How Automating Furrow Irrigation Can Save Water and Reduce Labor Costs
A Rubicon system is used to automate the furrow irrigation of sugar beets at the DREC.
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ver the last decade, researchers from the University of California (UC) Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR) and UC Davis have been working at the UC Desert Research and Extension Center (DREC), located in Holtville, California, and carrying out studies on the possibilities offered by automating surface irrigation using gates and software produced by Rubicon. Studies of sugar beets irrigated in the Imperial Valley using furrow irrigation have demonstrated that automation can increase water use efficiency from 70– 75 percent to 85 percent. Moreover, automation reduces labor costs, which make up an increasing percentage of the overall costs of farming. In this interview, we speak to two experts who were involved with the DREC study: Dr. Khaled Bali, a statewide irrigation water management specialist who works for the UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE), and Dr. Stephen Kaffka, an extension specialist and agronomist at UC Davis. Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about your backgrounds and how you came to be in your current positions.
20 | IRRIGATION LEADER | November/December 2021
Stephen Kaffka: I’m an extension specialist and an agronomist in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis. I’ve been at UC Davis for almost 30 years. I have statewide commodity assignments for sugar and oilseed crops, but I’ve also worked quite a bit on other irrigationand water-quality-related topics, including water quality and irrigation in the Upper Klamath basin and salinity and drainage issues in the western San Joaquin Valley and, to some degree, in the Imperial Valley. I have been working with Khaled over the last few years on various projects. Water use and related economic issues are important to the sugar beet producers in the Imperial Valley. I cooperated on a successful precision agriculture project in the Imperial Valley with Khaled several years ago that focused on the effects of salinity on yield and fertilizer use efficiency. This research on irrigation is consistent with my responsibilities and overlaps nicely with Khaled’s skills and abilities. Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about the research on automating surface irrigation that you carried out at the DREC. Khaled Bali: All the water used for irrigation in the Imperial Valley comes from the Colorado River. As you know, both the upper and lower basins of the Colorado River are facing severe shortages when it comes to the water that goes into the seven states and Mexico. The Imperial Valley grows lots of field crops, 70–80 percent of which are field crops like alfalfa, wheat, sugar beets, Sudan grass, Bermuda grass, and other types of grasses. Sugar beets are one of the major crops in the Imperial Valley, and the Imperial Valley is the irrigationleadermagazine.com
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE DREC.
Khaled Bali: I’m a statewide irrigation water management specialist. I work for the UCCE, which falls under the ANR. Today, I am based at UC’s Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center, located in Fresno County in Central California. I do statewide work on issues related to irrigation, water conservation, and climate-smart agriculture. I’ve been with the university for nearly 30 years. During the first 25, I focused on low desert research at the DREC in Holtville, California, near the Mexican border. That’s where we did the work on sugar beets.
Sugar beets grown at the DREC.
