Adoption of sustainable irrigation management practices by stone and pome fruit growers in the Goulburn/Murray Valleys, Australia

2005 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Maree Boland ◽  
Denise Bewsell ◽  
Geoff Kaine
2005 ◽  
Vol 45 (9) ◽  
pp. 1181 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Kaine ◽  
D. Bewsell ◽  
A. Boland ◽  
C. Linehan

Market research was conducted to develop an extension program targeting the specific irrigation management needs of growers in the stone and pome fruit industry within the Goulburn Valley, Victoria. The process of integrating market research with extension practice proved challenging, as it required the development of an extension program that was fundamentally different from what was originally envisaged. However, it was essential to achieve this integration in order to meet the original objectives for the extension program as set by the funding body. We found, in most cases, that the motivation for stone and pome fruit growers in the Goulburn Valley to change orchard irrigation management practices was not because they needed to save water, or to increase water use efficiency. Instead, growers were changing practices in order to save time irrigating, improve the scope for managerial flexibility in the orchard, or when redeveloping their orchard to a closer planting design. These findings suggest that growers in the Goulburn Valley are more likely to respond to an extension program consistent with these motivations rather than a program promoting water use efficiency.


Author(s):  
Fernando Soares de Cantuário ◽  
Leandro Caixeta Salomão ◽  
Carmen Rosa da Silva Curvêlo ◽  
João de Jesus Guimarães ◽  
José Magno Queiroz Luz ◽  
...  

Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L) is mostly cultivated by family-based farmers worldwide and processed to pickles by small to mid-sized industries generating employment and income. But irrigation management needs better investigation for adapting adequate sustainable practices. The rational use of irrigation water still has been neglected nowadays, but can improve cucumber production. The objective was to evaluate different irrigation levels on growth and yield parameters of the Amour F1 cucumber hybrid through time under greenhouse. Treatments consisted of five irrigation levels (amounts of water applied of 62, 93, 124, 155 and 186 mm), ranging from water stress to excess water. The experimental design was randomized blocks, with four replications. Vegetative growth and yield showed different responses to the irrigation levels. Plant height and internode length were less influenced by the irrigation levels, throughout the time, than stem diameter and root length. Cucumber yield was low with 62 mm and 93 mm, higher with 124 mm irrigation, and delayed in time at 155 mm and 186 mm. Water excess (186 mm) was not beneficial for pickling cucumber plants, and the amount of 124 mm was satisfactory for their development and yield. The results of this study may allow adoption of sustainable irrigation practices with no waste of agricultural water, a scarce resource worldwide


EDIS ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
George Hochmuth ◽  
Laurie Trenholm ◽  
Don Rainey ◽  
Esen Momol ◽  
Claire Lewis ◽  
...  

Proper irrigation management is critical to conserve and protect water resources and to properly manage nutrients in the home landscape. How lawns and landscapes are irrigated directly impacts the natural environment, so landscape maintenance professionals and homeowners must adopt environmentally-friendly approaches to irrigation management. After selecting the right plant for the right place, water is the next critical factor to establish and maintain a healthy lawn and landscape. Fertilization is another important component of lawn and landscape maintenance, and irrigation must be applied correctly, especially following fertilization, to minimize potential nutrient losses. This publication supplements other UF/IFAS Extension publications that also include information on the role of soil and the root zone in irrigation management. This publication is designed to help UF/IFAS Extension county agents prepare materials to directly address nutrient losses from lawns and landscapes caused by inadequate irrigation management practices. This 6-page fact sheet was written by George Hochmuth, Laurie Trenholm, Don Rainey, Esen Momol, Claire Lewis, and Brian Niemann, and published by the UF Department of Soil and Water Science, October 2013. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ss586


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 1273
Author(s):  
Nazareth Torres ◽  
Runze Yu ◽  
S. Kaan Kurtural

Vineyard-living microbiota affect grapevine health and adaptation to changing environments and determine the biological quality of soils that strongly influence wine quality. However, their abundance and interactions may be affected by vineyard management. The present study was conducted to assess whether the vineyard soil microbiome was altered by the use of biostimulants (arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) inoculation vs. non-inoculated) and/or irrigation management (fully irrigated vs. half irrigated). Bacterial and fungal communities in vineyard soils were shaped by both time course and soil management (i.e., the use of biostimulants and irrigation). Regarding alpha diversity, fungal communities were more responsive to treatments, whereas changes in beta diversity were mainly recorded in the bacterial communities. Edaphic factors rarely influence bacterial and fungal communities. Microbial network analyses suggested that the bacterial associations were weaker than the fungal ones under half irrigation and that the inoculation with AMF led to the increase in positive associations between vineyard-soil-living microbes. Altogether, the results highlight the need for more studies on the effect of management practices, especially the addition of AMF on cropping systems, to fully understand the factors that drive their variability, strengthen beneficial microbial networks, and achieve better soil quality, which will improve crop performance.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 705 ◽  
Author(s):  
Poolad Karimi ◽  
Bhembe Bongani ◽  
Megan Blatchford ◽  
Charlotte de Fraiture

Remote sensing techniques have been shown, in several studies, to be an extremely effective tool for assessing the performance of irrigated areas at various scales and diverse climatic regions across the world. Open access, ready-made, global ET products were utilized in this first-ever-countrywide irrigation performance assessment study. The study aimed at identifying ‘bright spots’, the highest performing sugarcane growers, and ‘hot spots’, or low performing sugarcane growers. Four remote sensing-derived irrigation performance indicators were applied to over 302 sugarcane growers; equity, adequacy, reliability and crop water productivity. The growers were segmented according to: (i) land holding size or grower scale (ii) management regime, (iii) location of the irrigation schemes and (iv) irrigation method. Five growing seasons, from June 2005 to October 2009, were investigated. The results show while the equity of water distribution is high across all management regimes and locations, adequacy and reliability of water needs improvement in several locations. Given the fact that, in general, water supply was not constrained during the study period, the observed issues with adequacy and reliability of irrigation in some of the schemes were mostly due to poor scheme and farm level water management practices. Sugarcane crop water productivity showed the highest variation among all the indicators, with Estate managed schemes having the highest CWP at 1.57 kg/m3 and the individual growers recording the lowest CWP at 1.14 kg/m3, nearly 30% less. Similarly center pivot systems showed to have the highest CWP at 1.63 kg/m3, which was 30% higher than the CWP in furrow systems. This study showcases the applicability of publicly available global remote sensing products for assessing performance of the irrigated crops at the local level in several aspects.


Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 555 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paola Sánchez-Bravo ◽  
Jacinta Collado-González ◽  
Mireia Corell ◽  
Luis Noguera-Artiaga ◽  
Alejandro Galindo ◽  
...  

Water, especially in arid and semiarid regions, is increasingly a disputed commodity among different productive sectors; the pressure for a more sustainable use of water in agriculture will grow. The main strategy to cope with water scarcity is the use of improved, innovative, and precise deficit irrigation management practices which are able to minimize the impact on fruit yield and quality. The aim of this paper was to develop a certification index or hydroSOS quality index for extra virgin olive oil and processed table olives. The hydrosSOS fruits and vegetables are those cultivated under regulated deficit irrigation (RDI). Different indicators in three quality areas ((i) fatty acids, (ii) phenolic compounds, and (iii) sensory attributes) were identified as showing characteristic or typical responses under RDI conditions. Marks or scores were assigned to each one of these indicators to calculate the proposed index. It can be concluded that an extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) or processed table olives are hydroSOStainable foods, if they meet 2 conditions: (i) fulfill the conditions established in the hydroSOS “irrigation” index, and (ii) fulfill the requirements of the hydroSOS “quality” index. HydroSOS quality index will be specific to each crop and variety and will depend on functional and sensory factors.


2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 198-207
Author(s):  
Ioannis Gravalos ◽  
Avgoustinos Avgousti ◽  
Theodoros Gialamas ◽  
Nikolaos Alfieris ◽  
Georgios Paschalidis

Water supply limits and continued population growth have intensified the search for measures to conserve water in urban gardening and agriculture. The efficiency of water use is depended on performance of the irrigation technologies and management practices. In this study, a robotic irrigation system was developed that consists of a moving bridge manipulator and a sensor-based platform. The manipulator constructed is partly using open-source components and software, and is easily reconfigurable and extendable. In combination to the sensor-based platform this custommade manipulator has the potential to monitor the soil water content (SWC) in real time. The irrigation robotic system was tested in an experimental soil tank. The total surface of the soil tank was divided by a raster into 18 equal quadrants. The water management for maintaining water content in the soil tank within tolerable lower limit (refill point) was based on three irrigation treatments: i) quadrants whose SWC is below the refill point are irrigated; ii) quadrants are irrigated only when the daily mean SWC of the tank is below the refill point and only for those whose actual SWC is lower than that limit; and iii) quadrants are irrigated every two days with constant amount of water. A comparison of the results of the three irrigation treatments showed that the second treatment gave less irrigation events and less applied water. Finally, we could conclude that the performance of the fabricated robotic system is appropriate and it could play an important role in achieving sustainable irrigation into urban food systems.


2006 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 369-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. K. Alva ◽  
S. Paramasivam ◽  
A. Fares ◽  
J. A. Delgado ◽  
D. Mattos ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
S. Selvakumar ◽  
S. Sakthivel ◽  
Akihiko Kamoshita ◽  
R. Babu ◽  
S. Thiyageshwari ◽  
...  

A field experiment was conducted at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India, during summer 2019 to study about the changes in physiological parameters of rice under various establishment and water management strategies and to find out the suitable method of rice establishment and irrigation management practices for tank irrigated command areas during water scarcity situation. Field experiment comprised of four establishment methods in combination with four irrigation management strategies. Medium duration fine grain rice variety TKM 13 was used for the study. Results of the study revealed that machine transplanting under unpuddled soil combined with irrigation after formation of hairline crack recorded improved physiological parameters and yield. It was on par with machine transplanting under unpuddled soil combined with irrigation when water level reaches 5 cm below soil surface. Higher gross return, net return and B:C ratio were observed with machine transplanting under unpuddled soil combined with irrigation after formation of hairline crack. This was followed by machine transplanting under unpuddled soil combined with irrigation when water level reaches 5 cm below soil. Hence, the result of study concluded that machine transplanting under unpuddled soil combined with irrigation when water level reaches 5 cm below soil surface can be recommended as the suitable technology for the farmers of tank irrigated command area to get higher return with minimum use of resources under water scarcity situation.


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