New Irrigation Technology Needed in Agriculture?
Recently in class we have been discussing who has water rights, and where most of the water is allocated. I was very surprised that 87% of usable water is consumed by agricultural needs. With such a large portion of a scarce natural resource being used in this department, I think it is necessary to maximize the efficiency of the irrigation systems being used. This is in no way an easy task, but I found this site that explains their attempts to provide "sustainable irrigation."
The company New Horizon Technologies, claims that in order to identify water wasting systems you must begin with an audit of the hardware and management techniques being used at each specific system. The specialists that work for this company claim that they can help irrigators save water and energy, reduce power bills, and optimize crop yields, by minimizing overwatering, leaching, and runoff. They claim that they can inspect the entire irrigation system to identify cost-effective improvements. I think that this is a difficult but worthwhile goal. I think that if these efforts could be incorporated into the entire agricultural field, you would see positive effects and less water would be wasted, while maintaining the same crop yield.
posted by Chase @ 7:36 PM
3 Comments:
I do agree that we need to maximize the efficiency of irrigation systems. There are plenty of people who can help in this area (we even have irrigation engineering here at USU). The problem is that it is expensive. As with anything, New Horizon Technologies or any other group, certainly aren't willing to evaluate a system for free and impliment a new one for free...everything costs. I think one way to overcome that would be with a Pigouvian approach. We could set a tax on those who have not had their system checked and improved to a desired efficiency. The revenue from the taxes can then help pay for the farmers to recieve that service, benefiting others.
Obviously there would be issues with who would get the new systems, which could be up to a lottery, or some other varient method, but overall I believe that would help solve the situation.
Irrigation is a concern when it comes to conservation. It was pointed out that the main concern is the cost. That is what I would say also without hesitation. There are systems that are existing today which are very efficient, but there are two things which prevent the installation of those systems: base cost and incentives. In many areas, there is no reason for the irrigators to change. Their current system works and often the price that they pay for water is fine for them. (Remember the numbers that were discussed in class.) There does need to be a solution to the problem, and it might just have to be the taxation system suggested, however, the way it was explained was a little confusing. It sounded as if people would be taxed and those same people would then get the funds to change their system. The irrigation process has room for improvement, and as was shown in class today, as things get more expensive and more scarce, people will come up with means and ways to accomplish what needs to be done.
You don't need an engineering degree to figure out how to use a more efficient irrigation system. There are many farmers (and others) who are changing/or not changing to other systems for many reasons. If the system is not efficient more water is used and more than just that extra water is lost. Many supliments/additives are put in the soil to help things grow. After all not every soil issuitable to grow everything. These additives are lost when too much water is added to a field to runoff and leaching. This in turn can create problems for water within the system, which can lead to problems down the road for farmers using that water.
There are many irrigation systems of varying degrees of efficiency and price. Some systems are much more efficient in on place than another. For instance, It may be more efficient in Logan to use one kind of sprinkler while it may be more efficient/priced concience to use another kind of sprinkler in Kansas(an arbitrary place). The different systems have varying costs but also have varying labor costs. A cheaper system may be less expensive for the hardware but has labor costs while a more expensive systems doesn't have the same labor needs.
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