Three Ways To Use Less Water For More Profit

 

Farmers’ efforts to get water to their crops date back more than 8,000 years, when ancient Mesopotamians first diverted waters from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to their fields. Irrigation technology has developed exponentially since then, but the concept has remained the same over the past eight millennia: use available water as efficiently as possible to optimize production. Today that means being smart about irrigation to maximize the benefits while limiting costs. Here are three modern-day tools that would surely make those Mesopotamian farmers envious.

 

 

Programs like PHAUCET and PipePlanner can help you create efficient irrigation systems so you’re not wasting water. By inputting farm-specific details, such as row lengths and elevation changes, these programs give recommendations for irrigation-tubing hole sizing and evaluate different layout options. Delta Plastics, an irrigation polytube manufacturer, estimates that computer-based furrow-irrigation planning can result in 25 to 50 percent water savings and an average of 25 percent reduction in energy costs.

 

 

The European Space Agency has been tracking soil-moisture content since the late 1970s via satellite. Lucky for you, you won’t need to invest in a spacesuit to monitor water availability for your plants. Handheld soil-moisture probes can give you an instant snapshot of plant stress due to over- or under-watering. Since soybeans have different water requirements at different growth stages, soil-moisture sensors can help you decide exactly how much additional irrigation your plants need at a given time.