Enhancing Adoption of Site-Specific Variable Rate Sprinkler Systems

摘要

Existing irrigation technologies are well advanced and would conserve large amounts of water if fully implemented. Adoption of site-specific technologies could potentially extend these water savings even more. However, more than twenty years of private and public research on site-specific variable-rate sprinkler irrigation (SS-VRI), also called zone control, has resulted in limited commercial adoption of the technology. Competing patents, liability and proprietary software have affected industry's willingness to move into a new technology area, but sales of these machines are increasing. Documented and proven water conservation strategies using site-specific irrigation are quite limited, and its cost-effectiveness has not been demonstrated. Marginalcosts associated with site-specific technologies are high. Thus, SS-VRI is primarily being used for eliminating irrigation and chemigation on non-cropped areas of a field or for land application of liquid agricultural and municipal wastes. Various SS-VRI technologies for general crop production are to beginning to slowly gain widespread acceptance; however, they are operated considerably below their potential capabilities, which is expected to continue. Currently, these systems are largely focused on addressing symptoms of poor water and nutrient management. This relatively low level of management is where the technology is expected to stay in the future unless much higher costs for water and the implementation of substantial economic incentives for compliance with environmental and other regulations become significant factors. Research on SS-VRI technologies could also enhance management of uniform irrigation technologies. In the short term, attention must be given to addressing equipment deficiencies and developing basic criteria for defining management zones and locations of various sensor systems for both arid and humid regions. Training adequate personnel to help write prescriptions in humid and arid areas and to assist growers with the decision making process is also a high priority. This paper discusses some of the research and training needed to focus on developing and documenting cost-effective site-specific water conservation strategies in order to develop markets for these advanced irrigation technologies for general crop production.