RESEARCH & IRRIGATION
Texas A&M AgriLife in collaboration with industry partners, tested the use of mobile drip irrigation and a plant/soil water feedback system. Photos: IIC
Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Lab and others tested the hypothesis that agrivoltaic systems will require less irrigation water and use water more efficiently for crop production in Colorado. Work for this project took place at Jack’s Solar Garden, Longmont, Colorado.
Fresno State researchers are exploring a closed-loop approach to re-manufacturing single-use dripline into a thick-walled dripline to make the industry more options for sustainability.
Additional areas of interest highlighted by the study included partnering with universities to vet and beta test newer tools and bringing diverse partners together to develop or improve decision support systems to integrate and derive more value from real-time data streams.
Most survey respondents (68%) and all 20 interviewees noted that establishing benchmarks for irrigation’s water and energy footprint is very important, both for agriculture and landscape contexts. Benchmarks are needed to assess if and how irrigation management is improving or could improve to reduce the footprints.
While proprietary concerns regarding innovation in irrigation technology remain within the industry, there was interest among survey respondents in collaborative research. A few of the benefits of collaboration listed in the
22 Irrigation TODAY | Spring 2022
report include validating practices and sustainability levels; market research to benchmark adoption rates; and validating, demonstrating and identifying ways to refine new products before and after launch. Furthermore, there is an interest among survey respondents to collaborate to learn more about resource sustainability and renewable energy sources.
One of the most encouraging findings was that industry respondents and interviewees are interested in partnering with IIC. “There’s nothing else like IIC going on anywhere, globally, with the kinds of partners you can pull together and the work you can take on,” stated John Farner, Netafim chief sustainability officer.
“I think this is both a great and necessary initiative.”
IIC is well positioned to facilitate collaborative efforts on many of these research areas and other topics covered through the survey and interviews.
In early 2022, IIC launched a new call for research pre-proposals for collaborative projects involving public and private partners. More information on this call is available at irrigationinnovation. org/2022rfp.
Susan Hutton is the communication Consortium.
Amy Kremen the IIC.
ABOUT THE IRRIGATION INNOVATION CONSORTIUM IIC’s mission is to advance the development and adoption of water-efficient tools, technologies and practices used in agricultural and landscape irrigation. To achieve this mission, IIC connects industry and academic partners to leverage their expertise and speed the transfer of new and useful knowledge across the irrigation sector. The IIC is supported by a $5 million contribution commitment from the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research. IIC project partners provide matching support for an overall investment of at least $10 million over five years. Since its founding in 2018, IIC has helped fund more than 30 research projects in eight states involving more than 45 private companies and public entities as collaborative partners.
irrigationtoday.org
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