MOST CROP PER DROP: THE ARKANSAS IRRIGATION YIELD CONTEST Multiple-inlet rice irrigation in action.
M
ost farmers are familiar with contests in which participants try to achieve the maximum yield of a crop from a given field. Fewer would be familiar with a contest in which participants’ total crop yield is divided by the amount of water they use—thus measuring their water use efficiency. That’s the kind of contest that Dr. Chris Henry and his colleagues at the University of Arkansas sponsored for the first time in 2018. Building on the success of a 5-year on-farm demonstration program, they developed the Arkansas Irrigation Yield Contest to harness farmers’ ingenuity and competitive instincts in order to increase water use efficiency. In this interview with Irrigation Leader Managing Editor Joshua Dill, Dr. Henry discusses the genesis of the Arkansas Irrigation Yield Contest, its results, and the lessons learned from the contest’s first year of operation. Joshua Dill: Please tell us about your background and how you ended up in your current position.
12 | IRRIGATION LEADER
Joshua Dill: How did the idea for the irrigation yield contest emerge? Chris Henry: My colleague in Mississippi, Dr. Jason Krutz, and I had started programs where we demonstrated irrigation water management (IWM) practices on farms using a paired-field comparison. These tracked two fields: a field managed with IWM practices and a control field managed by a farmer. We were able to document that IWM practices could achieve a reduction in water use of about 24–27 percent—about 2½ acre-inches of water savings. However, paired-field comparisons had their downsides. One of the challenges was that during the course of the demonstration itself, the farmers would begin to schedule irrigation on the control field using techniques and technologies they observed us using on the IWM field, like soil-moisture sensors. In addition, the motivation to do a paired comparison is not always strong with farmers, because they see it as a test. Even if we are able to demonstrate that our techniques result in significant water
PHOTO COURTESY OF CHRIS HENRY.
Chris Henry: I grew up on a farm in Kansas and obtained my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biological and agricultural engineering at Kansas State University. Then I went to the University of Nebraska and worked there as an extension engineer. While I was there, I spent 10 months in Australia as a Fulbright scholar. I worked on my PhD while I was a full-time employee and finished
in 2011. Then I came to Arkansas and have been here for 6 years. I’m an associate professor and water management engineer with the University of Arkansas at the Rice Research and Extension Center.
