Symbiosis of farming and Irrigation Scheduling









E-Irrigation Blog

Farmer's Weekly posed in interesting question with one of their September, 2017 articles. Essentially they asked "How many harvests are left in your soil?" Maria-Helena Semendo, speaking at World Soil Day (2016) stated that the world's topsoil could be gone within 60 years should the current degradation continue. Some of the main causes of soil degradation include chemical-heavy farming methods, deforestation, erosion and global warming. 

Professor Raj Patel points to runoff water from farms often contaminated with high volumes of fertilizer and other chemicals as being a culprit. “The story of industrial agriculture is all about externalizing costs and exploiting nature,” Patel states. 

South African farmers are already taking the lead by becoming more ecologically accountable, by incorporating green farming practices and turning to sustainable farming methods and water conservation. One of the methods South Africans employ are irrigation scheduling, or the precise control of irrigation. 

The question now remains how does irrigation scheduling and sustainable farming form a beneficial symbiotic relationship?
  • Irrigation scheduling reduces runoff and leaching, thereby reducing the amount of fertilizer and chemicals that end up in our rivers and dams,
  • Controlled, precise irrigation stretches the farmer's water reserves, allowing him/her to irrigate more land with the same amount of water. Roughly 65% of irrigation water is not used by the plant, irrigation scheduling aims to reduce that number, thus making the farm more sustainable.
  • Fewer irrigations means lower electricity consumption, which in turn places less strain in the country's power supply. 
  • Irrigation scheduling allows for the proper amount of oxygen to penetrate the soil. Plants need oxygen at their roots to absorb adequate amounts of water, this leads to higher quality crops and better prices with less input cost.
  • By controlling how deep you irrigate, though valve automation, the farmer is able to save more water and minimize water leaching away. 
Thus it becomes abundantly clear that irrigation scheduling technology is not a luxury, but a critical tool enabling farmers to apply greener practices and become more sustainable. Farming and irrigation scheduling are inseparably intertwined.

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