on, and anyone would do that. If you have a crop and it only takes $3 or $4 in water, you’re going to put the water on.”

The solution, Golden says, is giving farmers the tools they need to know they have sufficient water in the soil. “The tools exist; we just have not gotten everyone to use them, and that is probably an education issue,” Golden says. “It’s not like the producers don’t want to save water; it’s that they think, economically, they can’t.”

While Golden says there are many engineers working on improving the efficiency of irrigation technology, he says it’s his opinion that the true focus should be on management efficiency. “If we don’t stabilize the aquifers, the water won’t always be there,” he says. “I’m involved in a multistate and multidiscipline USDA NIFA grant titled Sustainable Irrigation and Climate Adaptation in Southern High Plains: A Satellite-Enabled and Peer-Led Model, looking at using satellite data to provide farmers with information on their crop water needs and groundwater use. That improves the management portion of the efficiency and not the equipment portion of efficiency. If it works, it would be great because that solves the producer problem of how much water my plants need and whether I need to irrigate today.”

While the experts agree that the technology to facilitate efficient irrigation practices exists and being sustainable is at the forefront of both farmers’ and manufacturers’ minds, Golden points out that efficient irrigation often gets the biggest spotlight when water is becoming scarce.

“There are areas with 100 years of water left and other areas with 10 to 20 years of water left, so it’s important that we give producers the tools they need to stretch that out,” Golden says. “It is better to save the water today so you can use the water tomorrow.”

Lauren Sable Freiman is a freelance writer based in Cleveland and can be reached at laurensable@gmail.com.