Irrigation
IRRIGATING WITH MOBILIZE INCREASES YIELD WHILE LOWERING COSTS
M
odern growers have a very different attitude toward water than their grandfathers had. In the past, growers either grew crops that did not need irrigation, or they focused their attention on ways to get water from a river, lake, pond, well, storage tank, or even a municipal water source to their plants. They carried it in buckets, directed it in ditches, pumped it from aquifers. But today, irrigating crops is not just about the logistics of buckets and digging wells. Now the recognition of water as a resource that is neither free nor infinite has shifted the focus to how to irrigate crops so that water waste is minimized, but crop yield and quality is maximized. Davis has made the
36 Gulf Agriculture | www.gulfagriculture.com
process of managing modern, efficient irrigation easier with EnviroMonitor and Mobilize. Growers who irrigate their crops see not only increased yields and higher quality products, but they can also extend their growing season.They can grow high-value specialty crops that might otherwise not be feasible. They can increase profits of animal products by assuring the forage supply, and they can improve crop rotations.They can manage fertilizer, pest control, and seed planting so that they use the least and safest amount of these resources as well. Up to 70% of the planet’s freshwater withdrawal goes to irrigation – up three times from just 1970. Irrigated agriculture represents 20% of total
cultivated land but contributes 40% of the total food produced worldwide. As we face changes in our climate and increases in our population, the global demand for water for irrigation in agriculture is forecasted to increase at least another 20% by 2050. In many places in the world, water for agriculture is already in competition with water for people’s everyday uses, and some rivers and groundwater sources are being tapped dry. Water is no longer a resource that can be taken lightly, overused, or wasted, and modern growers know this from both personal ethics and financial pressures. If a farmer irrigates crops, they must know exactly when in the crop’s growth cycle to start and stop
May-June 2020
