How Farmers Are Producing More Food With Less Water Through Smart Irrigation Technology

By Gregg Wartgow, Special to the Association of Equipment Manufacturers --

Farmers in the U.S. and Canada are producing more food per unit of water than ever, and it isn’t happening by accident. The deployment of sustainable agriculture practices and cutting-edge technologies are helping farmers conserve and protect water resources, produce more food, and strengthen the financial viability of their farming operations.

Consider the following:

• Irrigated acres in the U.S. have grown by 30% over the past 50 years
• The average amount of water applied per acre has fallen 25%
• Production of corn, soy, and wheat has increased by 177% 

In other words, farmers are doing more with less — thanks in part to practices like crop rotation, the use of cover crops, conservation tillage, and the use of recycled water. Irrigation technologies have also played a major role, helping farmers make more data-driven irrigation decisions while also improving the delivery of water to crops. 

AEM’s study, From Source to Solution: Advancing Water Stewardship in the Non-Road Sector, examines how technologies in the agriculture, construction, and utility industries are supporting the world-class water stewardship taking place in North America today. In the agriculture industry specifically, things like drip and variable rate irrigation (VRI), soil moisture sensors, and smart controllers are helping farmers reduce water use without impacting crop yields. 

“It’s important to embrace today’s irrigation technologies for a couple of reasons,” said Darren Siekman, vice president of marketing and policy at AEM member company Valley Irrigation. “First, it will help maximize return for the farmer, which is especially important when the farmer is facing depressed prices and suppressed margins. Secondly, while farmers do want to conserve resources to hand down to the next generation, the energy needed to power any type of irrigation system is really expensive. When growers can save even a half inch of application, that’s real dollars in their hands.” 

Technological advancements across the agriculture, construction, and utility industries are enabling organizations to achieve significantly greater output while using substantially less water. Learn more by downloading AEM’s comprehensive study, From Source to Solution: Advancing Water Stewardship in the Non-Road Sector. 

“It’s important to embrace today’s irrigation technologies for a couple of reasons. First, it will help maximize return for the farmer, which is especially important when the farmer is facing depressed prices and suppressed margins. Secondly, while farmers do want to conserve resources to hand down to the next generation, the energy needed to power any type of irrigation system is really expensive. When growers can save even a half inch of application, that’s real dollars in their hands.” -- Darren Siekman

A New Era for Irrigation Innovation 

Many of agriculture’s key irrigation technologies have been around for many years. However, accompanying technologies like cloud computing and AI are creating new possibilities and generating a new level of excitement amongst the farming community. 

“I’ve been with Lindsay for 34 years,” said Jason Parker, director of channel development at AEM member company Lindsay Corp. “Our entire sales and marketing process has changed so much in that time. We used to spend 90% of the time talking about the physical irrigation equipment and how a center pivot works. Now we spend 90% of the time talking about technology.” 

All that talk about technology isn’t falling on deaf ears, either. 

“Farmers crave information on the latest technologies, especially the newer generation,” Parker said. “They want to know how they can be more efficient. With the price of farmland as it is today, along with interest rates and everything else, farmers are telling us they’d rather grow a lot more crops on the fields they already have. Precision irrigation technologies help them do that.” 

As detailed in the AEM study, the diverse array of crops grown in North America require different types of irrigation. For instance, mechanized sprinkler systems (i.e., center pivots) are common for broadacre crops like grains, oilseeds, and cereals. Drip irrigation is common for specialty crops like fruits, vegetables, and nuts. 

“Regardless of which irrigation method the farmer is using, it’s important to deploy the technologies that are out there today,” Siekman said. “The challenge has been that these technologies have been prohibitively expensive. The good news is Moore’s Law is alive and well today, and connectivity continues to improve. Well over 75% of our center pivot irrigation machines in North America are connected to the cloud today. So, while many of today’s irrigation technologies have been around a while, the ability to more conveniently and economically bring them all together is relatively new.”

Key Technologies Supporting Water Stewardship 

Parker and Siekman concur that “data” is at the heart of today’s highly efficient approach to irrigation. Data from multiple sources helps farmers determine when, where, and how much to irrigate. Technology is also making it easier for farmers to operate their irrigation systems. 

“Remote monitoring and control first started taking off in the 1990s,” Parker pointed out. “Farmers could program a control panel to speed up or slow down the irrigation based on crop needs, soil type and terrain, water availability, etc. Now, it’s all operated from a mobile device. That gives farmers flexibility and helps them save a lot of windshield time. They can check to make sure their systems are still running, or maybe shut things down if a rainstorm is moving in. And they can do it from anywhere.” 

Farmers are also a lot more trusting in irrigation technology today, according to Parker. 

“Years ago, farmers used to brag to each other about their remote monitoring technology when they got together for morning coffee,” Parker related. “But they’d still drive out to their fields later to make sure everything was working. They don’t feel the need to do that today. Some don’t even have field driveways out to their control panels anymore.” 

Today’s new generation of irrigation monitoring and control can also connect to other devices that gather and report data, including soil moisture sensors and weather stations. “There are also some good open-source, satellite-driven data sources on evapotranspiration,” Siekman pointed out. 

Taking it a step further, modern technologies like AI can take all of this data, apply it to the decades of crop research that has been conducted, and present it in a way that’s easier for a farmer to understand. Some solutions will even provide irrigation recommendations. 

While science-based irrigation scheduling is a key aspect of water stewardship, it must be noted that technology is also improving the manner in which irrigation equipment delivers water to crops. As detailed in the AEM study, VRI can reduce water use up to 15% without yield loss. It’s all about putting the right amount of water in the right places. 

“There is both a software and hardware aspect to VRI because special valves need to be added to the sprinklers,” Parker explained. “Then, the system uses GPS and a field map to adapt water application rates according to what each zone in the field needs. For example, there may be a wetland in the middle of a large field. The sprinkler banks can turn off as they pass over that area.” 

For more than 130 years, AEM has helped advance equipment manufacturing and the agriculture and construction customers the industry serves by providing uniquely valuable insights and timely, relevant resources. Find out more at AEM.org/insights. 

“Farmers crave information on the latest technologies, especially the newer generation. They want to know how they can be more efficient. With the price of farmland as it is today, along with interest rates and everything else, farmers are telling us they’d rather grow a lot more crops on the fields they already have. Precision irrigation technologies help them do that.” -- Jason Parker

Advancing Adoption 

The use of advanced water management practices and technologies has produced positive results in numerous agriculture industry sectors:

• Corn – 56% less water used per bushel
• Peanuts – 44% less water used per pound
• Almonds – 33% less water used per pound
• Milk – 30% less water used per gallon
• Pork – 25% less water used per pound 

As impressive as those gains have been, the agriculture industry has the potential to do even more. As mentioned in the AEM study, a combination of government-sponsored cost share programs and private sector grants can help make modern irrigation technologies more affordable for farmers to help spur more widespread adoption. Continued investments in rural connectivity and rural water infrastructure will also be key, as farmers must know that their investments in technology have the opportunity to produce the maximum benefit. 

Public policy that supports smart irrigation practices will also be vital. As Siekman pointed out, plenty of policy already exists, and accomplishes what is intended 99% of the time. That said, it’s important for AEM members and other ag industry stakeholders to stress the importance of “modernized” policy, as Siekman likes to put it. 

“There are already cost-share programs in place for implementing on-farm technologies,” Siekman said. “Now we just need to make sure the right technologies are being incented based on the current state of irrigation technology.” 

Siekman is also a big believer in policy that is more localized. As a native of Nebraska, he points to the 23 natural resource districts in The Cornhusker State as a great example of effective local governance; each district governs how much water a farmer can apply based on the unique characteristics of each district. 

“Yes, there must be state and federal oversight when it comes to water,” Siekman added. “But if government can facilitate local ag communities to come up with good, responsible solutions, they will. Farmers are economical people who are trying to make a profit. To that end, it’s important for policymakers to realize it’s not in the farmer’s best interest to overirrigate.”