Reconciling irrigated food production with environmental flows for Sustainable Development Goals implementation.

PubMed

Jägermeyr, Jonas; Pastor, Amandine; Biemans, Hester; Gerten, Dieter

2017-07-19

Safeguarding river ecosystems is a precondition for attaining the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to water and the environment, while rigid implementation of such policies may hamper achievement of food security. River ecosystems provide life-supporting functions that depend on maintaining environmental flow requirements (EFRs). Here we establish gridded process-based estimates of EFRs and their violation through human water withdrawals. Results indicate that 41% of current global irrigation water use (997 km 3 per year) occurs at the expense of EFRs. If these volumes were to be reallocated to the ecosystems, half of globally irrigated cropland would face production losses of ≥10%, with losses of ∼20-30% of total country production especially in Central and South Asia. However, we explicitly show that improvement of irrigation practices can widely compensate for such losses on a sustainable basis. Integration with rainwater management can even achieve a 10% global net gain. Such management interventions are highlighted to act as a pivotal target in supporting the implementation of the ambitious and seemingly conflicting SDG agenda.

Reconciling irrigated food production with environmental flows for Sustainable Development Goals implementation

PubMed Central

Jägermeyr, Jonas; Pastor, Amandine; Biemans, Hester; Gerten, Dieter

2017-01-01

Safeguarding river ecosystems is a precondition for attaining the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to water and the environment, while rigid implementation of such policies may hamper achievement of food security. River ecosystems provide life-supporting functions that depend on maintaining environmental flow requirements (EFRs). Here we establish gridded process-based estimates of EFRs and their violation through human water withdrawals. Results indicate that 41% of current global irrigation water use (997 km3 per year) occurs at the expense of EFRs. If these volumes were to be reallocated to the ecosystems, half of globally irrigated cropland would face production losses of ≥10%, with losses of ∼20–30% of total country production especially in Central and South Asia. However, we explicitly show that improvement of irrigation practices can widely compensate for such losses on a sustainable basis. Integration with rainwater management can even achieve a 10% global net gain. Such management interventions are highlighted to act as a pivotal target in supporting the implementation of the ambitious and seemingly conflicting SDG agenda. PMID:28722026

21 CFR 876.5220 - Colonic irrigation system.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Colonic irrigation system. 876.5220 Section 876.5220 Food and Drugs FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) MEDICAL DEVICES GASTROENTEROLOGY-UROLOGY DEVICES Therapeutic Devices § 876.5220 Colonic irrigation system...

21 CFR 876.5220 - Colonic irrigation system.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Colonic irrigation system. 876.5220 Section 876.5220 Food and Drugs FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) MEDICAL DEVICES GASTROENTEROLOGY-UROLOGY DEVICES Therapeutic Devices § 876.5220 Colonic irrigation system...

Deficit irrigation and sustainable water-resource strategies in agriculture for China’s food security

PubMed Central

Du, Taisheng; Kang, Shaozhong; Zhang, Jianhua; Davies, William J.

2015-01-01

More than 70% of fresh water is used in agriculture in many parts of the world, but competition for domestic and industrial water use is intense. For future global food security, water use in agriculture must become sustainable. Agricultural water-use efficiency and water productivity can be improved at different points from the stomatal to the regional scale. A promising approach is the use of deficit irrigation, which can both save water and induce plant physiological regulations such as stomatal opening and reproductive and vegetative growth. At the scales of the irrigation district, the catchment, and the region, there can be many other components to a sustainable water-resources strategy. There is much interest in whether crop water use can be regulated as a function of understanding of physiological responses. If this is the case, then agricultural water resources can be reallocated to the benefit of the broader community. We summarize the extent of use and impact of deficit irrigation within China. A sustainable strategy for allocation of agricultural water resources for food security is proposed. Our intention is to build an integrative system to control crop water use during different cropping stages and actively regulate the plant’s growth, productivity, and development based on physiological responses. This is done with a view to improving the allocation of limited agricultural water resources. PMID:25873664

Deficit irrigation and sustainable water-resource strategies in agriculture for China's food security.

PubMed

Du, Taisheng; Kang, Shaozhong; Zhang, Jianhua; Davies, William J

2015-04-01

More than 70% of fresh water is used in agriculture in many parts of the world, but competition for domestic and industrial water use is intense. For future global food security, water use in agriculture must become sustainable. Agricultural water-use efficiency and water productivity can be improved at different points from the stomatal to the regional scale. A promising approach is the use of deficit irrigation, which can both save water and induce plant physiological regulations such as stomatal opening and reproductive and vegetative growth. At the scales of the irrigation district, the catchment, and the region, there can be many other components to a sustainable water-resources strategy. There is much interest in whether crop water use can be regulated as a function of understanding of physiological responses. If this is the case, then agricultural water resources can be reallocated to the benefit of the broader community. We summarize the extent of use and impact of deficit irrigation within China. A sustainable strategy for allocation of agricultural water resources for food security is proposed. Our intention is to build an integrative system to control crop water use during different cropping stages and actively regulate the plant's growth, productivity, and development based on physiological responses. This is done with a view to improving the allocation of limited agricultural water resources. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli is the predominant diarrheagenic E. coli pathotype among irrigation water and food sources in South Africa.

PubMed

Aijuka, Matthew; Santiago, Araceli E; Girón, Jorge A; Nataro, James P; Buys, Elna M

2018-08-02

Diarrheagenic E. coli (DEC) has been implicated in foodborne outbreaks worldwide and have been associated with childhood stunting in the absence of diarrhoea. Infection is extraordinarily common, but the routes of transmission have not been determined. Therefore, determining the most prevalent pathotypes in food and environmental sources may help provide better guidance to various stakeholders in ensuring food safety and public health and advancing understanding of the epidemiology of enteric disease. We characterized 205 E. coli strains previously isolated from producer distributor bulk milk (PDBM)(118), irrigation water (48), irrigated lettuce (29) and street vendor coleslaw (10) in South Africa. Enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC), enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC), enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC) and diffusely adherent E. coli (DAEC) were sought. We used PCR and partial gene sequencing for all 205 strains while 46 out of 205 that showed poor resolution were subsequently characterized using cell adherence (HeLa cells). PCR and partial gene sequencing of aatA and/or aaiC genes confirmed EAEC (2%, 5 out of 205) as the only pathotype. Phylogenetic analysis of sequenced EAEC strains with E. coli strains in GenBank showing ≥80% nucleotide sequence similarity based on possession of aaiC and aatA generated distinct clusters of strains separated predominantly based on their source of isolation (food source or human stool) suggesting a potential role of virulence genes in source tracking. EAEC 24%, 11 out of 46 strains (PDBM = 15%, irrigation water = 7%, irrigated lettuce = 2%) was similarly the predominant pathotype followed by strains showing invasiveness to HeLa cells, 4%, 2 out of 46 (PDBM = 2%, irrigated lettuce = 2%), among stains characterized using cell adherence. Therefore, EAEC may be the leading cause of DEC associated food and water-borne enteric infection in South Africa. Additionally, solely using molecular based methods targeting virulence

Automated Irrigation System for Greenhouse Monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sivagami, A.; Hareeshvare, U.; Maheshwar, S.; Venkatachalapathy, V. S. K.

2018-06-01

The continuous requirement for the food needs the rapid improvement in food production technology. The economy of food production is mainly dependent on agriculture and the weather conditions, which are isotropic and thus we are not able to utilize the whole agricultural resources. The main reason is the deficiency of rainfall and paucity in land reservoir water. The continuous withdrawal water from the ground reduces the water level resulting in most of the land to come under the arid. In the field of cultivation, use of appropriate method of irrigation plays a vital role. Drip irrigation is a renowned methodology which is very economical and proficient. When the conventional drip irrigation system is followed, the farmer has to tag along the irrigation timetable, which is different for diverse crops. The current work makes the drip irrigation system an automated one, thereby the farmer doesn't want to follow any timetable since the sensor senses the soil moisture content and based on it supplies the water. Moreover the practice of economical sensors and the simple circuitry makes this project as an inexpensive product, which can be bought even by an underprivileged farmer. The current project is best suited for places where water is limited and has to be used in limited quantity.

Automated Irrigation System for Greenhouse Monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sivagami, A.; Hareeshvare, U.; Maheshwar, S.; Venkatachalapathy, V. S. K.

2018-03-01

The continuous requirement for the food needs the rapid improvement in food production technology. The economy of food production is mainly dependent on agriculture and the weather conditions, which are isotropic and thus we are not able to utilize the whole agricultural resources. The main reason is the deficiency of rainfall and paucity in land reservoir water. The continuous withdrawal water from the ground reduces the water level resulting in most of the land to come under the arid. In the field of cultivation, use of appropriate method of irrigation plays a vital role. Drip irrigation is a renowned methodology which is very economical and proficient. When the conventional drip irrigation system is followed, the farmer has to tag along the irrigation timetable, which is different for diverse crops. The current work makes the drip irrigation system an automated one, thereby the farmer doesn't want to follow any timetable since the sensor senses the soil moisture content and based on it supplies the water. Moreover the practice of economical sensors and the simple circuitry makes this project as an inexpensive product, which can be bought even by an underprivileged farmer. The current project is best suited for places where water is limited and has to be used in limited quantity.

Analysis of the impacts of well yield and groundwater depth on irrigated agriculture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Foster, T.; Brozović, N.; Butler, A. P.

2015-04-01

Previous research has found that irrigation water demand is relatively insensitive to water price, suggesting that increased pumping costs due to declining groundwater levels will have limited effects on agricultural water management practices. However, non-linear changes in well yields as aquifer saturated thickness is reduced may have large impacts on irrigated production that are currently neglected in projections of the long-term sustainability of groundwater-fed irrigation. We conduct empirical analysis of observation data and numerical simulations for case studies in Nebraska, USA, to compare the impacts of changes in well yield and groundwater depth on agricultural production. Our findings suggest that declining well pumping capacities reduce irrigated production areas and profits significantly, whereas increased pumping costs reduce profits but have minimal impacts on the intensity of groundwater-fed irrigation. We suggest, therefore, that management of the dynamic relationship between well yield and saturated thickness should be a core component of policies designed to enhance long-term food security and support adaptation to climate change.

Safe and High Quality Food Production using Low Quality Waters and Improved Irrigation Systems and Management (SAFIR)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cary, L.; Kloppmann, W.; Battilani, A.; Bertaki, M.; Blagojevic, S.; Chartzoulakis, K.; Dalsgaard, A.; Forslund, A.; Jovanovic, Z.; Kasapakis, I.

2009-04-01

The safe use of treated domestic wastewater for irrigation needs to address the risks for humans (workers, exposed via contact with irrigation water, soil, crops and food, consumers, exposed via ingestion of fresh and processed food), for animals (via ingestion of crops an soil), for the crops and agricultural productivity (via salinity and trace element uptake), for soil (via accumulation or release of pollutants) as well as for surface, groundwaters and the associated ecosystems (via runoff and infiltration, Kass et al., 2005, Bouwer, 2000). A work package in the EU FP5 project SAFIR is dedicated to study the impact of wastewater irrigation on the soil-water-plant-product system. Its monitoring program comprises pathogens and inorganic pollutants, including both geogenic and potentially anthropogenic trace elements in the aim to better understand soil-irrigation water interactions. The SAFIR field study sites are found in China, Italy, Crete, and Serbia. A performance evaluation of SAFIR-specific treatment technology through the monitoring of waste water and irrigation water quality was made through waste water chemical and microbiological qualities, which were investigated upstream and downstream of the SAFIR specific treatment three times per season. Irrigation water transits through the uppermost soil decimetres to the crop roots. The latter will become, in the course of the irrigation season, the major sink of percolating water, together with evaporation. The water saving irrigation techniques used in SAFIR are surface and subsurface drip irrigation. The investigation of the solid soil phase concentrates on the root zone as main transit and storage compartment for pollutants and, eventually, pathogens. The initial soil quality was assessed through a sampling campaign before the onset of the first year irrigation; the soil quality has been monitored throughout three years under cultivation of tomatoes or potatoes. The plot layout for each of the study sites

Supplemental irrigation as an initiative to support water and food security: A global evaluation of the potential to support and increase precipitation-fed wheat production

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smilovic, M.; Gleeson, T. P.; Adamowski, J. F.; Langhorn, C.; Kienzle, S. W.

2016-12-01

Supplemental irrigation is the practice of supporting precipitation-fed agriculture with limited irrigation. Precipitation-fed agriculture dominates the agricultural landscape, but is vulnerable to intraseasonal and interannual variability in precipitation and climate. The interplay between food security, water resources, ecosystem health, energy, and livelihoods necessitates evaluating and integrating initiatives that increase agricultural production while reducing demands on water resources. Supplemental irrigation is the practice of minimally irrigating in an effort to stabilize and increase agricultural production, as well as increase water productivity - the amount of crop produced per unit of water. The potential of supplemental irrigation to support both water and food security has yet to be evaluated at regional and global scales. We evaluate whether supplemental irrigation could stabilize and increase agricultural production of wheat by determining locally-calibrated water use-crop yield relationships, known as crop-water production functions. Crop-water production functions are functions of seasonal water use and crop yield, and previous efforts have largely ignored the effects of the temporal distribution of water use throughout the growing season. We significantly improve upon these efforts and provide an opportunity to evaluate supplemental irrigation that appropriately acknowledges the effects of irrigation scheduling. Integrating agroclimatic and crop data with the crop-water model Aquacrop, we determine the increases in wheat production achieved by maximizing water productivity, sharing limited water between different years, and other irrigation scenarios. The methodology presented and evaluation of supplemental irrigation provides water mangers, policy makers, governments, and non-governmental organizations the tools to appropriately understand and determine the potential of this initiative to support precipitation-fed agriculture.

Survival of Escherichia coli O157:H7 on lettuce harvested from fields irrigated by different irrigation systems and stored under different conditions

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Escherichia coli O157:H7 outbreaks associated with the consumption of leafy greens have increased food safety concerns in the food industry. Irrigation water could be a major potential source of microbial contamination to vegetables. The potential for irrigation water to contaminate vegetables with ...

21 CFR 886.4360 - Ocular surgery irrigation device.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Ocular surgery irrigation device. 886.4360 Section... (CONTINUED) MEDICAL DEVICES OPHTHALMIC DEVICES Surgical Devices § 886.4360 Ocular surgery irrigation device. (a) Identification. An ocular surgery irrigation device is a device intended to be suspended over the...

21 CFR 886.4360 - Ocular surgery irrigation device.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Ocular surgery irrigation device. 886.4360 Section... (CONTINUED) MEDICAL DEVICES OPHTHALMIC DEVICES Surgical Devices § 886.4360 Ocular surgery irrigation device. (a) Identification. An ocular surgery irrigation device is a device intended to be suspended over the...

21 CFR 886.4360 - Ocular surgery irrigation device.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Ocular surgery irrigation device. 886.4360 Section... (CONTINUED) MEDICAL DEVICES OPHTHALMIC DEVICES Surgical Devices § 886.4360 Ocular surgery irrigation device. (a) Identification. An ocular surgery irrigation device is a device intended to be suspended over the...

21 CFR 886.4360 - Ocular surgery irrigation device.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Ocular surgery irrigation device. 886.4360 Section... (CONTINUED) MEDICAL DEVICES OPHTHALMIC DEVICES Surgical Devices § 886.4360 Ocular surgery irrigation device. (a) Identification. An ocular surgery irrigation device is a device intended to be suspended over the...

21 CFR 886.4360 - Ocular surgery irrigation device.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Ocular surgery irrigation device. 886.4360 Section... (CONTINUED) MEDICAL DEVICES OPHTHALMIC DEVICES Surgical Devices § 886.4360 Ocular surgery irrigation device. (a) Identification. An ocular surgery irrigation device is a device intended to be suspended over the...

Modeling the intersections of Food, Energy, and Water in climate-vulnerable Ethiopia with an application to small-scale irrigation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Y.; Sankaranarayanan, S.; Zaitchik, B. F.; Siddiqui, S.

2017-12-01

Africa is home to some of the most climate vulnerable populations in the world. Energy and agricultural development have diverse impacts on the region's food security and economic well-being from the household to the national level, particularly considering climate variability and change. Our ultimate goal is to understand coupled Food-Energy-Water (FEW) dynamics across spatial scales in order to quantify the sensitivity of critical human outcomes to FEW development strategies in Ethiopia. We are developing bottom-up and top-down multi-scale models, spanning local, sub-national and national scales to capture the FEW linkages across communities and climatic adaptation zones. The focus of this presentation is the sub-national scale multi-player micro-economic (MME) partial-equilibrium model with coupled food and energy sector for Ethiopia. With fixed large-scale economic, demographic, and resource factors from the national scale computable general equilibrium (CGE) model and inferences of behavior parameters from the local scale agent-based model (ABM), the MME studies how shocks such as drought (crop failure) and development of resilience technologies would influence FEW system at a sub-national scale. The MME model is based on aggregating individual optimization problems for relevant players. It includes production, storage, and consumption of food and energy at spatially disaggregated zones, and transportation in between with endogenously modeled infrastructure. The aggregated players for each zone have different roles such as crop producers, storage managers, and distributors, who make decisions according to their own but interdependent objective functions. The food and energy supply chain across zones is therefore captured. Ethiopia is dominated by rain-fed agriculture with only 2% irrigated farmland. Small-scale irrigation has been promoted as a resilience technology that could potentially play a critical role in food security and economic well-being in

Comparative study of heavy metals in "soil-wheat" systems between sewage-irrigated areas and clean-water-irrigated areas in suburban Beijing.

PubMed

Zhao, Ye; Han, Sha-Sha; Chen, Zhi-Fan; Liu, Jing; Hu, Honq-Xia

2015-01-01

After years of irrigating farmland with wastewater, concern is increasing about health risks from heavy metals contaminating wheat grown in sewage-irrigated soils in suburban areas of Beijing, China. The study discussed in this article aimed to compare the characteristics of heavy metal distribution in a sewage-irrigated "soil-wheat" system with those from a clean-water-irrigated area by collecting and analyzing samples from both areas. The results indicated that the average concentrations of copper, chromium, lead, and zinc in sewage-irrigated soil were higher than the values in the clean-water-irrigated region. Irrigation with wastewater could lead to increased bioconcentration factors. Therefore, issues of food contamination caused by sewage irrigation deserve more attention.

Irrigated Agriculture, Saudi Arabia

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1990-01-01

In Saudi Arabia, center-pivot, swing-arm irrigated agriculture complexes such as the one imaged at Jabal Tuwayq (20.5N, 45.0 E) extract deep fossil water reserves to achieve food crop production self sufficiency in this desert environment. The significance of the Saudi expanded irrigated agriculture is that the depletion of this finite water resource is a short term solution to a long term need that will still exist when the water has been extracted.

Irrigated Agriculture, Saudi Arabia

NASA Image and Video Library

1990-01-20

In Saudi Arabia, center-pivot, swing-arm irrigated agriculture complexes such as the one imaged at Jabal Tuwayq (20.5N, 45.0 E) extract deep fossil water reserves to achieve food crop production self sufficiency in this desert environment. The significance of the Saudi expanded irrigated agriculture is that the depletion of this finite water resource is a short term solution to a long term need that will still exist when the water has been extracted.

Observations of cloud and rainfall enhancement over irrigated agriculture in an arid environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garcia-Carreras, Luis; Marsham, John H.; Spracklen, Dominick V.

2017-04-01

The impact of irrigated agriculture on clouds and rainfall remains uncertain, particularly in less studied arid regions. Irrigated crops account for 20% of global cropland area, and non-renewable groundwater accounts for 20% of global irrigation water demand. Quantifying the feedbacks between agriculture and the atmosphere are therefore not only necessary to better understand the climate impacts of land-use change, but are also crucial for predicting long-term water use in water-scarce regions. Here we use high spatial-resolution satellite data to show the impact of irrigated crops in the arid environment of northern Saudi Arabia on cloud cover and rainfall patterns. Land surface temperatures over the crops are 5-10 K lower than their surroundings, linked to evapotranspiration rates of up to 20 mm/ month. Daytime cloud cover is up to 30% higher over the cropland compared to its immediate surroundings, and this enhancement is highly correlated with the seasonal variability in leaf area index. The cloud enhancement is associated with a much more rapid cloud cloud development during the morning. Afternoon rainfall is 85% higher over, and just downwind, of the cropland during the growing season, although rainfall remains very low in absolute terms. The feedback sign we find is the opposite to what has been observed in tropical and semiarid regions, where temperature gradients promote convergence and clouds on the warmer side of land-surface type discontinuities. This suggests that different processes are responsible for the land-atmosphere feedback in very dry environments, where lack of moisture may be a stronger constraint. Increased cloud and rainfall, and associated increases in diffuse radiation and reductions in temperature, can affect vegetation growth thus producing an internal feedback. These effects will therefore need to be taken into account to properly assess the impact of climate change on crop productivity and water use, as well as how global land

Irrigation mitigates against heat extremes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thiery, Wim; Fischer, Erich; Visser, Auke; Hirsch, Annette L.; Davin, Edouard L.; Lawrence, Dave; Hauser, Mathias; Seneviratne, Sonia I.

2017-04-01

Irrigation is an essential practice for sustaining global food production and many regional economies. Emerging scientific evidence indicates that irrigation substantially affects mean climate conditions in different regions of the world. Yet how this practice influences climate extremes is currently unknown. Here we use gridded observations and ensemble simulations with the Community Earth System Model to assess the impacts of irrigation on climate extremes. While the influence of irrigation on annual mean temperatures is limited, we find a large impact on temperature extremes, with a particularly strong cooling during the hottest day of the year (-0.78 K averaged over irrigated land). The strong influence on hot extremes stems from the timing of irrigation and its influence on land-atmosphere coupling strength. Together these effects result in asymmetric temperature responses, with a more pronounced cooling during hot and/or dry periods. The influence of irrigation is even more pronounced when considering subgrid-scale model output, suggesting that local effects of land management are far more important than previously thought. Finally we find that present-day irrigation is partly masking GHG-induced warming of extreme temperatures, with particularly strong effects in South Asia. Our results overall underline that irrigation substantially reduces our exposure to hot temperature extremes and highlight the need to account for irrigation in future climate projections.

Enhancing Adoption of Irrigation Scheduling to Sustain the Viability of Fruit and Nut Crops in California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fulton, A.; Snyder, R.; Hillyer, C.; English, M.; Sanden, B.; Munk, D.

2012-04-01

Enhancing Adoption of Irrigation Scheduling to Sustain the Viability of Fruit and Nut Crops in California Allan Fulton, Richard Snyder, Charles Hillyer, Marshall English, Blake Sanden, and Dan Munk Adoption of scientific methods to decide when to irrigate and how much water to apply to a crop has increased over the last three decades in California. In 1988, less than 4.3 percent of US farmers employed some type of science-based technique to assist in making irrigation scheduling decisions (USDA, 1995). An ongoing survey in California, representing an industry irrigating nearly 0.4 million planted almond hectares, indicates adoption rates ranging from 38 to 55 percent of either crop evapotranspiration (ETc), soil moisture monitoring, plant water status, or some combination of these irrigation scheduling techniques to assist with making irrigation management decisions (California Almond Board, 2011). High capital investment to establish fruit and nut crops, sensitivity to over and under-irrigation on crop performance and longevity, and increasing costs and competition for water have all contributed to increased adoption of scientific irrigation scheduling methods. These trends in adoption are encouraging and more opportunities exist to develop improved irrigation scheduling tools, especially computer decision-making models. In 2009 and 2010, an "On-line Irrigation Scheduling Advisory Service" (OISO, 2012), also referred to as Online Irrigation Management (IMO), was used and evaluated in commercial walnut, almond, and French prune orchards in the northern Sacramento Valley of California. This specific model has many features described as the "Next Generation of Irrigation Schedulers" (Hillyer, 2010). While conventional irrigation management involves simply irrigating as needed to avoid crop stress, this IMO is designed to control crop stress, which requires: (i) precise control of crop water availability (rather than controlling applied water); (ii) quantifying crop

Evaluation of an operational real-time irrigation scheduling scheme for drip irrigated citrus fields in Picassent, Spain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Dazhi; Hendricks-Franssen, Harrie-Jan; Han, Xujun; Jiménez Bello, Miguel Angel; Martínez Alzamora, Fernando; Vereecken, Harry

2017-04-01

Irrigated agriculture accounts worldwide for 40% of food production and 70% of fresh water withdrawals. Irrigation scheduling aims to minimize water use while maintaining the agricultural production. In this study we were concerned with the real-time automatic control of irrigation, which calculates daily water allocation by combining information from soil moisture sensors and a land surface model. The combination of soil moisture measurements and predictions by the Community Land Model (CLM) using sequential data assimilation (DA) is a promising alternative to improve the estimate of soil and plant water status. The LETKF (Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter) was chosen to assimilate soil water content measured by FDR (Frequency Domain Reflectometry) into CLM and improve the initial (soil moisture) conditions for the next model run. In addition, predictions by the GFS (Global Forecast System) atmospheric simulation model were used as atmospheric input data for CLM to predict an ensemble of possible soil moisture evolutions for the next days. The difference between predicted and target soil water content is defined as the water deficit, and the irrigation amount was calculated by the integrated water deficit over the root zone. The corresponding irrigation time to apply the required water was introduced in SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition system) for each citrus field. In total 6 fields were irrigated according our optimization approach including data assimilation (CLM-DA) and there were also 2 fields following the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) water balance method and 4 fields controlled by farmers as reference. During the real-time irrigation campaign in Valencia from July to October in 2015 and June to October in 2016, the applied irrigation amount, stem water potential and soil moisture content were recorded. The data indicated that 5% 20% less irrigation water was needed for the CLM-DA scheduled fields than for the other fields

Can deficit irrigation techniques be used to enhance phosphorus and water use efficiency and benefit crop yields?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wright, Hannah R.; Dodd, Ian C.; Blackwell, Martin S. A.; Surridge, Ben W. J.

2015-04-01

Soil drying and rewetting (DRW) affects the forms and availability of phosphorus (P). Water soluble P has been reported to increase 1.8- to 19-fold after air-drying with the majority of the increase (56-100%) attributable to organic P. Similarly, in two contrasting soil types DRW increased concentrations of total P and reactive P in leachate, likely due to enhanced P mineralisation and physiochemical processes causing detachment of soil colloids, with faster rewetting rates related to higher concentrations of P. The intensity of drying as well as the rate of rewetting influences organic and inorganic P cycling. How these dynamics are driven by soil water status, and impact crop P acquisition and growth, remains unclear. Improving P and water use efficiencies and crop yields is globally important as both P and water resources become increasingly scarce, whilst demand for food increases. Irrigation supply below the water requirement for full crop evapotranspiration is employed by agricultural practitioners where water supply is limited. Regulated deficit irrigation describes the scheduling of water supply to correspond to the times of highest crop demand. Alternate wetting and drying (AWD) is applied in lowland irrigated rice production to avoid flooding at certain times of crop development, and has benefited P nutrition and yields. This research aims to optimise the benefits of P availability and uptake achieved by DRW by guiding deficit irrigation management strategies. Further determination of underlying processes driving P cycling at fluctuating soil moisture status is required. Presented here is a summary of the literature on DRW effects on soil P availability and plant P uptake and partitioning, in a range of soil types and cropping systems, with emphasis on alternate wetting and drying irrigation (AWD) compared to continuous flooding in lowland irrigated rice production. Soil water contents and matric potentials, and effects on P dynamics, are highly variable

Significant impacts of irrigation water sources and methods on modeling irrigation effects in the ACME Land Model

DOE PAGES

Leng, Guoyong; Leung, L. Ruby; Huang, Maoyi

2017-06-20

An irrigation module that considers both irrigation water sources and irrigation methods has been incorporated into the ACME Land Model (ALM). Global numerical experiments were conducted to evaluate the impacts of irrigation water sources and irrigation methods on the simulated irrigation effects. All simulations shared the same irrigation soil moisture target constrained by a global census dataset of irrigation amounts. Irrigation has large impacts on terrestrial water balances especially in regions with extensive irrigation. Such effects depend on the irrigation water sources: surface-water-fed irrigation leads to decreases in runoff and water table depth, while groundwater-fed irrigation increases water table depth,more » with positive or negative effects on runoff depending on the pumping intensity. Irrigation effects also depend significantly on the irrigation methods. Flood irrigation applies water in large volumes within short durations, resulting in much larger impacts on runoff and water table depth than drip and sprinkler irrigations. Differentiating the irrigation water sources and methods is important not only for representing the distinct pathways of how irrigation influences the terrestrial water balances, but also for estimating irrigation water use efficiency. Specifically, groundwater pumping has lower irrigation water use efficiency due to enhanced recharge rates. Different irrigation methods also affect water use efficiency, with drip irrigation the most efficient followed by sprinkler and flood irrigation. Furthermore, our results highlight the importance of explicitly accounting for irrigation sources and irrigation methods, which are the least understood and constrained aspects in modeling irrigation water demand, water scarcity and irrigation effects in Earth System Models.« less

Significant impacts of irrigation water sources and methods on modeling irrigation effects in the ACME Land Model

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Leng, Guoyong; Leung, L. Ruby; Huang, Maoyi

An irrigation module that considers both irrigation water sources and irrigation methods has been incorporated into the ACME Land Model (ALM). Global numerical experiments were conducted to evaluate the impacts of irrigation water sources and irrigation methods on the simulated irrigation effects. All simulations shared the same irrigation soil moisture target constrained by a global census dataset of irrigation amounts. Irrigation has large impacts on terrestrial water balances especially in regions with extensive irrigation. Such effects depend on the irrigation water sources: surface-water-fed irrigation leads to decreases in runoff and water table depth, while groundwater-fed irrigation increases water table depth,more » with positive or negative effects on runoff depending on the pumping intensity. Irrigation effects also depend significantly on the irrigation methods. Flood irrigation applies water in large volumes within short durations, resulting in much larger impacts on runoff and water table depth than drip and sprinkler irrigations. Differentiating the irrigation water sources and methods is important not only for representing the distinct pathways of how irrigation influences the terrestrial water balances, but also for estimating irrigation water use efficiency. Specifically, groundwater pumping has lower irrigation water use efficiency due to enhanced recharge rates. Different irrigation methods also affect water use efficiency, with drip irrigation the most efficient followed by sprinkler and flood irrigation. Furthermore, our results highlight the importance of explicitly accounting for irrigation sources and irrigation methods, which are the least understood and constrained aspects in modeling irrigation water demand, water scarcity and irrigation effects in Earth System Models.« less

Mediterranean irrigation under climate change: more efficient irrigation needed to compensate increases in irrigation water requirements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fader, M.; Shi, S.; von Bloh, W.; Bondeau, A.; Cramer, W.

2015-08-01

Irrigation in the Mediterranean is of vital importance for food security, employment and economic development. This study systematically assesses how climate change and increases in atmospheric CO2 concentrations may affect irrigation requirements in the Mediterranean region by 2080-2090. Future demographic change and technological improvements in irrigation systems are accounted for, as is the spread of climate forcing, warming levels and potential realization of the CO2-fertilization effect. Vegetation growth, phenology, agricultural production and irrigation water requirements and withdrawal were simulated with the process-based ecohydrological and agro-ecosystem model LPJmL after a large development that comprised the improved representation of Mediterranean crops. At present the Mediterranean region could save 35 % of water by implementing more efficient irrigation and conveyance systems. Some countries like Syria, Egypt and Turkey have higher saving potentials than others. Currently some crops, especially sugar cane and agricultural trees, consume in average more irrigation water per hectare than annual crops. Different crops show different magnitude of changes in net irrigation requirements due to climate change, being the increases most pronounced in agricultural trees. The Mediterranean area as a whole might face an increase in gross irrigation requirements between 4 and 18 % from climate change alone if irrigation systems and conveyance are not improved (2 °C global warming combined with full CO2-fertilization effect, and 5 °C global warming combined with no CO2-fertilization effect, respectively). Population growth increases these numbers to 22 and 74 %, respectively, affecting mainly the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean. However, improved irrigation technologies and conveyance systems have large water saving potentials, especially in the Eastern Mediterranean, and may be able to compensate to some degree the increases due to climate change and

Some aspects of South Asia's groundwater irrigation economy: analyses from a survey in India, Pakistan, Nepal Terai and Bangladesh

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shah, Tushaar; Singh, O. P.; Mukherji, Aditi

2006-03-01

Since 1960, South Asia has emerged as the largest user of groundwater in irrigation in the world. Yet, little is known about this burgeoning economy, now the mainstay of the region's agriculture, food security and livelihoods. Results from the first socio-economic survey of its kind, involving 2,629 well-owners from 278 villages from India, Pakistan, Nepal Terai and Bangladesh, show that groundwater is used in over 75% of the irrigated areas in the sample villages, far more than secondary estimates suggest. Thanks to the pervasive use of groundwater in irrigation, rain-fed farming regions are a rarity although rain-fed plots within villages abound. Groundwater irrigation is quintessentially supplemental and used mostly on water-economical inferior cereals and pulses, while a water-intensive wheat and rice system dominates canal areas. Subsidies on electricity and canal irrigation shape the sub-continental irrigation economy, but it is the diesel pump that drives it. Pervasive markets in tubewell irrigation services enhance irrigation access to the poor. Most farmers interviewed reported resource depletion and deterioration, but expressed more concern over the high cost and poor reliability of energy supply for groundwater irrigation, which has become the fulcrum of their survival strategy.

Status and migration of irrigation in the USA

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Irrigated agriculture produces 49% of crop market value on 18% of cropped lands in the USA. Irrigation is essential to the most highly productive, intensely managed, and internationally competitive sectors of our agricultural economy, which play a key role in meeting growing global food, fiber, and ...

Site-specific variable rate irrigation a means to enhance water use efficiency

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The majority of irrigated cropland in the US is watered with sprinkler irrigation systems. These systems are inherently more efficient in distributing water than furrow or flood irrigation. Appropriate system design of sprinkler irrigation equipment, application methods, and farming practices (e.g. ...

Present-day irrigation mitigates heat extremes

DOE PAGES

Thiery, Wim; Davin, Edouard L.; Lawrence, David M.; ...

2017-02-16

Irrigation is an essential practice for sustaining global food production and many regional economies. Emerging scientific evidence indicates that irrigation substantially affects mean climate conditions in different regions of the world. Yet how this practice influences climate extremes is currently unknown. Here we use ensemble simulations with the Community Earth System Model to assess the impacts of irrigation on climate extremes. An evaluation of the model performance reveals that irrigation has a small yet overall beneficial effect on the representation of present-day near-surface climate. While the influence of irrigation on annual mean temperatures is limited, we find a large impactmore » on temperature extremes, with a particularly strong cooling during the hottest day of the year (-0.78 K averaged over irrigated land). The strong influence on extremes stems from the timing of irrigation and its influence on land-atmosphere coupling strength. Together these effects result in asymmetric temperature responses, with a more pronounced cooling during hot and/or dry periods. The influence of irrigation is even more pronounced when considering subgrid-scale model output, suggesting that local effects of land management are far more important than previously thought. In conclusion, our results underline that irrigation has substantially reduced our exposure to hot temperature extremes in the past and highlight the need to account for irrigation in future climate projections.« less

Present-day irrigation mitigates heat extremes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thiery, Wim; Davin, Edouard L.; Lawrence, David M.; Hirsch, Annette L.; Hauser, Mathias; Seneviratne, Sonia I.

2017-02-01

Irrigation is an essential practice for sustaining global food production and many regional economies. Emerging scientific evidence indicates that irrigation substantially affects mean climate conditions in different regions of the world. Yet how this practice influences climate extremes is currently unknown. Here we use ensemble simulations with the Community Earth System Model to assess the impacts of irrigation on climate extremes. An evaluation of the model performance reveals that irrigation has a small yet overall beneficial effect on the representation of present-day near-surface climate. While the influence of irrigation on annual mean temperatures is limited, we find a large impact on temperature extremes, with a particularly strong cooling during the hottest day of the year (-0.78 K averaged over irrigated land). The strong influence on extremes stems from the timing of irrigation and its influence on land-atmosphere coupling strength. Together these effects result in asymmetric temperature responses, with a more pronounced cooling during hot and/or dry periods. The influence of irrigation is even more pronounced when considering subgrid-scale model output, suggesting that local effects of land management are far more important than previously thought. Our results underline that irrigation has substantially reduced our exposure to hot temperature extremes in the past and highlight the need to account for irrigation in future climate projections.

Irrigation water sources and irrigation application methods used by U.S. plant nursery producers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paudel, Krishna P.; Pandit, Mahesh; Hinson, Roger

2016-02-01

We examine irrigation water sources and irrigation methods used by U.S. nursery plant producers using nested multinomial fractional regression models. We use data collected from the National Nursery Survey (2009) to identify effects of different firm and sales characteristics on the fraction of water sources and irrigation methods used. We find that regions, sales of plants types, farm income, and farm age have significant roles in what water source is used. Given the fraction of alternative water sources used, results indicated that use of computer, annual sales, region, and the number of IPM practices adopted play an important role in the choice of irrigation method. Based on the findings from this study, government can provide subsidies to nursery producers in water deficit regions to adopt drip irrigation method or use recycled water or combination of both. Additionally, encouraging farmers to adopt IPM may enhance the use of drip irrigation and recycled water in nursery plant production.

Mediterranean irrigation under climate change: more efficient irrigation needed to compensate for increases in irrigation water requirements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fader, M.; Shi, S.; von Bloh, W.; Bondeau, A.; Cramer, W.

2016-03-01

Irrigation in the Mediterranean is of vital importance for food security, employment and economic development. This study systematically assesses how climate change and increases in atmospheric CO2 concentrations may affect irrigation requirements in the Mediterranean region by 2080-2090. Future demographic change and technological improvements in irrigation systems are taken into account, as is the spread of climate forcing, warming levels and potential realization of the CO2-fertilization effect. Vegetation growth, phenology, agricultural production and irrigation water requirements and withdrawal were simulated with the process-based ecohydrological and agro-ecosystem model LPJmL (Lund-Potsdam-Jena managed Land) after an extensive development that comprised the improved representation of Mediterranean crops. At present the Mediterranean region could save 35 % of water by implementing more efficient irrigation and conveyance systems. Some countries such as Syria, Egypt and Turkey have a higher savings potential than others. Currently some crops, especially sugar cane and agricultural trees, consume on average more irrigation water per hectare than annual crops. Different crops show different magnitudes of changes in net irrigation requirements due to climate change, the increases being most pronounced in agricultural trees. The Mediterranean area as a whole may face an increase in gross irrigation requirements between 4 and 18 % from climate change alone if irrigation systems and conveyance are not improved (4 and 18 % with 2 °C global warming combined with the full CO2-fertilization effect and 5 °C global warming combined with no CO2-fertilization effect, respectively). Population growth increases these numbers to 22 and 74 %, respectively, affecting mainly the southern and eastern Mediterranean. However, improved irrigation technologies and conveyance systems have a large water saving potential, especially in the eastern Mediterranean, and may be able to

Comparison of methods to determine the microbial quality of alternative irrigation waters

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The availability of water for crop irrigation is decreasing due to droughts, population growth, and pollution. Implementation of Food Safety and Modernization Act (FSMA) for irrigation water standards discourages growers to use poor microbial quality water for produce crop irrigation. We evaluated m...

Climate change reduces water availability for agriculture by decreasing non-evaporative irrigation losses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Malek, Keyvan; Adam, Jennifer C.; Stöckle, Claudio O.; Peters, R. Troy

2018-06-01

Irrigation efficiency plays an important role in agricultural productivity; it affects farm-scale water demand, and the partitioning of irrigation losses into evaporative and non-evaporative components. This partitioning determines return flow generation and thus affects water availability. Over the last two decades, hydrologic and agricultural research communities have significantly improved our understanding of the impacts of climate change on water availability and food productivity. However, the impacts of climate change on the efficiency of irrigation systems, particularly on the partitioning between evaporative and non-evaporative losses, have received little attention. In this study, we incorporated a process-based irrigation module into a coupled hydrologic/agricultural modeling framework (VIC-CropSyst). To understand how climate change may impact irrigation losses, we applied VIC-CropSyst over the Yakima River basin, an important agricultural region in Washington State, U.S. We compared the historical period of 1980-2010 to an ensemble of ten projections of climate for two future periods: 2030-2060 and 2060-2090. Results averaged over the watershed showed that a 9% increase in evaporative losses will be compensated by a reduction of non-evaporative losses. Therefore, overall changes in future efficiency are negligible (-0.4%) while the Evaporative Loss Ratio (ELR) (defined as the ratio of evaporative to non-evaporative irrigation losses) is enhanced by 10%. This higher ELR is associated with a reduction in return flows, thus negatively impacting downstream water availability. Results also indicate that the impact of climate change on irrigation losses depend on irrigation type and climate scenarios.

Mediterranean agriculture: More efficient irrigation needed to compensate increases in future irrigation water requirements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fader, Marianela; Shi, Sinan; von Bloh, Werner; Bondeau, Alberte; Cramer, Wolfgang

2016-04-01

Irrigation in the Mediterranean is of vital importance for food security, employment and economic development. Our research shows that, at present, Mediterranean region could save 35% of water by implementing more efficient irrigation and conveyance systems. Some countries like Syria, Egypt and Turkey have higher saving potentials than others. Currently some crops, especially sugar cane and agricultural trees, consume in average more irrigation water per hectare than annual crops (1). Also under climate change, more efficient irrigation is of vital importance for counteracting increases in irrigation water requirements. The Mediterranean area as a whole might face an increase in gross irrigation requirements between 4% and 18% from climate change alone by the end of the century if irrigation systems and conveyance are not improved. Population growth increases these numbers to 22% and 74%, respectively, affecting mainly the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean. However, improved irrigation technologies and conveyance systems have large water saving potentials, especially in the Eastern Mediterranean, and may be able to compensate to some degree the increases due to climate change and population growth. Both subregions would need around 35% more water than today if they could afford some degree of modernization of irrigation and conveyance systems and benefit from the CO2-fertilization effect (1). However, in some scenarios (in this case as combinations of climate change, irrigation technology, influence of population growth and CO2-fertilization effect) water scarcity may constrain the supply of the irrigation water needed in future in Algeria, Libya, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Serbia, Morocco, Tunisia and Spain (1). In this study, vegetation growth, phenology, agricultural production and irrigation water requirements and withdrawal were simulated with the process-based ecohydrological and agro-ecosystem model LPJmL ("Lund-Potsdam-Jena managed Land") after a

Smallholder Irrigation and Crop Diversification under Climate Change in sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence and Potential for Simultaneous Food Security, Adaptation, and Mitigation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Naylor, R.; Burney, J. A.; Postel, S.

2011-12-01

The poorest populations in sub-Saharan Africa live in rural areas and depend on smallholder agricultural production for their livelihoods. Over 90% of all farmed area in Sub-Saharan Africa is rainfed, with crop production centering on 3-5 months of rainfall. Rapid population growth is reducing land per capita ratios, and low yields for staple crops make food security an increasingly challenging goal. Malnutrition, most noticeable among children, peaks during the dry season. Recent data on aggregate economic growth and investment in Africa hide these patterns of seasonal hunger and income disparity. Perhaps most perversely, smallholder farmers in the dry tropical regions of sub-Saharan Africa are (and will continue to be) some of the earliest and hardest hit by climate change. Our research focuses on the role distributed, small-scale irrigation can play in food security and climate change adaptation in sub-Saharan Africa. As Asia's agricultural success has demonstrated, irrigation, when combined with the availability of inputs (fertilizer) and improved crop varieties, can enable year-round production, growth in rural incomes, and a dramatic reduction in hunger. The situation in Africa is markedly different: agroecological conditions are far more heterogeneous than in Asia and evaporation rates are relatively high; most smallholders lack access to fertilizers; and market integration is constrained by infrastructure, information, and private sector incentives. Yet from a resource perspective, national- and regional-level estimates suggest that Internal Renewable Water Resources (IRWR) are nowhere near fully exploited in Sub-Saharan Africa -- even in the Sudano-Sahel, which is considered to be one of the driest regions of the continent. Irrigation can thus be implemented on a much larger scale sustainably. We will present (a) results from controlled, experimental field studies of solar-powered drip irrigation systems in the rural Sudano-Sahel region of West Africa. We

Investigating deficit irrigation as a climate-smart farming option

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Global water supplies available for irrigation are declining while food demand continues to rise. Deficit irrigation offers a promising strategy to reduce water use with minimal impacts to yields, but is likely to have a range of impacts on soil nutrient cycling processes and climate change mitigati...

Irrigation as an Historical Climate Forcing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cook, Benjamin I.; Shukla, Sonali P.; Puma, Michael J.; Nazarenko, Larissa S.

2014-01-01

Irrigation is the single largest anthropogenic water use, a modification of the land surface that significantly affects surface energy budgets, the water cycle, and climate. Irrigation, however, is typically not included in standard historical general circulation model (GCM) simulations along with other anthropogenic and natural forcings. To investigate the importance of irrigation as an anthropogenic climate forcing, we conduct two 5-member ensemble GCM experiments. Both are setup identical to the historical forced (anthropogenic plus natural) scenario used in version 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, but in one experiment we also add water to the land surface using a dataset of historically estimated irrigation rates. Irrigation has a negligible effect on the global average radiative balance at the top of the atmosphere, but causes significant cooling of global average surface air temperatures over land and dampens regional warming trends. This cooling is regionally focused and is especially strong in Western North America, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and Asia. Irrigation enhances cloud cover and precipitation in these same regions, except for summer in parts of Monsoon Asia, where irrigation causes a reduction in monsoon season precipitation. Irrigation cools the surface, reducing upward fluxes of longwave radiation (increasing net longwave), and increases cloud cover, enhancing shortwave reflection (reducing net shortwave). The relative magnitude of these two processes causes regional increases (northern India) or decreases (Central Asia, China) in energy availability at the surface and top of the atmosphere. Despite these changes in net radiation, however, climate responses are due primarily to larger magnitude shifts in the Bowen ratio from sensible to latent heating. Irrigation impacts on temperature, precipitation, and other climate variables are regionally significant, even while other anthropogenic forcings (anthropogenic aerosols

Genotoxicity of wastewaters used for irrigation of food crops.

PubMed

Ansari, Mohd Ikram; Malik, Abdul

2009-04-01

In most towns of India, wastewater coming from both industrial and domestic sources and without any treatment is used to irrigate the agricultural crops. This practice has been polluting the soil, and pollutants could possibly reach the food chain. For the above reasons, the wastewaters of Ghaziabad City (India), which is used for irrigation, were sampled (at two different sites) and monitored for the presence of genotoxic agents from January 2005 to June 2007. Gas chromatographic analysis showed the presence of certain OC (DDE, DDT, Dieldrin, Aldrin, and Endosulfan) and OP (Dimethoate, Malathion, Methlyparathion, and Chlorpyrifos) pesticides in both the sampling sites. Wastewater samples were concentrated using XAD resins (XAD-4 and XAD-8) and liquid-liquid extraction procedures, and the extracts were assayed for genotoxic potential by Ames Salmonella/microsome test, DNA repair defective mutants, and bacteriophage lambda systems. The test samples exhibited significant mutagenicity with TA98, TA97a, and TA100 strains with the probable role of contaminating pesticides in the wastewater. However, XAD-concentrated samples were more mutagenic in both sites as compared to liquid-liquid-extracted samples. The damage in the DNA repair defective mutants in the presence of XAD-concentrated water samples were also found to be higher to that of liquid-liquid-extracted water samples at the dose level of 20 muL/mL culture. All the mutants invariably exhibited significant decline in their colony-forming units as compared to their isogenic wild-type counterparts. The survival was decreased by 81.7 and 75.5% in polA(-) strain in site I, and 76.0 and 73.5% in site II in polA(-) under the same experimental conditions after 6 h of treatment with XAD-concentrated and liquid-liquid-extracted samples, respectively. A significant decrease in the survival of bacteriophage lambda was also observed when treated with the test samples. Copyright 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Agriculture and natural resources in a changing world - the role of irrigation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sauer, T.; Havlík, P.; Schneider, U. A.; Kindermann, G.; Obersteiner, M.

2009-04-01

Fertile land and fresh water constitute two of the most fundamental resources for food production. These resources are affected by environmental, political, economic, and technical developments. Regional impacts may transmit to the world through increased trade. With a global forest and agricultural sector model, we quantify the impacts of increased demand for food due to population growth and economic development on potential land and water use. In particular, we investigate producer adaptation regarding crop and irrigation choice, agricultural market adjustments, and changes in the values of land and water. Against the background of resource sustainability and food security topics, this study integrates the spatial and operational heterogeneity of irrigation management into a global land use model. It represents a first large scale assessment of agricultural water use under explicit consideration of alternative irrigation options in their particular biophysical, economic, and technical context, accounting for international trade, motivation-based farming, and quantified aggregated impacts on land scarcity, water scarcity, and food supply. The inclusion of technical and economic aspects of irrigation choice into an integrated land use modeling framework provides new insights into the interdisciplinary trade-offs between determinants of global land use change. Agricultural responses to population and economic growth include considerable increases in irrigated area and agricultural water use, but reductions in the average water intensity. Different irrigation systems are preferred under different exogenous biophysical and socioeconomic conditions. Negligence of these adaptations would bias the burden of development on land and water scarcity. Without technical progress in agriculture, predicted population and income levels for 2030 would require substantial price adjustments for land, water, and food to equilibrate supply and demand.

Afghanistan irrigation system assessment using remote sensing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haack, Barry

1997-01-01

The Helmand-Arghandab Valley irrigation system in southern Afghanistan is one of the country's most important capital resources. Prior to the civil and military conflict that has engulfed Afghanistan for more than 15 years, agricultural lands irrigated by the system produced a large proportion of the country's food grains and cotton. This study successfully employed Landsat satellite imagery, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Global Positioning Systems (GPS), and field surveys to assess changes that have occurred in this system since 1973 as a consequence of the war. This information is a critical step in irrigation rehabilitation for restoration of Afghanistan's agricultural productivity.

Site-specific variable rate irrigation as a means to enhance water use efficiency

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The majority of irrigated cropland in the US is watered with sprinkler irrigation systems. These systems are inherently more efficient in distributing water than furrow or flood irrigation. Appropriate system design of sprinkler irrigation equipment, application methods, and farming practices (e.g. ...

Decadal Variation of Precipitation in Saudi Arabia induced by Agricultural Irrigation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lo, M. H.; Wey, H. W.; Wada, Y.; IM, E. S.; Chien, R. Y.; Wu, R. J.

2017-12-01

Decadal variation of wet-season precipitation has been found in the arid region of central Saudi Arabia. 1980s has been a rather wet decade compared with the decades before. Previous studies have mentioned that the irrigation moisture may contribute to the precipitation anomalies in Saudi Arabia. In the current study, we show from observational data that the contribution of the variation comes mostly from February to May. As the irrigation is a localized forcing, we therefore use the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model to simulate the response of the land-atmosphere interaction to the wet soil moisture resulted from additional irrigation moisture supply. Preliminary result shows in the irrigated simulation that precipitation in central Saudi Arabia is enhanced, indicating the possible link between irrigation expansion in the 1980s and the decadal precipitation variation over central Saudi Arabia. We propose it is the anomalous convergence induced by irrigation as well as additional moisture that contribute to the enhanced precipitation over heavily irrigation region in the central Saudi Arabian. In addition, analysis on the daily precipitation from the WRF outputs indicates that positive rainfall anomalies tend to happen when there is rainfall originally; that is, irrigation enhances rainfall but not creates rainfall.

Presence and Persistence of Salmonella in Water: The Impact on Microbial Quality of Water and Food Safety.

PubMed

Liu, Huanli; Whitehouse, Chris A; Li, Baoguang

2018-01-01

Salmonella ranks high among the pathogens causing foodborne disease outbreaks. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Salmonella contributed to about 53.4% of all foodborne disease outbreaks from 2006 to 2017, and approximately 32.7% of these foodborne Salmonella outbreaks were associated with consumption of produce. Trace-back investigations have suggested that irrigation water may be a source of Salmonella contamination of produce and a vehicle for transmission. Presence and persistence of Salmonella have been reported in surface waters such as rivers, lakes, and ponds, while ground water in general offers better microbial quality for irrigation. To date, culture methods are still the gold standard for detection, isolation and identification of Salmonella in foods and water. In addition to culture, other methods for the detection of Salmonella in water include most probable number, immunoassay, and PCR. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued the Produce Safety Rule (PSR) in January 2013 based on the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), which calls for more efforts toward enhancing and improving approaches for the prevention of foodborne outbreaks. In the PSR, agricultural water is defined as water used for in a way that is intended to, or likely to, contact covered produce, such as spray, wash, or irrigation. In summary, Salmonella is frequently present in surface water, an important source of water for irrigation. An increasing evidence indicates irrigation water as a source (or a vehicle) for transmission of Salmonella . This pathogen can survive in aquatic environments by a number of mechanisms, including entry into the viable but nonculturable (VBNC) state and/or residing within free-living protozoa. As such, assurance of microbial quality of irrigation water is critical to curtail the produce-related foodborne outbreaks and thus enhance the food safety. In this review, we will discuss the presence and persistence of

Presence and Persistence of Salmonella in Water: The Impact on Microbial Quality of Water and Food Safety

PubMed Central

Liu, Huanli; Whitehouse, Chris A.; Li, Baoguang

2018-01-01

Salmonella ranks high among the pathogens causing foodborne disease outbreaks. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Salmonella contributed to about 53.4% of all foodborne disease outbreaks from 2006 to 2017, and approximately 32.7% of these foodborne Salmonella outbreaks were associated with consumption of produce. Trace-back investigations have suggested that irrigation water may be a source of Salmonella contamination of produce and a vehicle for transmission. Presence and persistence of Salmonella have been reported in surface waters such as rivers, lakes, and ponds, while ground water in general offers better microbial quality for irrigation. To date, culture methods are still the gold standard for detection, isolation and identification of Salmonella in foods and water. In addition to culture, other methods for the detection of Salmonella in water include most probable number, immunoassay, and PCR. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued the Produce Safety Rule (PSR) in January 2013 based on the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), which calls for more efforts toward enhancing and improving approaches for the prevention of foodborne outbreaks. In the PSR, agricultural water is defined as water used for in a way that is intended to, or likely to, contact covered produce, such as spray, wash, or irrigation. In summary, Salmonella is frequently present in surface water, an important source of water for irrigation. An increasing evidence indicates irrigation water as a source (or a vehicle) for transmission of Salmonella. This pathogen can survive in aquatic environments by a number of mechanisms, including entry into the viable but nonculturable (VBNC) state and/or residing within free-living protozoa. As such, assurance of microbial quality of irrigation water is critical to curtail the produce-related foodborne outbreaks and thus enhance the food safety. In this review, we will discuss the presence and persistence of

Comparison of Irrigation Water Use Estimates Calculated from Remotely Sensed Irrigated Acres and State Reported Irrigated Acres in the Lake Altus Drainage Basin, Oklahoma and Texas, 2000 Growing Season

USGS Publications Warehouse

Masoner, J.R.; Mladinich, C.S.; Konduris, A.M.; Smith, S. Jerrod

2003-01-01

Increased demand for water in the Lake Altus drainage basin requires more accurate estimates of water use for irrigation. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, is investigating new techniques to improve water-use estimates for irrigation purposes in the Lake Altus drainage basin. Empirical estimates of reference evapotranspiration, crop evapotranspiration, and crop irrigation water requirements for nine major crops were calculated from September 1999 to October 2000 using a solar radiation-based evapotranspiration model. Estimates of irrigation water use were calculated using remotely sensed irrigated crop acres derived from Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus imagery and were compared with irrigation water-use estimates calculated from irrigated crop acres reported by the Oklahoma Water Resources Board and the Texas Water Development Board for the 2000 growing season. The techniques presented will help manage water resources in the Lake Altus drainage basin and may be transferable to other areas with similar water management needs. Irrigation water use calculated from the remotely sensed irrigated acres was estimated at 154,920 acre-feet; whereas, irrigation water use calculated from state reported irrigated crop acres was 196,026 acre-feet, a 23 percent difference. The greatest difference in irrigation water use was in Carson County, Texas. Irrigation water use for Carson County, Texas, calculated from the remotely sensed irrigated acres was 58,555 acrefeet; whereas, irrigation water use calculated from state reported irrigated acres was 138,180 acre-feet, an 81 percent difference. The second greatest difference in irrigation water use occurred in Beckham County, Oklahoma. Differences between the two irrigation water use estimates are due to the differences of irrigated crop acres derived from the mapping process and those reported by the Oklahoma Water Resources Board and Texas Water Development Board.

Can a canopy temperature-based stress index enhance water use efficiency in irrigated wine grape under arid conditions?

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Enhancement of irrigation water use efficiency and water productivity in arid wine grape production regions is hindered by a lack of automated, real-time methods for monitoring and interpreting vine water status. A normalized, water stress index calculated from real-time vine canopy temperature meas...

Balancing ecosystem services with energy and food security - Assessing trade-offs from reservoir operation and irrigation investments in Kenya's Tana Basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hurford, A. P.; Harou, J. J.

2014-08-01

Competition for water between key economic sectors and the environment means agreeing allocations is challenging. Managing releases from the three major dams in Kenya's Tana River basin with its 4.4 million inhabitants, 567 MW of installed hydropower capacity, 33 000 ha of irrigation and ecologically important wetlands and forests is a pertinent example. This research seeks firstly to identify and help decision-makers visualise reservoir management strategies which result in the best possible (Pareto-optimal) allocation of benefits between sectors. Secondly, it seeks to show how trade-offs between achievable benefits shift with the implementation of proposed new rice, cotton and biofuel irrigation projects. To approximate the Pareto-optimal trade-offs we link a water resources management simulation model to a multi-criteria search algorithm. The decisions or "levers" of the management problem are volume-dependent release rules for the three major dams and extent of investment in new irrigation schemes. These decisions are optimised for eight objectives covering the provision of water supply and irrigation, energy generation and maintenance of ecosystem services. Trade-off plots allow decision-makers to assess multi-reservoir rule-sets and irrigation investment options by visualising their impacts on different beneficiaries. Results quantify how economic gains from proposed irrigation schemes trade-off against the disturbance of ecosystems and local livelihoods that depend on them. Full implementation of the proposed schemes is shown to come at a high environmental and social cost. The clarity and comprehensiveness of "best-case" trade-off analysis is a useful vantage point from which to tackle the interdependence and complexity of "water-energy-food nexus" resource security issues.

Irrigation Signals Detected From SMAP Soil Moisture Retrievals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lawston, Patricia M.; Santanello, Joseph A.; Kumar, Sujay V.

2017-12-01

Irrigation can influence weather and climate, but the magnitude, timing, and spatial extent of irrigation are poorly represented in models, as are the resulting impacts of irrigation on the coupled land-atmosphere system. One way to improve irrigation representation in models is to assimilate soil moisture observations that reflect an irrigation signal to improve model states. Satellite remote sensing is a promising avenue for obtaining these needed observations on a routine basis, but to date, irrigation detection in passive microwave satellites has proven difficult. In this study, results show that the new enhanced soil moisture product from the Soil Moisture Active Passive satellite is able to capture irrigation signals over three semiarid regions in the western United States. This marks an advancement in Earth-observing satellite skill and the ability to monitor human impacts on the water cycle.

Mapping irrigated areas in Afghanistan over the past decade using MODIS NDVI

USGS Publications Warehouse

Pervez, Md Shahriar; Budde, Michael; Rowland, James

2014-01-01

Agricultural production capacity contributes to food security in Afghanistan and is largely dependent on irrigated farming, mostly utilizing surface water fed by snowmelt. Because of the high contribution of irrigated crops (> 80%) to total agricultural production, knowing the spatial distribution and year-to-year variability in irrigated areas is imperative to monitoring food security for the country. We used 16-day composites of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor to create 23-point time series for each year from 2000 through 2013. Seasonal peak values and time series were used in a threshold-dependent decision tree algorithm to map irrigated areas in Afghanistan for the last 14 years. In the absence of ground reference irrigated area information, we evaluated these maps with the irrigated areas classified from multiple snapshots of the landscape during the growing season from Landsat 5 optical and thermal sensor images. We were able to identify irrigated areas using Landsat imagery by selecting as irrigated those areas with Landsat-derived NDVI greater than 0.30–0.45, depending on the date of the Landsat image and surface temperature less than or equal to 310 Kelvin (36.9 ° C). Due to the availability of Landsat images, we were able to compare with the MODIS-derived maps for four years: 2000, 2009, 2010, and 2011. The irrigated areas derived from Landsat agreed well r2 = 0.91 with the irrigated areas derived from MODIS, providing confidence in the MODIS NDVI threshold approach. The maps portrayed a highly dynamic irrigated agriculture practice in Afghanistan, where the amount of irrigated area was largely determined by the availability of surface water, especially snowmelt, and varied by as much as 30% between water surplus and water deficit years. During the past 14 years, 2001, 2004, and 2008 showed the lowest levels of irrigated area (~ 1.5 million hectares), attesting to

Decentralising Zimbabwe’s water management: The case of Guyu-Chelesa irrigation scheme

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tambudzai, Rashirayi; Everisto, Mapedza; Gideon, Zhou

Smallholder irrigation schemes are largely supply driven such that they exclude the beneficiaries on the management decisions and the choice of the irrigation schemes that would best suit their local needs. It is against this background that the decentralisation framework and the Dublin Principles on Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) emphasise the need for a participatory approach to water management. The Zimbabwean government has gone a step further in decentralising the management of irrigation schemes, that is promoting farmer managed irrigation schemes so as to ensure effective management of scarce community based land and water resources. The study set to investigate the way in which the Guyu-Chelesa irrigation scheme is managed with specific emphasis on the role of the Irrigation Management Committee (IMC), the level of accountability and the powers devolved to the IMC. Merrey’s 2008 critique of IWRM also informs this study which views irrigation as going beyond infrastructure by looking at how institutions and decision making processes play out at various levels including at the irrigation scheme level. The study was positioned on the hypothesis that ‘decentralised or autonomous irrigation management enhances the sustainability and effectiveness of irrigation schemes’. To validate or falsify the stated hypothesis, data was gathered using desk research in the form of reviewing articles, documents from within the scheme and field research in the form of questionnaire surveys, key informant interviews and field observation. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences was used to analyse data quantitatively, whilst content analysis was utilised to analyse qualitative data whereby data was analysed thematically. Comparative analysis was carried out as Guyu-Chelesa irrigation scheme was compared with other smallholder irrigation scheme’s experiences within Zimbabwe and the Sub Saharan African region at large. The findings were that whilst the

Identifying the interferences of irrigation on evapotranspiration variability over the Northern High Plains

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zeng, R.; Cai, X.

2016-12-01

Irrigation has considerably interfered with hydrological processes in arid and semi-arid areas with heavy irrigated agriculture. With the increasing demand for food production and evaporative demand due to climate change, irrigation water consumption is expected to increase, which would aggravate the interferences to hydrologic processes. Current studies focus on the impact of irrigation on the mean value of evapotranspiration (ET) at either local or regional scale, however, how irrigation changes the variability of ET has not been well understood. This study analyzes the impact of extensive irrigation on ET variability in the Northern High Plains. We apply an ET variance decomposition framework developed from our previous work to quantify the effects of both climate and irrigation on ET variance in the Northern High Plains watersheds. Based on climate and water table observations, we assess the monthly ET variance and its components for two periods: 1930s-1960s with less irrigation development 970s-2010s with more development. It is found that irrigation not only caused the well-recognized groundwater drawdown and stream depletion problems in the region, but also buffered ET variance from climatic fluctuations. In addition to increasing food productivity, irrigation also stabilizes crop yield by mitigating the impact of hydroclimatic variability. With complementary water supply from irrigation, ET often approaches to the potential ET, and thus the observed ET variance is more attributed to climatic variables especially temperature; meanwhile irrigation causes significant seasonal fluctuations to groundwater storage. For sustainable water resources management in the Northern High Plains, we argue that both the mean value and the variance of ET should be considered together for the regulation of irrigation in this region.

Comparative study of irrigation water use and groundwater recharge under various irrigation schemes in an agricultural region, central Taiwan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Shih-Kai; Jang, Cheng-Shin; Tsai, Cheng-Bin

2016-04-01

The risk of rice production has increased notably due to climate change in Taiwan. To respond to growing agricultural water shortage without affecting normal food production in the future, the application of water-saving irrigation will be a substantial resolution. However, the adoption of water-saving irrigation may result in the reducing of groundwater recharge because continuous flooding in the paddy fields could be regarded as an important source for groundwater recharge. The aim of this study was to evaluate the irrigation water-saving benefit and groundwater recharge deficit when adopting the System of Rice Intensification, known as SRI methodology, in the Choushui River alluvial fan (the largest groundwater pumping and the most important rice-cropping region in central Taiwan). The three-dimensional finite element groundwater model, FEMWATER, was applied to simulate the infiltration process and groundwater recharge under SRI methodology and traditional irrigation schemes including continuous irrigation, and rotational irrigation in two rice-crop periods with hydro-climatic data of 2013. The irrigation water use was then calculated by water balance. The results showed that groundwater recharge amount of SRI methodology was slightly lower than those of traditional irrigation schemes, reduced 3.6% and 1.6% in the first crop period, and reduced 3.2% and 1.6% in the second crop period, compared with continuous irrigation and rotational irrigation, respectively. However, the SRI methodology achieved notably water-saving benefit compared to the disadvantage of reducing the groundwater recharge amount. The field irrigation requirement amount of SRI methodology was significantly lower than those of traditional irrigation schemes, saving 37% and 20% of irrigation water in the first crop period, and saving 53% and 35% in the second crop period, compared with continuous irrigation and rotational irrigation, respectively. Therefore, the amount of groundwater pumping for

Assessment of microbial quality of reclaimed water, roof-harvest water, and creek water for irrigation

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The availability of water for crop irrigation is decreasing due to droughts, population growth, and pollution. The Food Safety and Modernization Act (FSMA) standards for irrigation water may also discourage growers to use poor microbial quality water for produce crop irrigation. Reclaimed water use ...

Assessment of microbial quality of reclaimed water, roof-harvest water, and creek water for irrigation

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The availability of water for crop irrigation is decreasing due to droughts, population growth, and pollution. Food Safety and Modernization Act (FSMA) for irrigation water standards may also discourage growers to use poor microbial quality water for produce crop irrigation. Reclaimed water use for ...

Implications of non-sustainable agricultural water policies for the water-food nexus in large-scale irrigation systems: A remote sensing approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Al Zayed, Islam Sabry; Elagib, Nadir Ahmed

2017-12-01

This study proposes a novel monitoring tool based on Satellite Remote Sensing (SRS) data to examine the status of water distribution and Water Use Efficiency (WUE) under changing water policies in large-scale and complex irrigation schemes. The aim is to improve our understanding of the water-food nexus in such schemes. With a special reference to the Gezira Irrigation Scheme (GeIS) in Sudan during the period 2000-2014, the tool devised herein is well suited for cases where validation data are absent. First, it introduces an index, referred to as the Crop Water Consumption Index (CWCI), to assess the efficiency of water policies. The index is defined as the ratio of actual evapotranspiration (ETa) over agricultural areas to total ETa for the whole scheme where ETa is estimated using the Simplified Surface Energy Balance model (SSEB). Second, the tool uses integrated Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (iNDVI), as a proxy for crop productivity, and ETa to assess the WUE. Third, the tool uses SSEB ETa and NDVI in an attempt to detect wastage of water. Four key results emerged from this research as follows: 1) the WUE has not improved despite the changing agricultural and water policies, 2) the seasonal ETa can be used to detect the drier areas of GeIS, i.e. areas with poor irrigation water supply, 3) the decreasing trends of CWCI, slope of iNDVI-ETa linear regression and iNDVI are indicative of inefficient utilization of irrigation water in the scheme, and 4) it is possible to use SSEB ETa and NDVI to identify channels with spillover problems and detect wastage of rainwater that is not used as a source for irrigation. In conclusion, the innovative tool developed herein has provided important information on the efficiency of a large-scale irrigation scheme to help rationalize laborious water management processes and increase productivity.

An index-based approach for the sustainability assessment of irrigation practice based on the water-energy-food nexus framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Vito, Rossella; Portoghese, Ivan; Pagano, Alessandro; Fratino, Umberto; Vurro, Michele

2017-12-01

Increasing pressure affects water resources, especially in the agricultural sector, with cascading impacts on energy consumption. This is particularly relevant in the Mediterranean area, showing significant water scarcity problems, further exacerbated by the crucial economic role of agricultural production. Assessing the sustainability of water resource use is thus essential to preserving ecosystems and maintaining high levels of agricultural productivity. This paper proposes an integrated methodology based on the Water-Energy-Food Nexus to evaluate the multi-dimensional implications of irrigation practices. Three different indices are introduced, based on an analysis of the most influential factors. The methodology is then implemented in a catchment located in Puglia (Italy) and a comparative analysis of the three indices is presented. The results mainly highlight that economic land productivity is a key driver of irrigated agriculture, and that groundwater is highly affordable compared to surface water, thus being often dangerously perceived as freely available.

Historical influence of irrigation on climate extremes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thiery, Wim; Davin, Edouard L.; Lawrence, Dave; Hauser, Mathias; Seneviratne, Sonia I.

2016-04-01

Land irrigation is an essential practice sustaining global food production and many regional economies. During the last decades, irrigation amounts have been growing rapidly. Emerging scientific evidence indicates that land irrigation substantially affects mean climate conditions in different regions of the world. However, a thorough understanding of the impact of irrigation on extreme climatic conditions, such as heat waves, droughts or intense precipitation, is currently still lacking. In this context, we aim to assess the historical influence of irrigation on the occurrence of climate extremes. To this end, two simulations are conducted over the period 1910-2010 with a state-of-the-art global climate model (the Community Earth System Model, CESM): a control simulation including all major anthropogenic and natural external forcings except for irrigation and a second experiment with transient irrigation enabled. The two simulations are evaluated for their ability to represent (i) hot, dry and wet extremes using the HadEX2 and ERA-Interim datasets as a reference, and (ii) latent heat fluxes using LandFlux-EVAL. Assuming a linear combination of climatic responses to different forcings, the difference between both experiments approximates the influence of irrigation. We will analyse the impact of irrigation on a number of climate indices reflecting the intensity and duration of heat waves. Thereby, particular attention is given to the role of soil moisture changes in modulating climate extremes. Furthermore, the contribution of individual biogeophysical processes to the total impact of irrigation on hot extremes is quantified by application of a surface energy balance decomposition technique to the 90th and 99th percentile surface temperature changes.

More efficient irrigation may compensate for increases in irrigation water requirements due to climate change in the Mediterranean area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fader, Marianela; Shi, Sinan; von Bloh, Werner; Bondeau, Alberte; Cramer, Wolfgang

2017-04-01

Irrigation in the Mediterranean is of vital importance for food security, employment and economic development. We will present a recently published study1 that estimates the current level of water demand for Mediterranean agriculture and simulates the potential impacts of climate change, population growth and transitions to water-saving irrigation and conveyance technologies. The results indicate that, at present, Mediterranean region could save 35% of water by implementing more efficient irrigation and conveyance systems, with large differences in the saving potentials across countries. Under climate change, more efficient irrigation is of vital importance for counteracting increases in irrigation water requirements. The Mediterranean area as a whole might face an increase in gross irrigation requirements between 4% and 18% from climate change alone by the end of the century if irrigation systems and conveyance are not improved. Population growth increases these numbers to 22% and 74%, respectively, affecting mainly the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean. However, improved irrigation technologies and conveyance systems have large water saving potentials, especially in the Eastern Mediterranean. Both the Eastern and the Southern Mediterranean would need around 35% more water than today if they could afford some degree of modernization of irrigation and conveyance systems and benefit from the CO2-fertilization effect. However, in some scenarios water scarcity may constrain the supply of the irrigation water needed in future in Algeria, Libya, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Serbia, Morocco, Tunisia and Spain. In this study, vegetation growth, phenology, agricultural production and irrigation water requirements and withdrawal were simulated with the process-based ecohydrological and agro-ecosystem model LPJmL ("Lund-Potsdam-Jena managed Land") after a large development2 that comprised the improved representation of Mediterranean crops.

Root Zone Sensors for Irrigation Management in Intensive Agriculture

PubMed Central

Pardossi, Alberto; Incrocci, Luca; Incrocci, Giorgio; Malorgio, Fernando; Battista, Piero; Bacci, Laura; Rapi, Bernardo; Marzialetti, Paolo; Hemming, Jochen; Balendonck, Jos

2009-01-01

Crop irrigation uses more than 70% of the world’s water, and thus, improving irrigation efficiency is decisive to sustain the food demand from a fast-growing world population. This objective may be accomplished by cultivating more water-efficient crop species and/or through the application of efficient irrigation systems, which includes the implementation of a suitable method for precise scheduling. At the farm level, irrigation is generally scheduled based on the grower’s experience or on the determination of soil water balance (weather-based method). An alternative approach entails the measurement of soil water status. Expensive and sophisticated root zone sensors (RZS), such as neutron probes, are available for the use of soil and plant scientists, while cheap and practical devices are needed for irrigation management in commercial crops. The paper illustrates the main features of RZS’ (for both soil moisture and salinity) marketed for the irrigation industry and discusses how such sensors may be integrated in a wireless network for computer-controlled irrigation and used for innovative irrigation strategies, such as deficit or dual-water irrigation. The paper also consider the main results of recent or current research works conducted by the authors in Tuscany (Italy) on the irrigation management of container-grown ornamental plants, which is an important agricultural sector in Italy. PMID:22574047

Health risks of thallium in contaminated arable soils and food crops irrigated with wastewater from a sulfuric acid plant in western Guangdong province, China.

PubMed

Wang, Chunlin; Chen, Yongheng; Liu, Juan; Wang, Jin; Li, Xiangping; Zhang, Yongbo; Liu, Yimin

2013-04-01

Thallium (Tl) contamination in soils poses a significant threat to human health due to the high toxicity of Tl and its ready assimilation by crops. Consumption of food crops contaminated with Tl is a major food chain route for human exposure. The health risks of Tl in contaminated food crops irrigated with wastewater from a sulfuric acid factory were investigated in this paper. Results indicate that long-term Tl-containing wastewater irrigation resulted in Tl contamination of arable soils and crops. The pollution load index values indicated that the arable soils were moderately enriched with Tl. Tl was highly accumulated in the crops. The content of Tl in the edible plant portions of crops ranged from 1.2 mg/kg to 104.8 mg/kg, exceeding the recommended permissible limits for food crops. The daily intake of metals (DIM) values of Tl for both adults and children via the consumption of the food crops except soya beans were higher than the reference oral dose (RfD) limit recommend by the United States environmental protection agency (US-EPA). Health risk index (HRI) values were generally higher than 1, indicating that health risks associated with Tl exposure are significant and assumed to be dangerous to the health of local villagers. Therefore, much attention should be paid to avoid consumption of these Tl-contaminated crops that can cause great potential risks. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Economic impacts on irrigated agriculture of water conservation programs in drought

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ward, Frank A.

2014-01-01

This study analyzes vulnerability, impacts, and adaptability by irrigation to drought.It accounts for economic incentives affecting choices on irrigation technology, crop mix, and water sources.When surface water supplies fall, farmers increase pumping, even when pumping raises production costs.Conservation program subsidies raise the value of food production but can increase crop water depletions.

[Effects of enhanced-efficiency nitrogen fertilizers on nitrous oxide emissions from cotton field under plastic mulched drip irrigation in Xinjiang,China].

PubMed

Ma, Zhi Wen; Gao, Xiao Peng; Gui, Dong Wei; Kuang, Wen Nong; Wang, Xi He; Liu, Hua

2016-12-01

The effect of enhanced-efficiency nitrogen (N) fertilizers on emissions of nitrous oxide (N 2 O) from the grey desert agricultural soils of Xinjiang is uncertain. In this study, the enhanced-efficiency fertilizers, polymer-coated urea (ESN), and stabilized urea with urease and nitrification inhibitors (U+I) were compared to conventional urea (U) for N 2 O emissions from cotton under plastic mulch drip irrigation near Urumqi, Xinjiang. ESN was added once at planting but the other treatments were added multiple times with drip irrigation during the growing season. Gas samples were collected and analyzed twice per week during the growing season, using the static chamber-chromatography methodology. The results showed that generally, ESN significantly increased soil cumulative N 2 O emissions during the growing season by 47%-73% compared to other treatments. In the first four months after fertilization, soil ammonium (NH 4 + -N) and nitrate (NO 3 - -N) concentrations under ESN treatment were generally higher than under other treatments. Thereafter, NH 4 + -N and NO 3 - -N concentrations under all treatments gradually decreased to similar levels. ESN all added at planting was likely responsible for high NH 4 + -N and NO 3 - -N concentrations and highest N 2 O emissions. The U+I treatment reduced soil N 2 O emission by 9.9% in comparison with U, whereas the difference was not statistically significant. In addition, soil NO 3 - -N contents of the U+I treatments were generally lower than those of the ESN and the U treatments. The cumulative N 2 O emissionsover the growing season ranged from 300 to 500 g N 2 O-N·hm -2 , generally lower than emissions reported for other agricultural ecosystems. Drip irrigation successfully kept moisture conditions below levels for appreciable N 2 O emissions. Multiple applications of N via drip irrigation seemed to be effective to lower emissions than all N applied at planting. Therefore, for cotton field under plastic mulch drip irrigation

Balancing ecosystem services with energy and food security - assessing trade-offs for reservoir operation and irrigation investment in Kenya's Tana basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hurford, A. P.; Harou, J. J.

2014-01-01

Competition for water between key economic sectors and the environment means agreeing on allocation is challenging. Managing releases from the three major dams in Kenya's Tana River basin with its 4.4 million inhabitants, 567 MW of installed hydropower capacity, 33 000 ha of irrigation and ecologically important wetlands and forests is a pertinent example. This research seeks to identify and help decision-makers visualise reservoir management strategies which result in the best possible (Pareto-optimal) allocation of benefits between sectors. Secondly we seek to show how trade-offs between achievable benefits shift with the implementation of new proposed rice, cotton and biofuel irrigation projects. To identify the Pareto-optimal trade-offs we link a water resources management model to a multi-criteria search algorithm. The decisions or "levers" of the management problem are volume dependent release rules for the three major dams and extent of investment in new irrigation schemes. These decisions are optimised for objectives covering provision of water supply and irrigation, energy generation and maintenance of ecosystem services which underpin tourism and local livelihoods. Visual analytic plots allow decision makers to assess multi-reservoir rule-sets by understanding their impacts on different beneficiaries. Results quantify how economic gains from proposed irrigation schemes trade-off against disturbance of the flow regime which supports ecosystem services. Full implementation of the proposed schemes is shown to be Pareto-optimal, but at high environmental and social cost. The clarity and comprehensiveness of "best-case" trade-off analysis is a useful vantage point from which to tackle the interdependence and complexity of water-energy-food "nexus" challenges.

Stakeholder analysis in the management of irrigation in Kampili area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jumiati; Ali, M. S. S.; Fahmid, I. M.; Mahyuddin

2018-05-01

Irrigation has appreciable contribution in building food security, particularly rice crops. This study aims to analyze the role of stakeholders involved in distributing of irrigation water. The study was conducted in the Kampili Irrigation Area in South Sulawesi Province Indonesia, the data were obtained through observation and interviews with stakeholders involved, and analysed by stakeholder analysis, based on the interests and power held by the actors. This analysis is intended to provide an optimal picture of the expected role of each stakeholder in the management of irrigation resources. The results show that there were many stakeholders involved in irrigation management. In the arrangement of irrigation distribution there was overlapping authority of the stakeholders to its management, every stakeholder had different interests and power between each other. The existence have given positive and negative values in distributing irrigation water management, then in the stakeholder collaboration there was contestation between them. This contestation took place between the agriculture department, PSDA province, the Jeneberang River Region Hall, the Farmers Group and the P3A.

Crop-specific seasonal estimates of irrigation-water demand in South Asia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Biemans, Hester; Siderius, Christian; Mishra, Ashok; Ahmad, Bashir

2016-05-01

Especially in the Himalayan headwaters of the main rivers in South Asia, shifts in runoff are expected as a result of a rapidly changing climate. In recent years, our insight into these shifts and their impact on water availability has increased. However, a similar detailed understanding of the seasonal pattern in water demand is surprisingly absent. This hampers a proper assessment of water stress and ways to cope and adapt. In this study, the seasonal pattern of irrigation-water demand resulting from the typical practice of multiple cropping in South Asia was accounted for by introducing double cropping with monsoon-dependent planting dates in a hydrology and vegetation model. Crop yields were calibrated to the latest state-level statistics of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. The improvements in seasonal land use and cropping periods lead to lower estimates of irrigation-water demand compared to previous model-based studies, despite the net irrigated area being higher. Crop irrigation-water demand differs sharply between seasons and regions; in Pakistan, winter (rabi) and monsoon summer (kharif) irrigation demands are almost equal, whereas in Bangladesh the rabi demand is ~ 100 times higher. Moreover, the relative importance of irrigation supply versus rain decreases sharply from west to east. Given the size and importance of South Asia improved regional estimates of food production and its irrigation-water demand will also affect global estimates. In models used for global water resources and food-security assessments, processes like multiple cropping and monsoon-dependent planting dates should not be ignored.

Irrigation Induced Surface Cooling in the Context of Modern and Increased Greenhouse Gas Forcing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cook, Benjamin I.; Puma, Michael J.; Krakauer, Nir Y.

2010-01-01

There is evidence that expected warming trends from increased greenhouse gas (GHG) forcing have been locally masked by irrigation induced cooling, and it is uncertain how the magnitude of this irrigation masking effect will change in the future. Using an irrigation dataset integrated into a global general circulation model, we investigate the equilibrium magnitude of irrigation induced cooling under modern (Year 2000) and increased (A1B Scenario, Year 2050) GHG forcing, using modern irrigation rates in both scenarios. For the modern scenario, the cooling is largest over North America, India, the Middle East, and East Asia. Under increased GHG forcing, this cooling effect largely disappears over North America, remains relatively unchanged over India, and intensifies over parts of China and the Middle East. For North America, irrigation significantly increases precipitation under modern GHG forcing; this precipitation enhancement largely disappears under A1B forcing, reducing total latent heat fluxes and the overall irrigation cooling effect. Over India, irrigation rates are high enough to keep pace with increased evaporative demand from the increased GHG forcing and the magnitude of the cooling is maintained. Over China, GHG forcing reduces precipitation and shifts the region to a drier evaporative regime, leading to a relatively increased impact of additional water from irrigation on the surface energy balance. Irrigation enhances precipitation in the Middle East under increased GHG forcing, increasing total latent heat fluxes and enhancing the irrigation cooling effect. Ultimately, the extent to which irrigation will continue to compensate for the warming from increased GHG forcing will primarily depend on changes in the background evaporative regime, secondary irrigation effects (e.g. clouds, precipitation), and the ability of societies to maintain (or increase) current irrigation rates.

The impacts of climate change on global irrigation water requirements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, X.; Cai, X.

2011-12-01

Climate change tends to affect the irrigation water requirement of current irrigated agricultural land, and also changes the water availability for current rain-fed land by the end of this century. We use the most up-to-date climatic and crop datasets (e.g., global irrigated/rain-fed crop areas and grid level crop growing calendar (Portmann, Siebert and Döll, 2010, Global Biogeochemical Cycles 24)) to evaluate the requirements of currently irrigated land and the water deficit for rain-fed land for all major crops under current and projected climate. Six general circulation models (GCMs) under two emission scenarios, A1B & B1, are assembled using two methods, the Simple Average Method (SAM) and Root Mean Square Error Ensemble Method (RMSEMM), to deal with the GCM regional variability. It is found that the global irrigation requirement and the water deficit are both going to increase significantly under all scenarios, particularly under the A1B emission scenario. For example, the projected irrigation requirement is expected to increase by about 2500 million m3 for wheat, 3200 million m3 for maize and another 3300 million m3 for rice. At the same time, the water deficit for current rain-fed cropland will be widened by around 3000, 4000, 2100 million m3 for wheat, maize and rice respectively. Regional analysis is conducted for Africa, China, Europe, India, South America and the United States. It is found that the U.S. may expect the greatest rise in irrigation requirements for wheat and maize, while the South America may suffer the greatest increase for rice. In addition, Africa and the U.S. may face a larger water deficit for both wheat and maize on rain-fed land, and South America just for rice. In summary, climate change is likely to bring severe challenges for irrigation systems and make global water shortage even worse by the end of this century. These pressures will call for extensive adaptation measures. The change in crop water requirements and availability

Fresh produce and their soils accumulate cyanotoxins from irrigation water: Implications for public health and food security.

PubMed

Lee, Seungjun; Jiang, Xuewen; Manubolu, Manjunath; Riedl, Ken; Ludsin, Stuart A; Martin, Jay F; Lee, Jiyoung

2017-12-01

Microcystin (MC), a hepatotoxin that can adversely affect human health, has become more prevalent in freshwater ecosystems worldwide, owing to an increase in toxic cyanobacteria blooms. While consumption of water and fish are well-documented exposure pathways of MCs to humans, less is known about the potential transfer to humans through consumption of vegetables that have been irrigated with MC-contaminated water. Likewise, the impact of MC on the performance of food crops is understudied. To help fill these information gaps, we conducted a controlled laboratory experiment in which we exposed lettuce, carrots, and green beans to environmentally relevant concentrations of MC-LR (0, 1, 5, and 10μg/L) via two irrigation methods (drip and spray). We used ELISA and LC-MS/MS to quantify MC-LR concentrations and in different parts of the plant (edible vs. inedible fractions), measured plant performance (e.g., size, mass, edible leaves, color), and calculated human exposure risk based on accumulation patterns. MC-LR accumulation was positively dose-dependent, with it being greater in the plants (2.2-209.2μg/kg) than in soil (0-19.4μg/kg). MC-LR accumulation varied among vegetable types, between plant parts, and between irrigation methods. MC-LR accumulation led to reduced crop growth and quality, with MC-LR persisting in the soil after harvest. Observed toxin accumulation patterns in edible fractions of plants also led to estimates of daily MC-LR intake that exceeded both the chronic reference dose (0.003μg/kg of body weight) and total daily intake guidelines (0.04μg/kg of body weight). Because the use of MC-contaminated water is common in many parts of the world, our collective findings highlight the need for guidelines concerning the use of MC-contaminated water in irrigation, as well as consumption of these crops. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Spectrophotometric determination of irrigant extrusion using passive ultrasonic irrigation, EndoActivator, or syringe irrigation.

PubMed

Rodríguez-Figueroa, Carolina; McClanahan, Scott B; Bowles, Walter R

2014-10-01

Sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) irrigation is critical to endodontic success, and several new methods have been developed to improve irrigation efficacy (eg, passive ultrasonic irrigation [PUI] and EndoActivator [EA]). Using a novel spectrophotometric method, this study evaluated NaOCl irrigant extrusion during canal irrigation. One hundred fourteen single-rooted extracted teeth were decoronated to leave 15 mm of the root length for each tooth. Cleaning and shaping of the teeth were completed using standardized hand and rotary instrumentation to an apical file size #40/0.04 taper. Roots were sealed (not apex), and 54 straight roots (n = 18/group) and 60 curved roots (>20° curvature, n = 20/group) were included. Teeth were irrigated with 5.25% NaOCl by 1 of 3 methods: passive irrigation with needle, PUI, or EA irrigation. Extrusion of NaOCl was evaluated using a pH indicator and a spectrophotometer. Standard curves were prepared with known amounts of irrigant to quantify amounts in unknown samples. Irrigant extrusion was minimal with all methods, with most teeth showing no NaOCl extrusion in straight or curved roots. Minor NaOCl extrusion (1-3 μL) in straight roots or curved roots occurred in 10%-11% of teeth in all 3 irrigant methods. Two teeth in both the syringe irrigation and the EA group extruded 3-10 μL of NaOCl. The spectrophotometric method used in this study proved to be very sensitive while providing quantification of the irrigant levels extruded. Using the PUI or EA tip to within 1 mm of the working length appears to be fairly safe, but apical anatomy can vary in teeth to allow extrusion of irrigant. Copyright © 2014 American Association of Endodontists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Uncertainties in modelling the climate impact of irrigation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Vrese, Philipp; Hagemann, Stefan

2017-11-01

Irrigation-based agriculture constitutes an essential factor for food security as well as fresh water resources and has a distinct impact on regional and global climate. Many issues related to irrigation's climate impact are addressed in studies that apply a wide range of models. These involve substantial uncertainties related to differences in the model's structure and its parametrizations on the one hand and the need for simplifying assumptions for the representation of irrigation on the other hand. To address these uncertainties, we used the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology's Earth System model into which a simple irrigation scheme was implemented. In order to estimate possible uncertainties with regard to the model's more general structure, we compared the climate impact of irrigation between three simulations that use different schemes for the land-surface-atmosphere coupling. Here, it can be shown that the choice of coupling scheme does not only affect the magnitude of possible impacts but even their direction. For example, when using a scheme that does not explicitly resolve spatial subgrid scale heterogeneity at the surface, irrigation reduces the atmospheric water content, even in heavily irrigated regions. Contrarily, in simulations that use a coupling scheme that resolves heterogeneity at the surface or even within the lowest layers of the atmosphere, irrigation increases the average atmospheric specific humidity. A second experiment targeted possible uncertainties related to the representation of irrigation characteristics. Here, in four simulations the irrigation effectiveness (controlled by the target soil moisture and the non-vegetated fraction of the grid box that receives irrigation) and the timing of delivery were varied. The second experiment shows that uncertainties related to the modelled irrigation characteristics, especially the irrigation effectiveness, are also substantial. In general the impact of irrigation on the state of the land

Irrigation water quality and the benefits of implementing good agricultural practices during tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum) production.

PubMed

Estrada-Acosta, M; Jiménez, M; Chaidez, C; León-Félix, J; Castro-Del Campo, N

2014-07-01

The implementation of good agricultural practices (GAP) from irrigation water to the tomato packaging process enhances the safety of fresh produce and its value throughout the food chain. The aim of the present study was to show that fresh produce farms that apply and enforce GAP could reduce the presence of Salmonella in finished produce. Samples were collected biweekly from six packing houses from the central region of Sinaloa, México, for the isolation of Salmonella spp by the ISO 6579:2002 method, and the isolated strains were serotyped and genotyped by the Kauffmman-White scheme and pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), respectively. Salmonella strains were detected in 13 (36.1 %) irrigation water samples, while only two tomato samples were positive (5.5 %). Eight different serotypes were identified in irrigation water, and Salmonella Oranienburg (34 %) was the most prevalent; however, only Salmonella Agona and Salmonella Weltevreden were present on tomatoes. Salmonella Oranienburg was the most widely dispersed and variable serotype, with 10 different PFGE profiles. Salmonella Weltevreden was isolated from both types of samples, albeit with distinct genetic profiles, implying that the sources of contamination differ. These results confirm the utility of implementing good agricultural practices to reduce Salmonella contamination in irrigation water and the packaging process.

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy applied to food safety.

PubMed

Craig, Ana Paula; Franca, Adriana S; Irudayaraj, Joseph

2013-01-01

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is an advanced Raman technique that enhances the vibrational spectrum of molecules adsorbed on or in the vicinity of metal particles and/or surfaces. Because of its readiness, sensitivity, and minimum sample preparation requirements, SERS is being considered as a powerful technique for food inspection. Key aspects of food-safety assurance, spectroscopy methods, and SERS are briefly discussed in an extended introduction of this review. The recent and potential advances in SERS are highlighted in sections that deal with the (a) detection of food-borne pathogenic microorganisms and (b) the detection of food contaminants and adulteration, concentrated specifically on antibiotics, drugs, hormones, melamine, and pesticides. This review provides an outlook of the work done and a perspective on the future directions of SERS as a reliable tool for food-safety assessment.

A rule-based smart automated fertilization and irrigation systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yousif, Musab El-Rashid; Ghafar, Khairuddin; Zahari, Rahimi; Lim, Tiong Hoo

2018-04-01

Smart automation in industries has become very important as it can improve the reliability and efficiency of the systems. The use of smart technologies in agriculture have increased over the year to ensure and control the production of crop and address food security. However, it is important to use proper irrigation systems avoid water wastage and overfeeding of the plant. In this paper, a Smart Rule-based Automated Fertilization and Irrigation System is proposed and evaluated. We propose a rule based decision making algorithm to monitor and control the food supply to the plant and the soil quality. A build-in alert system is also used to update the farmer using a text message. The system is developed and evaluated using a real hardware.

Groundwater depletion embedded in international food trade.

PubMed

Dalin, Carole; Wada, Yoshihide; Kastner, Thomas; Puma, Michael J

2017-03-29

Recent hydrological modelling and Earth observations have located and quantified alarming rates of groundwater depletion worldwide. This depletion is primarily due to water withdrawals for irrigation, but its connection with the main driver of irrigation, global food consumption, has not yet been explored. Here we show that approximately eleven per cent of non-renewable groundwater use for irrigation is embedded in international food trade, of which two-thirds are exported by Pakistan, the USA and India alone. Our quantification of groundwater depletion embedded in the world's food trade is based on a combination of global, crop-specific estimates of non-renewable groundwater abstraction and international food trade data. A vast majority of the world's population lives in countries sourcing nearly all their staple crop imports from partners who deplete groundwater to produce these crops, highlighting risks for global food and water security. Some countries, such as the USA, Mexico, Iran and China, are particularly exposed to these risks because they both produce and import food irrigated from rapidly depleting aquifers. Our results could help to improve the sustainability of global food production and groundwater resource management by identifying priority regions and agricultural products at risk as well as the end consumers of these products.

Groundwater Depletion Embedded in International Food Trade

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dalin, Carole; Wada, Yoshihide; Kastner, Thomas; Puma, Michael J.

2017-01-01

Recent hydrological modeling and Earth observations have located and quantified alarming rates of groundwater depletion worldwide. This depletion is primarily due to water withdrawals for irrigation, but its connection with the main driver of irrigation, global food consumption, has not yet been explored. Here we show that approximately eleven per cent of non-renewable groundwater use for irrigation is embedded in international food trade, of which two-thirds are exported by Pakistan, the USA and India alone. Our quantification of groundwater depletion embedded in the world's food trade is based on a combination of global, crop-specific estimates of non-renewable groundwater abstraction and international food trade data. A vast majority of the world's population lives in countries sourcing nearly all their staple crop imports from partners who deplete groundwater to produce these crops, highlighting risks for global food and water security. Some countries, such as the USA, Mexico, Iran and China, are particularly exposed to these risks because they both produce and import food irrigated from rapidly depleting aquifers. Our results could help to improve the sustainability of global food production and groundwater resource management by identifying priority regions and agricultural products at risk as well as the end consumers of these products.

Groundwater depletion embedded in international food trade

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dalin, Carole; Wada, Yoshihide; Kastner, Thomas; Puma, Michael J.

2017-03-01

Recent hydrological modelling and Earth observations have located and quantified alarming rates of groundwater depletion worldwide. This depletion is primarily due to water withdrawals for irrigation, but its connection with the main driver of irrigation, global food consumption, has not yet been explored. Here we show that approximately eleven per cent of non-renewable groundwater use for irrigation is embedded in international food trade, of which two-thirds are exported by Pakistan, the USA and India alone. Our quantification of groundwater depletion embedded in the world’s food trade is based on a combination of global, crop-specific estimates of non-renewable groundwater abstraction and international food trade data. A vast majority of the world’s population lives in countries sourcing nearly all their staple crop imports from partners who deplete groundwater to produce these crops, highlighting risks for global food and water security. Some countries, such as the USA, Mexico, Iran and China, are particularly exposed to these risks because they both produce and import food irrigated from rapidly depleting aquifers. Our results could help to improve the sustainability of global food production and groundwater resource management by identifying priority regions and agricultural products at risk as well as the end consumers of these products.

A 12-Month Study of Food Crops Contaminated by Heavy Metals, Lusaka, Zambia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Holden, J. A.; Malamud, B. D.; Chishala, B. H.; Kapungwe, E.; Volk, J.; Harpp, K. S.

2009-04-01

We investigate heavy-metal contamination of irrigation water used for urban agriculture and subsequent contamination of food crops in Chunga, NW Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. Inhabitants of the Chunga area rely on urban agriculture as both a major source of income and food. From August 2004 to July 2005, monthly samples of irrigation water used and edible portions of food crops were taken from a farmer's plot at Chunga. The food crops (cabbage, Chinese cabbage, pumpkin leaves, rape, sweet potato leaves and tomatoes) are grown using irrigation throughout the year. Irrigation water samples and digested food crop samples were analysed using ICP-MS at the Department of Geology, Colgate University, USA for Al, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Cd, Ba, Hg, Tl, Pb, and U. We find heavy-metal concentrations present in both irrigation water and food crop samples. Zambian sample concentrations were compared to Zambian and international legislative and guideline limits for concentrations of heavy metals in industrial effluent, heavy metals in irrigation water and heavy metals in foods. In irrigation water samples recommended national and/or international legislative limits for Al, Cr, Mn, Fe, Cu, Hg, Pb and U were exceeded. Limits for Hg were exceeded by up to 130 times. There were heavy-metal concentrations above recommended limits in food crops for Cr, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Hg and Pb throughout the different food crops grown and throughout the year. In all 14 samples recommended limits for Cr, Fe and Hg were exceeded. Zambian legislated limits for food crops were exceeded by up to 16 times for Pb and 58 times for Hg. The results of this study show that heavy metal contamination is present in irrigation water used and food crops grown in urban agriculture in Chunga, Lusaka, Zambia. Recommended maximum limits for heavy metals in irrigation water and food are exceeded in some samples indicating there may be a risk to health.

Comparison of crop stress and soil maps to enhance variable rate irrigation prescriptions

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Soil textural variability within many irrigated fields diminishes the effectiveness of conventional irrigation management, and scheduling methods that assume uniform soil conditions may produce less than satisfactory results. Furthermore, benefits of variable-rate application of agrochemicals, seeds...

Prevalence, antimicrobial resistance and genetic lineages of Enterococcus spp. from vegetable food, soil and irrigation water in farm environments in Tunisia.

PubMed

Ben Said, Leila; Klibi, Naouel; Dziri, Raoudha; Borgo, Francesca; Boudabous, Abdellatif; Ben Slama, Karim; Torres, Carmen

2016-03-30

The objective of this study was to determine the species, clonal diversity, antibiotic resistance and virulence of enterococci in different environments. Seventy-one samples of farm origin (34 of food vegetables, 27 of soil and ten of irrigation water) and 19 samples of vegetables from five markets, were inoculated in Slanetz-Bartley agar plates supplemented or not with gentamicin (SB-Gen and SB plates, respectively) for enterococci recovery. Enterococci were obtained from 72.2% of tested samples in SB media (food vegetables from farms, 88.2%; soil and irrigation water, 51%; food vegetables from markets, 84.2%), and 65 enterococcal isolates were obtained. Enterococcus faecium was the most prevalent species (52.3%), followed by E. hirae (35.4%), E. faecalis (6.15%), and E. casseliflavus (6.15%). Antibiotic resistance detected among these enterococci was as follows (percentage/detected gene): ciprofloxacin (60%), erythromycin (18.4%/erm(B)), tetracycline (15.4%/tet(M)-tet(L)), kanamycin (15.4%/aph(3')-III), chloramphenicol (7.7%), streptomycin (3%/ant(6)), vancomycin (6.15%/vanC2)), teicoplanin (0%) and ampicillin (0%). High-level gentamicin-resistant (HLR-G) enterococci were detected in SB-Gen plates in 14 of 90 tested samples (15.5%), and 15 isolates were characterized: ten E. faecalis, four E. faecium and one E. hirae. All HLR-G enterococci carried the aac(6')-aph(2″), erm(B) and tet(M) genes, among other resistance genes. The HLR-G isolates showed high genetic diversity (ten different PFGE profiles), and were ascribed to the sequence types ST2, ST16, ST28 and new ST528 (in E. faecalis), and ST56, new ST885 and new ST886 (in E. faecium). Food vegetables in the farm or market settings are frequently contaminated by HLR-G enterococci, and these microorganisms could reach the human intestine through the food chain, if hygienic conditions are not followed. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry.

Impact of potential large-scale and medium-scale irrigation on the West African Monsoon and its dependence on location of irrigated area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eltahir, E. A. B.; IM, E. S.

2014-12-01

This study investigates the impact of potential large-scale (about 400,000 km2) and medium-scale (about 60,000 km2) irrigation on the climate of West Africa using the MIT Regional Climate Model. A new irrigation module is implemented to assess the impact of location and scheduling of irrigation on rainfall distribution over West Africa. A control simulation (without irrigation) and various sensitivity experiments (with irrigation) are performed and compared to discern the effects of irrigation location, size and scheduling. In general, the irrigation-induced surface cooling due to anomalously wet soil tends to suppress moist convection and rainfall, which in turn induces local subsidence and low level anti-cyclonic circulation. These local effects are dominated by a consistent reduction of local rainfall over the irrigated land, irrespective of its location. However, the remote response of rainfall distribution to irrigation exhibits a significant sensitivity to the latitudinal position of irrigation. The low-level northeasterly flow associated with anti-cyclonic circulation centered over the irrigation area can enhance the extent of low level convergence through interaction with the prevailing monsoon flow, leading to significant increase in rainfall. Despite much reduced forcing of irrigation water, the medium-scale irrigation seems to draw the same response as large-scale irrigation, which supports the robustness of the response to irrigation in our modeling system. Both large-scale and medium-scale irrigation experiments show that an optimal irrigation location and scheduling exists that would lead to a more efficient use of irrigation water. The approach of using a regional climate model to investigate the impact of location and size of irrigation schemes may be the first step in incorporating land-atmosphere interactions in the design of location and size of irrigation projects. However, this theoretical approach is still in early stages of development and

Sustainability of irrigated crops under future climate: the interplay of irrigation strategies and cultivar responses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

De Lorenzi, F.; Bonfante, A.; Alfieri, S.; Patanè, C.; Basile, A.; Di Tommasi, P.; Monaco, E.; Menenti, M.

2012-04-01

Climate evolution will cause significant changes in the quality and availability of water resources, affecting many sectors including food production, where available water resources for irrigation play a crucial role. Strategies focused on managing and conserving water are one way to deal with the impact; moreover concurring adaptation measurements will be needed to cope with the foreseen decline of water resource. This work deals with i) the impacts of climate change on water requirements of an horticultural crop, determined in an irrigated district in Southern Italy, ii) the possible irrigation scheduling options and their sustainability in the future, iii) the adaptation measurements that can be undertaken to protect production, relying on intra-specific biodiversity of agricultural crops. Two climate scenarios were considered: present climate (1961-90) and future climate (2021-2050), the former from climatic statistics, and the latter from statistical downscaling of general circulation models (AOGCM). Climatic data set consists of daily time series of maximum and minimum temperature, and rainfall on a grid with spatial resolution of 35 km. The analysis of climate scenarios showed that significant increases in summer maximum daily temperature could be expected in 2021-2050 period. Soil water regime was determined by means of a mechanistic model (SWAP) of water flow in the soil-plant-atmosphere system. Twenty? soil units were identified in the district (in Sele Plain, Campania Region) and simulations were performed accounting for hydro-pedological properties of different soil units. Parameters of a generic tomato crop, in a rotation typical of the area, were used in simulations. Soil water balance was simulated in the present and future climate, both with optimal water availability and under constrains that irrigation schemes will pose. Indicators of soil water availability were calculated, in terms of soil water or evapotranspiration deficit. For several tomato

Novel approach to evaluate the dynamic variation of wind drift and evaporation losses under moving irrigation systems

Treesearch

Sayed-Hossein Sadeghi; Troy R. Peters; Mohammad Z. Amini; Sparkle L. Malone; Hank W. Loescher

2015-01-01

The increased need for water and food security requires the development of new approaches to save water through irrigation management strategies, particularly for center pivot irrigation. To do so entails monitoring of the dynamic variation in wind drift and evaporation losses (WDELs) of irrigation systems under different weather conditions and for relatively long time...

Assessing the Groundwater Quality at a Saudi Arabian Agricultural Site and the Occurrence of Opportunistic Pathogens on Irrigated Food Produce.

PubMed

Alsalah, Dhafer; Al-Jassim, Nada; Timraz, Kenda; Hong, Pei-Ying

2015-10-05

This study examines the groundwater quality in wells situated near agricultural fields in Saudi Arabia. Fruits (e.g., tomato and green pepper) irrigated with groundwater were also assessed for the occurrence of opportunistic pathogens to determine if food safety was compromised by the groundwater. The amount of total nitrogen in most of the groundwater samples exceeded the 15 mg/L permissible limit for agricultural irrigation. Fecal coliforms in densities > 12 MPN/100 mL were detected in three of the groundwater wells that were in close proximity to a chicken farm. These findings, coupled with qPCR-based fecal source tracking, show that groundwater in wells D and E, which were nearest to the chicken farm, had compromised quality. Anthropogenic contamination resulted in a shift in the predominant bacterial phyla within the groundwater microbial communities. For example, there was an elevated presence of Proteobacteria and Cyanobacteria in wells D and E but a lower overall microbial richness in the groundwater perturbed by anthropogenic contamination. In the remaining wells, the genus Acinetobacter was detected at high relative abundance ranging from 1.5% to 48% of the total groundwater microbial community. However, culture-based analysis did not recover any antibiotic-resistant bacteria or opportunistic pathogens from these groundwater samples. In contrast, opportunistic pathogenic Enterococcus faecalis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were isolated from the fruits irrigated with the groundwater from wells B and F. Although the groundwater was compromised, quantitative microbial risk assessment suggests that the annual risk incurred from accidental consumption of E. faecalis on these fruits was within the acceptable limit of 10(-4). However, the annual risk arising from P. aeruginosa was 9.55 × 10(-4), slightly above the acceptable limit. Our findings highlight that the groundwater quality at this agricultural site in western Saudi Arabia is not pristine and that better

Assessing the Groundwater Quality at a Saudi Arabian Agricultural Site and the Occurrence of Opportunistic Pathogens on Irrigated Food Produce

PubMed Central

Alsalah, Dhafer; Al-Jassim, Nada; Timraz, Kenda; Hong, Pei-Ying

2015-01-01

This study examines the groundwater quality in wells situated near agricultural fields in Saudi Arabia. Fruits (e.g., tomato and green pepper) irrigated with groundwater were also assessed for the occurrence of opportunistic pathogens to determine if food safety was compromised by the groundwater. The amount of total nitrogen in most of the groundwater samples exceeded the 15 mg/L permissible limit for agricultural irrigation. Fecal coliforms in densities > 12 MPN/100 mL were detected in three of the groundwater wells that were in close proximity to a chicken farm. These findings, coupled with qPCR-based fecal source tracking, show that groundwater in wells D and E, which were nearest to the chicken farm, had compromised quality. Anthropogenic contamination resulted in a shift in the predominant bacterial phyla within the groundwater microbial communities. For example, there was an elevated presence of Proteobacteria and Cyanobacteria in wells D and E but a lower overall microbial richness in the groundwater perturbed by anthropogenic contamination. In the remaining wells, the genus Acinetobacter was detected at high relative abundance ranging from 1.5% to 48% of the total groundwater microbial community. However, culture-based analysis did not recover any antibiotic-resistant bacteria or opportunistic pathogens from these groundwater samples. In contrast, opportunistic pathogenic Enterococcus faecalis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were isolated from the fruits irrigated with the groundwater from wells B and F. Although the groundwater was compromised, quantitative microbial risk assessment suggests that the annual risk incurred from accidental consumption of E. faecalis on these fruits was within the acceptable limit of 10−4. However, the annual risk arising from P. aeruginosa was 9.55 × 10−4, slightly above the acceptable limit. Our findings highlight that the groundwater quality at this agricultural site in western Saudi Arabia is not pristine and that better

Assessing gaps in irrigated agricultural productivity through satellite earth observations-A case study of the Fergana Valley, Central Asia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Löw, Fabian; Biradar, Chandrashekhar; Fliemann, Elisabeth; Lamers, John P. A.; Conrad, Christopher

2017-07-01

Improving crop area and/or crop yields in agricultural regions is one of the foremost scientific challenges for the next decades. This is especially true in irrigated areas because sustainable intensification of irrigated crop production is virtually the sole means to enhance food supply and contribute to meeting food demands of a growing population. Yet, irrigated crop production worldwide is suffering from soil degradation and salinity, reduced soil fertility, and water scarcity rendering the performance of irrigation schemes often below potential. On the other hand, the scope for improving irrigated agricultural productivity remains obscure also due to the lack of spatial data on agricultural production (e.g. crop acreage and yield). To fill this gap, satellite earth observations and a replicable methodology were used to estimate crop yields at the field level for the period 2010/2014 in the Fergana Valley, Central Asia, to understand the response of agricultural productivity to factors related to the irrigation and drainage infrastructure and environment. The results showed that cropping pattern, i.e. the presence or absence of multi-annual crop rotations, and spatial diversity of crops had the most persistent effects on crop yields across observation years suggesting the need for introducing sustainable cropping systems. On the other hand, areas with a lower crop diversity or abundance of crop rotation tended to have lower crop yields, with differences of partly more than one t/ha yield. It is argued that factors related to the infrastructure, for example, the distance of farms to the next settlement or the density of roads, had a persistent effect on crop yield dynamics over time. The improvement potential of cotton and wheat yields were estimated at 5%, compared to crop yields of farms in the direct vicinity of settlements or roads. In this study it is highlighted how remotely sensed estimates of crop production in combination with geospatial technologies

Fluid regimens for colostomy irrigation: a systematic review.

PubMed

Lizarondo, Lucylynn; Gyi, Aye Aye; Schultz, Tim

Various techniques for managing faecal evacuation have been proposed; however, colostomy irrigation is favoured as it leads to better patient outcomes. Alternative fluid regimens for colostomy irrigation have been suggested to achieve effective evacuation. The objective of this review was to summarise the best available evidence on the most effective fluid regimen for colostomy irrigation. Trials were identified by electronic searches of CINAHL, PubMed, MEDLINE, Current Contents, the Cochrane Library and EMBASE. Unpublished articles and references lists from included studies were also searched. Randomised controlled trials and before-and-after studies investigating any fluid regimen for colostomy irrigation were eligible for inclusion. Outcomes measured included fluid inflow time, total wash-out time, haemodynamic changes during irrigation, cramps, leakage episodes, quality of life and level of satisfaction. Trial selection, quality appraisal and data extraction were carried out independently by two reviewers. Differences in opinion were resolved by discussion. The systematic literature search strategy identified two cross-over trials that compared water with another fluid regimen. Owing to the differences in irrigating solutions used, the results were not pooled for analysis. Both the polyethylene glycol electrolyte solution and glyceryl trinitrate performed significantly better than water. There is some evidence to support the effectiveness of fluid regimens other than water, such as polyethylene glycol electrolyte and glyceryl trinitrate, for colostomy irrigation. Further well-designed clinical trials are required to establish solid evidence on the effectiveness of other irrigating solutions that might enhance colonic irrigation.

Effects of different deficit irrigation on sugar accumulation of pineapple during development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Feng, Haiyan; Du, Liqing; Liu, Shenghui; Zhang, Xiumei

2017-08-01

The potted pineapple cultivar ‘Comte de paris’ was used to study the influence of deficit irrigation on fruit sugar accumulation in greenhouse during the fruit enlargement period. The study included a control (normal irrigation) and two treatment groups, moderate deficit (50% of the control irrigation) and severe deficit (25% of the control irrigation). The results indicated that the deficit irrigation significantly decreased the sucrose accumulation. The sucrose content in the fruits of moderate deficit irrigation was the lowest. During the mature period, the deficit irrigation decreased the sucrose phosophate synthase activity(SPS) an increased the sucrose synthase (SS) and neutral invertase (NI). The moderate deficit irrigation significantly improved the acid invertase activity(AI). However, it was inhibited by the severe deficit irrigation. In general, the moderate treatment reduced the SPS activity and enhanced the NI and AI activities, while the severe treatment decreased the SPS and AI activities.

76 FR 33361 - Notice of Availability of the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Madera Irrigation...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-06-08

... Impact Statement for the Madera Irrigation District Water Supply Enhancement Project located in Madera... Madera Irrigation District Water Supply Enhancement Project (MID WSEP). Reclamation proposes to approve... supply reliability and flexibility for current and future water demand, and reduce local overdraft, MID...

Reimagining cost recovery in Pakistan's irrigation system through willingness-to-pay estimates for irrigation water from a discrete choice experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bell, Andrew Reid; Shah, M. Azeem Ali; Ward, Patrick S.

2014-08-01

It is widely argued that farmers are unwilling to pay adequate fees for surface water irrigation to recover the costs associated with maintenance and improvement of delivery systems. In this paper, we use a discrete choice experiment to study farmer preferences for irrigation characteristics along two branch canals in Punjab Province in eastern Pakistan. We find that farmers are generally willing to pay well in excess of current surface water irrigation costs for increased surface water reliability and that the amount that farmers are willing to pay is an increasing function of their existing surface water supply as well as location along the main canal branch. This explicit translation of implicit willingness-to-pay (WTP) for water (via expenditure on groundwater pumping) to WTP for reliable surface water demonstrates the potential for greatly enhanced cost recovery in the Indus Basin Irrigation System via appropriate setting of water user fees, driven by the higher WTP of those currently receiving reliable supplies.

Reimagining cost recovery in Pakistan's irrigation system through willingness-to-pay estimates for irrigation water from a discrete choice experiment

PubMed Central

Bell, Andrew Reid; Shah, M Azeem Ali; Ward, Patrick S

2014-01-01

It is widely argued that farmers are unwilling to pay adequate fees for surface water irrigation to recover the costs associated with maintenance and improvement of delivery systems. In this paper, we use a discrete choice experiment to study farmer preferences for irrigation characteristics along two branch canals in Punjab Province in eastern Pakistan. We find that farmers are generally willing to pay well in excess of current surface water irrigation costs for increased surface water reliability and that the amount that farmers are willing to pay is an increasing function of their existing surface water supply as well as location along the main canal branch. This explicit translation of implicit willingness-to-pay (WTP) for water (via expenditure on groundwater pumping) to WTP for reliable surface water demonstrates the potential for greatly enhanced cost recovery in the Indus Basin Irrigation System via appropriate setting of water user fees, driven by the higher WTP of those currently receiving reliable supplies. PMID:25552779

Effect of irrigation on soil health: a case study of the Ikere irrigation project in Oyo State, southwest Nigeria.

PubMed

Adejumobi, M A; Awe, G O; Abegunrin, T P; Oyetunji, O M; Kareem, T S

2016-12-01

Irrigated agriculture is one of the significant contributors to the food security of the millennium development goals (MDGs); however, the modification of soil matrix by irrigation could alter the overall soil health due to changes in soil properties and processes. The objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of irrigation on soil quality status of the Ikere center pivot irrigation project site in Oyo State, southwest Nigeria. Disturbed soil samples were collected from 0 to 30, 30 to 60, and 60 to 90-cm layers from four different sites in three replicates, within the project location for the determination of soil bio-chemical properties. The average values of sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) < 13, electrical conductivity (EC) <4 μS/cm, and pH < 8.5 showed that the soil condition is normal in relation to salinity and sodicity hazards. The effective cation exchange capacity (ECEC), soil organic matter (SOM), total nitrogen (TN), and calcium ion (Ca 2+ ) concentrations were low while the available phosphorus (P) was moderate. The principal component analysis showed EC, ECEC, SAR, SOM, and TN as the minimum data set (MDS) for monitoring and assessing the soil quality status of this irrigation field. In terms of bio-chemical properties, the soil quality index (SQI) of the field was average (about 0.543) while the sampling locations were ranked as site 2 > site 4 > site 3 > site 1 in terms of SQI. The results of this study are designated as baseline for future evaluation of soil quality status of this irrigation field and further studies should incorporate soil physical and more biological properties when considering overall soil quality status.

Irrigated Agriculture and Water Resources in the Western U.S. (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trout, T. J.

2013-12-01

Agriculture in semi-arid areas such as the western U.S. was created by diverting and pumping water from rivers and groundwater. With that water, highly productive irrigated agriculture produces 40% of the crop value and the large majority of the fruits, vegetables, and nuts in the U.S. Irrigation water use and area is declining in the West, due both to overexploitation and increasing competing needs, although productivity continues to increase. The challenges for irrigated agriculture are to maximize productivity per unit of water consumed, minimize negative environmental impacts, and make water available to other needs while sustaining food production and rural economies. Meeting these challenges require both technical and policy advances.

Fluid regimens for colostomy irrigation: a systematic review.

PubMed

Lizarondo, Lucylynn; Aye Gyi, Aye; Schultz, Tim

2008-09-01

Background  Various techniques for managing faecal evacuation have been proposed; however, colostomy irrigation is favoured as it leads to better patient outcomes. Alternative fluid regimens for colostomy irrigation have been suggested to achieve effective evacuation. Aim  The objective of this review was to summarise the best available evidence on the most effective fluid regimen for colostomy irrigation. Search strategy  Trials were identified by electronic searches of CINAHL, PubMed, MEDLINE, Current Contents, the Cochrane Library and EMBASE. Unpublished articles and references lists from included studies were also searched. Selection criteria  Randomised controlled trials and before-and-after studies investigating any fluid regimen for colostomy irrigation were eligible for inclusion. Outcomes measured included fluid inflow time, total wash-out time, haemodynamic changes during irrigation, cramps, leakage episodes, quality of life and level of satisfaction. Data collection and analysis  Trial selection, quality appraisal and data extraction were carried out independently by two reviewers. Differences in opinion were resolved by discussion. Main results  The systematic literature search strategy identified two cross-over trials that compared water with another fluid regimen. Owing to the differences in irrigating solutions used, the results were not pooled for analysis. Both the polyethylene glycol electrolyte solution and glyceryl trinitrate performed significantly better than water. Conclusion  There is some evidence to support the effectiveness of fluid regimens other than water, such as polyethylene glycol electrolyte and glyceryl trinitrate, for colostomy irrigation. Further well-designed clinical trials are required to establish solid evidence on the effectiveness of other irrigating solutions that might enhance colonic irrigation. © 2008 The Authors. Journal Compilation © Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

Global rain-fed, irrigated, and paddy croplands: A new high resolution map derived from remote sensing, crop inventories and climate data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Salmon, J. Meghan; Friedl, Mark A.; Frolking, Steve; Wisser, Dominik; Douglas, Ellen M.

2015-06-01

Irrigation accounts for 70% of global water use by humans and 33-40% of global food production comes from irrigated croplands. Accurate and timely information related to global irrigation is therefore needed to manage increasingly scarce water resources and to improve food security in the face of yield gaps, climate change and extreme events such as droughts, floods, and heat waves. Unfortunately, this information is not available for many regions of the world. This study aims to improve characterization of global rain-fed, irrigated and paddy croplands by integrating information from national and sub-national surveys, remote sensing, and gridded climate data sets. To achieve this goal, we used supervised classification of remote sensing, climate, and agricultural inventory data to generate a global map of irrigated, rain-fed, and paddy croplands. We estimate that 314 million hectares (Mha) worldwide were irrigated circa 2005. This includes 66 Mha of irrigated paddy cropland and 249 Mha of irrigated non-paddy cropland. Additionally, we estimate that 1047 Mha of cropland are managed under rain-fed conditions, including 63 Mha of rain-fed paddy cropland and 985 Mha of rain-fed non-paddy cropland. More generally, our results show that global mapping of irrigated, rain-fed, and paddy croplands is possible by combining information from multiple data sources. However, regions with rapidly changing irrigation or complex mixtures of irrigated and non-irrigated crops present significant challenges and require more and better data to support high quality mapping of irrigation.

Exposure factors for wastewater-irrigated Asian vegetables and a probabilistic rotavirus disease burden model for their consumption

PubMed Central

Mok, Hoi-Fei; Hamilton, Andrew J.

2014-01-01

Many farmers in water-scarce regions of developing countries use wastewater to irrigate vegetables and other agricultural crops, a practice that may expand with climate change. There is a number of health risks associated with wastewater irrigation for human food crops, particularly with surface irrigation techniques common in the developing world. The World Health Organization recommends using quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) to determine if the irrigation scheme meets health standards. However, only a few vegetables have been studied for wastewater risk and little information is known about the disease burden of wastewater-irrigated vegetable consumption in China. To bridge this knowledge gap, an experiment was conducted to determine volume of water left on Asian vegetables and lettuce after irrigation. One hundred samples each of Chinese chard (Brassica rapa var. chinensis), Chinese broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. alboglabra), Chinese flowering cabbage (Brassica rapa var. parachinensis), and lettuce (Lactuca sativa) were harvested after overhead sprinkler irrigation. Chinese broccoli and flowering cabbage were found to capture the most water and lettuce the least. QMRAs were then constructed to estimate rotavirus disease burden from consumption of wastewater-irrigated Asian vegetables in Beijing. Results indicate that estimated risks from these reuse scenarios exceed WHO guideline thresholds for acceptable disease burden for wastewater use, signifying that reduction of pathogen concentration or stricter risk management is necessary for safe reuse. Considering the widespread practice of wastewater irrigation for food production, particularly in developing countries, incorporation of water retention factors in QMRAs can reduce uncertainty regarding health risks for consumers worldwide. PMID:24576153

Review of ultrasonic irrigation in endodontics: increasing action of irrigating solutions

PubMed Central

Mozo, Sandra; Llena, Carmen

2012-01-01

Introduction: Effective irrigant delivery and agitation are prerequisites for successful endodontic treatment. Ultrasonic irrigation can be performed with or without simultaneous ultrasonic instrumentation. Existing literature reveals that ultrasonic irrigation may have a very positive effect on chemical, biological and physical debridement of the root canal system as investigated in many in vitro studies. Objective: The purpose of this review article was to summarize and discuss the available information concerning ultrasonic irrigation in endodontics. Methods: This article presents an overview of ultrasonic irrigation methods and their debridement efficacy. In this paper the relevant literature on passive ultrasonic irrigation is reviewed. Information from original scientific papers or reviews listed in MEDLINE and Cochrane were included in the review. Results: The use of ultrasound in the irrigation procedure results in improved canal cleanliness, better irrigant transfer to the canal system, soft tissue debridement, and removal of smear layer and bacteria. There are many in vitro studies, but there is a need to standardize protocols, and correlate the clinical efficacy of ultrasonic devices with improved treatment outcomes. Understanding the basis of ultrasonic irrigation is fundamental for clinicians and researchers to improve the design and use of ultrasonic irrigation. Key words:Ultrasonic irrigation, ultrasound, smear layer, endodontics. PMID:22143738

Water use efficiency of different sugarcane genotypes irrigated by a subsurface drip irrigation system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Silva, A. L. B. O.; Pires, R. C. M.; Ribeiro, R. V.; Machado, E. C.; Rolim, G. S.; Magalhães Filho, J. R.; Marchiori, P. E. R.

2012-04-01

The biofuel production is a growing concern on modern society due to the agricultural sustainability, in which both food and energy supplying should be take into account. The agroclimatic zoning indicates that sugarcane expansion in Brazil can only take place in marginal lands, where water deficit occurs and irrigation is necessary. The aim of this work was to evaluate water consumption and the water use efficiency of two sugarcane genotypes irrigated by a subsurface drip irrigation system. The field experiment was carried out in Campinas SP Brazil, with IACSP95-5000 and SP79-1011 varieties. Those varieties have different canopy characteristics and development, with IACSP95-5000 being more responsive to soil water availability and presenting higher light interception when compared to SP79-1011. Crop evapotranspiration (ETc) was calculated through field water balance from August 2010 to March 2011. Soil water content was evaluated by using a capacitance probe, sampling different depths in soil profile until 1-m. IACSP95-5000 had higher water consumption than SP79-1011. The mean ETc value of IACSP95-5000 was 5.0 mm day-1, whereas SP79-1011 showed 3.7 mm day-1. ETc values were positively correlated to biomass production, with IACSP95-5000 exhibiting higher growth and water use efficiency than SP79-1011.

Nitrogen management impacts nitrous oxide emissions under varying cotton irrigation systems in the American Desert Southwest

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Irrigation of food and fiber crops worldwide continues to increase. Nitrogen (N) from fertilizers is a major source of the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O) in irrigated cropping systems. Nitrous oxide emissions data are scarce for crops in the arid Western US. The objective of these studies...

Irrigation efficiency and water-policy implications for river-basin resilience

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scott, C. A.; Vicuña, S.; Blanco-Gutiérrez, I.; Meza, F.; Varela-Ortega, C.

2013-07-01

Rising demand for food, fiber, and biofuels drives expanding irrigation withdrawals from surface- and groundwater. Irrigation efficiency and water savings have become watchwords in response to climate-induced hydrological variability, increasing freshwater demand for other uses including ecosystem water needs, and low economic productivity of irrigation compared to most other uses. We identify three classes of unintended consequences, presented here as paradoxes. Ever-tighter cycling of water has been shown to increase resource use, an example of the efficiency paradox. In the absence of effective policy to constrain irrigated-area expansion using "saved water", efficiency can aggravate scarcity, deteriorate resource quality, and impair river-basin resilience through loss of flexibility and redundancy. Water scarcity and salinity effects in the lower reaches of basins (symptomatic of the scale paradox) may partly be offset over the short-term through groundwater pumping or increasing surface water storage capacity. However, declining ecological flows and increasing salinity have important implications for riparian and estuarine ecosystems and for non-irrigation human uses of water including urban supply and energy generation, examples of the sectoral paradox. This paper briefly examines policy frameworks in three regional contexts with broadly similar climatic and water-resource conditions - central Chile, southwestern US, and south-central Spain - where irrigation efficiency directly influences basin resilience. The comparison leads to more generic insights on water policy in relation to irrigation efficiency and emerging or overdue needs for environmental protection.

Irrigation efficiency and water-policy implications for river basin resilience

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scott, C. A.; Vicuña, S.; Blanco-Gutiérrez, I.; Meza, F.; Varela-Ortega, C.

2014-04-01

Rising demand for food, fiber, and biofuels drives expanding irrigation withdrawals from surface water and groundwater. Irrigation efficiency and water savings have become watchwords in response to climate-induced hydrological variability, increasing freshwater demand for other uses including ecosystem water needs, and low economic productivity of irrigation compared to most other uses. We identify three classes of unintended consequences, presented here as paradoxes. Ever-tighter cycling of water has been shown to increase resource use, an example of the efficiency paradox. In the absence of effective policy to constrain irrigated-area expansion using "saved water", efficiency can aggravate scarcity, deteriorate resource quality, and impair river basin resilience through loss of flexibility and redundancy. Water scarcity and salinity effects in the lower reaches of basins (symptomatic of the scale paradox) may partly be offset over the short-term through groundwater pumping or increasing surface water storage capacity. However, declining ecological flows and increasing salinity have important implications for riparian and estuarine ecosystems and for non-irrigation human uses of water including urban supply and energy generation, examples of the sectoral paradox. This paper briefly considers three regional contexts with broadly similar climatic and water-resource conditions - central Chile, southwestern US, and south-central Spain - where irrigation efficiency directly influences basin resilience. The comparison leads to more generic insights on water policy in relation to irrigation efficiency and emerging or overdue needs for environmental protection.

Nutritionally enhanced food crops; progress and perspectives.

PubMed

Hefferon, Kathleen L

2015-02-11

Great progress has been made over the past decade with respect to the application of biotechnology to generate nutritionally improved food crops. Biofortified staple crops such as rice, maize and wheat harboring essential micronutrients to benefit the world's poor are under development as well as new varieties of crops which have the ability to combat chronic disease. This review discusses the improvement of the nutritional status of crops to make a positive impact on global human health. Several examples of nutritionally enhanced crops which have been developed using biotechnological approaches will be discussed. These range from biofortified crops to crops with novel abilities to fight disease. The review concludes with a discussion of hurdles faced with respect to public perception, as well as directions of future research and development for nutritionally enhanced food crops.

Effect of irrigation return flow on groundwater recharge in an overexploited aquifer in Bangladesh

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Touhidul Mustafa, Syed Md.; Shamsudduha, Mohammad; Huysmans, Marijke

2016-04-01

Irrigated agriculture has an important role in the food production to ensure food security of Bangladesh that is home to over 150 million people. However, overexploitation of groundwater for irrigation, particularly during the dry season, causes groundwater-level decline in areas where abstraction is high and surface geology inhibits direct recharge to underlying shallow aquifer. This is causing a number of potential adverse socio-economic, hydrogeological, and environmental problems in Bangladesh. Alluvial aquifers are primarily recharged during monsoon season from rainfall and surface sources. However, return flow from groundwater-fed irrigation can recharge during the dry months. Quantification of the effect of return flow from irrigation in the groundwater system is currently unclear but thought to be important to ensure sustainable management of the overexploited aquifer. The objective of the study is to investigate the effect of irrigation return flow on groundwater recharge in the north-western part of Bangladesh, also known as Barind Tract. A semi-physically based distributed water balance model (WetSpass-M) is used to simulate spatially distributed monthly groundwater recharge. Results show that, groundwater abstraction for irrigation in the study area has increased steadily over the last 29 years. During the monsoon season, local precipitation is the controlling factor of groundwater recharge; however, there is no trend in groundwater recharge during that period. During the dry season, however, irrigation return-flow plays a major role in recharging the aquifer in the irrigated area compared to local precipitation. Therefore, during the dry season, mean seasonal groundwater recharge has increased and almost doubled over the last 29 years as a result of increased abstraction for irrigation. The increase in groundwater recharge during dry season has however no significant effect in the improvement of groundwater levels. The relation between groundwater

Irrigation management strategies to improve Water Use Efficiency of potatoes crop in Central Tunisia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ghazouani, Hiba; Provenzano, Giuseppe; Rallo, Giovanni; Mguidiche, Amel; Douh, Boutheina; Boujelben, Abdelhamid

2015-04-01

In Tunisia, the expansion of irrigated area and the semiarid climate make it compulsory to adopt strategies of water management to increase water use efficiency. Subsurface drip irrigation (SDI), providing the application of high frequency small irrigation volumes below the soil surface have been increasingly used to enhance irrigation efficiency. At the same time, deficit irrigation (DI) has shown successful results with a large number of crop in various countries. However, for some crops like potatoes, DI is difficult to manage due to the rapid effect of water stress on tuber yield. Irrigation frequency is a key factor to schedule subsurface drip irrigation because, even maintaining the total seasonal volume, soil wetting patterns can result different during the growth period, with consequence on crop yield. Despite the need to enhance water use efficiency, only a few studies related to deficit irrigation of horticultural crops have been made in Tunisia. Objective of the paper was to assess the effects of different on-farm irrigation strategies on water use efficiency of potatoes crop irrigated with subsurface drip irrigation in a semiarid area of central Tunisia. After validation, Hydrus-2D model was used to simulate soil water status in the root zone, to evaluate actual crop evapotranspiration and then to estimate indirectly water use efficiency (IWUE), defined as the ratio between crop yield and total amount of water supplied with irrigation. Field experiments, were carried out in Central Tunisia (10° 33' 47.0" E, 35° 58' 8.1° N, 19 m a.s.l) on a potatoes crop planted in a sandy loam soil, during the growing season 2014, from January 15 (plantation of tubers) to May 6 (harvesting). Soil water status was monitored in two plots (T1 and T2) maintained under the same management, but different irrigation volumes, provided by a SDI system. In particular, irrigation was scheduled according to the average water content measured in the root zone, with a total of 8

Smallholder Led Irrigation Development in the Humid Ethiopian highlands

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tilahun, S. A.; Schmitter, P.; Alemie, T. C.; Yilak, D. L.; Yimer, A.; Mamo, A.; Langan, S.; Baronn, J.; Steenhuis, T. S.

2017-12-01

More than 70% of the population of in sub-Saharan Africa are living in rural areas that depend on the rainfed agriculture for their livelihood on the rainfed agriculture. With the rapidly increasing population, competition for land and water is growing is intensifying. This, together with future landscape and climate change, the rainfed agriculture is unlikely to meet the future food demands. Many donors see irrigation a rational way to solve the future food crises. In Ethiopia, less than 10% of the irrigatable area has been developed. The main limitation of increasing the irrigatable areas is a severe lack of surface water during an extended dry phase of almost seven months. Flow in most rivers currently have dried up before the rain phase begins middle of the dry periods. In response, the Ethiopian government is installing large reservoirs at great cost to store water from the wet monsoon phase. At the same time, small scale household have started using irrigation using wells on sloping lands that have sprung up with minimal governmental intervention. It could be one of the strategies to increase the irrigated acreage without large investments. Donors and governmental planners are eager to follow the farmer's initiatives and intensify irrigation on these hillside areas. However, it is not yet known to the extent that it is sustainable. For this reason, shallow ground water levels and river discharge were measured over a three-year period in the Robit Bata and Dangishta watersheds in Northern Ethiopian highlands for assessing recharge and use of shallow groundwater irrigation during dry period. The theoretical results show that the ground water availability depends on the slope of the land and the depth of the soil. In sloping Robit Bata watershed the groundwater runs out under gravity to the stream channel in 3-4 months after the rainfall stops. The only wells that remain productive are those associated with fractures in the bedrock. For the less sloping

Effects of Irrigation on Global Climate During the 20th Century

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Puma, M. J.; Cook, B. I.

2010-01-01

Various studies have documented the effects of modern ]day irrigation on regional and global climate, but none, to date, have considered the time ]varying impact of steadily increasing irrigation rates on climate during the 20th century. We investigate the impacts of observed irrigation changes over this century with two ensemble simulations using an atmosphere general circulation model. Both ensembles are forced with transient climate forcings and observed sea surface temperatures from 1902 to 2000; one ensemble includes irrigation specified by a time ]varying data set of irrigation water withdrawals. Early in the century, irrigation is primarily localized over southern and eastern Asia, leading to significant cooling in boreal summer (June.August) over these regions. This cooling spreads and intensifies by century fs end, following the rapid expansion of irrigation over North America, Europe, and Asia. Irrigation also leads to boreal winter (December.February) warming over parts of North America and Asia in the latter part of the century, due to enhanced downward longwave fluxes from increased near ]surface humidity. Precipitation increases occur primarily downwind of the major irrigation areas, although precipitation in parts of India decreases due to a weaker summer monsoon. Irrigation begins to significantly reduce temperatures and temperature trends during boreal summer over the Northern Hemisphere midlatitudes and tropics beginning around 1950; significant increases in precipitation occur in these same latitude bands. These trends reveal the varying importance of irrigation ]climate interactions and suggest that future climate studies should account for irrigation, especially in regions with unsustainable irrigation resources.

Reducing Food Loss and Waste to Enhance Food Security and Environmental Sustainability.

PubMed

Shafiee-Jood, Majid; Cai, Ximing

2016-08-16

While food shortage remains a big concern in many regions around the world, almost one-third of the total food production is discarded as food loss and waste (FLW). This is associated with about one-quarter of land, water, and fertilizer used for crop production, even though resources and environmental constraints are expected to limit food production around the world. FLW reduction represents a potential opportunity to enhance both food security and environmental sustainability and therefore has received considerable attention recently. By reviewing the recent progress and new developments in the literature, this paper highlights the importance of FLW prevention as a complementary solution to address the Grand Challenge of global food security and environmental sustainability. However, raising awareness only is not enough to realize the expected FLW reduction. We identify the knowledge gaps and opportunities for research by synthesizing the strategies of FLW reduction and the barriers, including (1) filling the data gaps, (2) quantifying the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of FLW reduction strategies, (3) understanding the scale effects, and (4) exploring the impacts of global transitions. It is urgent to take more aggressive yet scientifically based actions to reduce FLW, which require everyone's involvement along the food supply chain, including policy makers, food producers and suppliers, and food consumers.

A comprehensive guide for designing more efficient irrigation systems with respect to application control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khaddam, Issam; Schuetze, Niels

2017-04-01

The worldwide water scarcity problems are expected to aggravate due to the increasing population and the need to produce more food. Irrigated agriculture is considered the highest consumer of fresh water resources with a rate exceeds 70% of global consumption. Consequently, an improvement in the efficiency of all irrigation methods, such as furrow or drip irrigation, becomes more necessary and urgent. Therefore, a more precise knowledge about soil water distribution in the root zone and the water balance components is required. For this purpose and as a part of the SAPHIR project (Saxonian Platform for high Performance Irrigation), a 2D simulation- based study was performed with virtual field conditions. The study investigates the most important design parameters of many irrigation systems, such as irrigation intensity and duration, and shows there influence on the water distribution efficiency. Furthermore, three main soil textures are used to test the impact of the soil hydraulic properties on irrigation effectiveness. A numerous number of irrigation scenarios of each irrigation system was simulated using HYDRUS 2D. Thereafter, the results were digitally calculated, compiled and made available online in the so called "Irrigation Atlases". The irrigation atlases provide graphical results of the soil moisture and pressure head distributions in the root zone. Moreover, they contain detailed information of the water balance for all simulated scenarios. The most studies evaluate the irrigation water demands on local, regional or global scales and for that an efficient water distribution is required. In this context, the irrigation atlases can serve as a valuable tool for the implementation of planned irrigation measures.

Impacts of crop insurance on water withdrawals for irrigation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deryugina, Tatyana; Konar, Megan

2017-12-01

Agricultural production remains particularly vulnerable to weather fluctuations and extreme events, such as droughts, floods, and heat waves. Crop insurance is a risk management tool developed to mitigate some of this weather risk and protect farmer income in times of poor production. However, crop insurance may have unintended consequences for water resources sustainability, as the vast majority of freshwater withdrawals go to agriculture. The causal impact of crop insurance on water use in agriculture remains poorly understood. Here, we determine the empirical relationship between crop insurance and irrigation water withdrawals in the United States. Importantly, we use an instrumental variables approach to establish causality. Our methodology exploits a major policy change in the crop insurance system - the 1994 Federal Crop Insurance Reform Act - which imposed crop insurance requirements on farmers. We find that a 1% increase in insured crop acreage leads to a 0.223% increase in irrigation withdrawals, with most coming from groundwater aquifers. We identify farmers growing more groundwater-fed cotton as an important mechanism contributing to increased withdrawals. A 1% increase in insured crop acreage leads to a 0.624% increase in cotton acreage, or 95,602 acres. These results demonstrate that crop insurance causally leads to more irrigation withdrawals. More broadly, this work underscores the importance of determining causality in the water-food nexus as we endeavor to achieve global food security and water resources sustainability.

Economic performance of irrigation capacity development to adapt to climate in the American Southwest

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ward, Frank A.; Crawford, Terry L.

2016-09-01

Growing demands for food security to feed increasing populations worldwide have intensified the search for improved performance of irrigation, the world's largest water user. These challenges are raised in the face of climate variability and from growing environmental demands. Adaptation measures in irrigated agriculture include fallowing land, shifting cropping patterns, increased groundwater pumping, reservoir storage capacity expansion, and increased production of risk-averse crops. Water users in the Gila Basin headwaters of the U.S. Lower Colorado Basin have faced a long history of high water supply fluctuations producing low-valued defensive cropping patterns. To date, little research grade analysis has investigated economically viable measures for irrigation development to adjust to variable climate. This gap has made it hard to inform water resource policy decisions on workable measures to adapt to climate in the world's dry rural areas. This paper's contribution is to illustrate, formulate, develop, and apply a new methodology to examine the economic performance from irrigation capacity improvements in the Gila Basin of the American Southwest. An integrated empirical optimization model using mathematical programming is developed to forecast cropping patterns and farm income under two scenarios (1) status quo without added storage capacity and (2) with added storage capacity in which existing barriers to development of higher valued crops are dissolved. We find that storage capacity development can lead to a higher valued portfolio of irrigation production systems as well as more sustained and higher valued farm livelihoods. Results show that compared to scenario (1), scenario (2) increases regional farm income by 30%, in which some sub regions secure income gains exceeding 900% compared to base levels. Additional storage is most economically productive when institutional and technical constraints facing irrigated agriculture are dissolved. Along with

Zone edge effects with variable rate irrigation

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Variable rate irrigation (VRI) systems may offer solutions to enhance water use efficiency by addressing variability within a field. However, the design of VRI systems should be considered to maximize application uniformity within sprinkler zones, while minimizing edge effects between such zones alo...

Irrigation strategies using subsurface drip irrigation

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) is practiced on approximately 60,000 ha in the Texas High Plains region of the USA. Adoption of SDI continues to increase in the region. This has been attributed to record drought in Texas and the US Southwest in recent years, declining irrigation well yields, and ev...

A Real-time Irrigation Forecasting System in Jiefangzha Irrigation District, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cong, Z.

2015-12-01

In order to improve the irrigation efficiency, we need to know when and how much to irrigate in real time. If we know the soil moisture content at this time, we can forecast the soil moisture content in the next days based on the rainfall forecasting and the crop evapotranspiration forecasting. Then the irrigation should be considered when the forecasting soil moisture content reaches to a threshold. Jiefangzha Irrigation District, a part of Hetao Irrigation District, is located in Inner Mongolia, China. The irrigated area of this irrigation district is about 140,000 ha mainly planting wheat, maize and sunflower. The annual precipitation is below 200mm, so the irrigation is necessary and the irrigation water comes from the Yellow river. We set up 10 sites with 4 TDR sensors at each site (20cm, 40cm, 60cm and 80cm depth) to monitor the soil moisture content. The weather forecasting data are downloaded from the website of European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). The reference evapotranspiration is estimated based on FAO-Blaney-Criddle equation with only the air temperature from ECMWF. Then the crop water requirement is forecasted by the crop coefficient multiplying the reference evapotranspiration. Finally, the soil moisture content is forecasted based on soil water balance with the initial condition is set as the monitoring soil moisture content. When the soil moisture content reaches to a threshold, the irrigation warning will be announced. The irrigation mount can be estimated through three ways: (1) making the soil moisture content be equal to the field capacity; (2) making the soil moisture saturated; or (3) according to the irrigation quota. The forecasting period is 10 days. The system is developed according to B2C model with Java language. All the databases and the data analysis are carried out in the server. The customers can log in the website with their own username and password then get the information about the irrigation forecasting

Irrigation offsets wheat yield reductions from warming temperatures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tack, Jesse; Barkley, Andrew; Hendricks, Nathan

2017-11-01

Temperature increases due to climate change are expected to cause substantial reductions in global wheat yields. However, uncertainty remains regarding the potential role for irrigation as an adaptation strategy to offset heat impacts. Here we utilize over 7000 observations spanning eleven Kansas field-trial locations, 180 varieties, and 29 years to show that irrigation significantly reduces the negative impact of warming temperatures on winter wheat yields. Dryland wheat yields are estimated to decrease about eight percent for every one-degree Celsius increase in temperature, yet irrigation completely offsets this negative impact in our sample. As in previous studies, we find that important interactions exist between heat stress and precipitation for dryland production. Here, uniquely, we observe both dryland and irrigated trials side-by-side at the same locations and find that precipitation does not provide the same reduction in heat stress as irrigation. This is likely to be because the timing, intensity, and volume of water applications influence wheat yields, so the ability to irrigate—rather than relying on rainfall alone—has a stronger influence on heat stress. We find evidence of extensive differences of water-deficit stress impacts across varieties. This provides some evidence of the potential for adapting to hotter and drier climate conditions using optimal variety selection. Overall, our results highlight the critical role of water management for future global food security. Water scarcity not only reduces crop yields through water-deficit stress, but also amplifies the negative effects of warming temperatures.

Balancing water resource conservation and food security in China

PubMed Central

Dalin, Carole; Qiu, Huanguang; Hanasaki, Naota; Mauzerall, Denise L.; Rodriguez-Iturbe, Ignacio

2015-01-01

China’s economic growth is expected to continue into the next decades, accompanied by sustained urbanization and industrialization. The associated increase in demand for land, water resources, and rich foods will deepen the challenge of sustainably feeding the population and balancing agricultural and environmental policies. We combine a hydrologic model with an economic model to project China’s future food trade patterns and embedded water resources by 2030 and to analyze the effects of targeted irrigation reductions on this system, notably on national agricultural water consumption and food self-sufficiency. We simulate interprovincial and international food trade with a general equilibrium welfare model and a linear programming optimization, and we obtain province-level estimates of commodities’ virtual water content with a hydrologic model. We find that reducing irrigated land in regions highly dependent on scarce river flow and nonrenewable groundwater resources, such as Inner Mongolia and the greater Beijing area, can improve the efficiency of agriculture and trade regarding water resources. It can also avoid significant consumption of irrigation water across China (up to 14.8 km3/y, reduction by 14%), while incurring relatively small decreases in national food self-sufficiency (e.g., by 3% for wheat). Other researchers found that a national, rather than local, water policy would have similar effects on food production but would only reduce irrigation water consumption by 5%. PMID:25825748

Balancing water resource conservation and food security in China.

PubMed

Dalin, Carole; Qiu, Huanguang; Hanasaki, Naota; Mauzerall, Denise L; Rodriguez-Iturbe, Ignacio

2015-04-14

China's economic growth is expected to continue into the next decades, accompanied by sustained urbanization and industrialization. The associated increase in demand for land, water resources, and rich foods will deepen the challenge of sustainably feeding the population and balancing agricultural and environmental policies. We combine a hydrologic model with an economic model to project China's future food trade patterns and embedded water resources by 2030 and to analyze the effects of targeted irrigation reductions on this system, notably on national agricultural water consumption and food self-sufficiency. We simulate interprovincial and international food trade with a general equilibrium welfare model and a linear programming optimization, and we obtain province-level estimates of commodities' virtual water content with a hydrologic model. We find that reducing irrigated land in regions highly dependent on scarce river flow and nonrenewable groundwater resources, such as Inner Mongolia and the greater Beijing area, can improve the efficiency of agriculture and trade regarding water resources. It can also avoid significant consumption of irrigation water across China (up to 14.8 km(3)/y, reduction by 14%), while incurring relatively small decreases in national food self-sufficiency (e.g., by 3% for wheat). Other researchers found that a national, rather than local, water policy would have similar effects on food production but would only reduce irrigation water consumption by 5%.

Nutritionally Enhanced Food Crops; Progress and Perspectives

PubMed Central

Hefferon, Kathleen L.

2015-01-01

Great progress has been made over the past decade with respect to the application of biotechnology to generate nutritionally improved food crops. Biofortified staple crops such as rice, maize and wheat harboring essential micronutrients to benefit the world’s poor are under development as well as new varieties of crops which have the ability to combat chronic disease. This review discusses the improvement of the nutritional status of crops to make a positive impact on global human health. Several examples of nutritionally enhanced crops which have been developed using biotechnological approaches will be discussed. These range from biofortified crops to crops with novel abilities to fight disease. The review concludes with a discussion of hurdles faced with respect to public perception, as well as directions of future research and development for nutritionally enhanced food crops. PMID:25679450

Successful development of satiety enhancing food products: towards a multidisciplinary agenda of research challenges.

PubMed

Van Kleef, E; Van Trijp, J C M; Van Den Borne, J J G C; Zondervan, C

2012-01-01

In the context of increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity in societies worldwide, enhancing the satiating capacity of foods may help people control their energy intake and weight. This requires an integrated approach between various food-related disciplines. By structuring this approach around the new product development process, this paper aims to present the contours of such an integrative approach by going through the current state of the art around satiety enhancing foods. It portrays actual food choice as the end result of a complex interaction between internal satiety signals, other food benefits, and environmental cues. Three interrelated routes to satiating enhancement are to change the food composition to develop stronger physiological satiation and satiety signals, anticipate and build on smart external stimuli at the moment of purchase and consumption, and improve palatability and acceptance of satiety enhanced foods. Key research challenges in achieving these routes in the field of nutrition, food technology, consumer, marketing, and communication are outlined.

Successful Development of Satiety Enhancing Food Products: Towards a Multidisciplinary Agenda of Research Challenges

PubMed Central

Van Kleef, E.; Van Trijp, J.C.M.; Van Den Borne, J.J.G.C.; Zondervan, C.

2012-01-01

In the context of increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity in societies worldwide, enhancing the satiating capacity of foods may help people control their energy intake and weight. This requires an integrated approach between various food-related disciplines. By structuring this approach around the new product development process, this paper aims to present the contours of such an integrative approach by going through the current state of the art around satiety enhancing foods. It portrays actual food choice as the end result of a complex interaction between internal satiety signals, other food benefits, and environmental cues. Three interrelated routes to satiating enhancement are to change the food composition to develop stronger physiological satiation and satiety signals, anticipate and build on smart external stimuli at the moment of purchase and consumption, and improve palatability and acceptance of satiety enhanced foods. Key research challenges in achieving these routes in the field of nutrition, food technology, consumer, marketing, and communication are outlined. PMID:22530713

Variable rate irrigation (VRI)

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Variable rate irrigation (VRI) technology is now offered by all major manufacturers of moving irrigation systems, mostly on center pivot irrigation systems. Variable irrigation depths may be controlled by sector only, in which case only the speed of the irrigation lateral is regulated. Or, variable ...

Arsenic load in rice ecosystem and its mitigation through deficit irrigation.

PubMed

Mukherjee, Arkabanee; Kundu, M; Basu, B; Sinha, B; Chatterjee, M; Bairagya, M Das; Singh, U K; Sarkar, S

2017-07-15

Rice the staple food is a notable intake source of arsenic to the rural population of eastern India through food-chain. A field survey was carried out to study the variation of arsenic load in different parts of rice genotype Shatabdi (most popular genotype of the region) exposed to varying level of arsenic present in the irrigation water and soil. As irrigation is the primary source of arsenic contamination, a study was conducted to assess arsenic load in rice ecosystem under deficit irrigation practices like intermittent ponding (IP), saturation (SAT) and aerobic (AER) imposed during stress allowable stage (16-40 days after transplanting) of the crop (genotype Shatabdi). Present survey showed that arsenic content in water and soil influenced the arsenic load of rice grain. Variation in arsenic among different water and soil samples influenced grain arsenic load to the maximum extent followed by straw. Deviation in root arsenic load due to variation in water and soil arsenic content was lowest. Arsenic concentration of grain is strongly related to the arsenic content of both irrigation water and soil. However, water has 10% higher impact on grain arsenic load over soil. Translocation of arsenic from root to shoot decreased with the increase in arsenic content of water. Imposition of saturated and aerobic environment reduced both yield and grain arsenic load. In contrast under IP a marked decrease in grain arsenic content recorded with insignificant reduction in yield. Deficit irrigation resulted in significant reduction (17.6-25%) in arsenic content of polished rice and the values were lower than that of the toxic level (<0.2 mg kg -1 ). In contrast the decrease in yield was to the tune of 0.9% under IP regime over CP. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Assessment of region, farming system, irrigation source and sampling time as food safety risk factors for tomatoes.

PubMed

Pagadala, Sivaranjani; Marine, Sasha C; Micallef, Shirley A; Wang, Fei; Pahl, Donna M; Melendez, Meredith V; Kline, Wesley L; Oni, Ruth A; Walsh, Christopher S; Everts, Kathryne L; Buchanan, Robert L

2015-03-02

In the mid-Atlantic region of the United States, small- and medium-sized farmers use varied farm management methods and water sources to produce tomatoes. It is unclear whether these practices affect the food safety risk for tomatoes. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence, and assess risk factors for Salmonella enterica, Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) and bacterial indicators in pre-harvest tomatoes and their production areas. A total of 24 organic and conventional, small- to medium-sized farms were sampled for six weeks in Maryland (MD), Delaware (DE) and New Jersey (NJ) between July and September 2012, and analyzed for indicator bacteria, Salmonella and STEC. A total of 422 samples--tomato fruit, irrigation water, compost, field soil and pond sediment samples--were collected, 259 of which were tomato samples. A low level of Salmonella-specific invA and Shiga toxin genes (stx1 or stx2) were detected, but no Salmonella or STEC isolates were recovered. Of the 422 samples analyzed, 9.5% were positive for generic E. coli, found in 5.4% (n=259) of tomato fruits, 22.5% (n=102) of irrigation water, 8.9% (n=45) of soil, 3/9 of pond sediment and 0/7 of compost samples. For tomato fruit, farming system (organic versus conventional) was not a significant factor for levels of indicator bacteria. However, the total number of organic tomato samples positive for generic E. coli (1.6%; 2/129) was significantly lower than for conventional tomatoes (6.9% (9/130); (χ(2) (1)=4.60, p=0.032)). Region was a significant factor for levels of Total Coliforms (TC) (p=0.046), although differences were marginal, with western MD having the highest TC counts (2.6 log CFU/g) and NJ having the lowest (2.0 log CFU/g). Tomatoes touching the ground or plastic mulch harbored significantly higher levels of TC compared to vine tomatoes, signaling a potential risk factor. Source of irrigation water was a significant factor for all indicator bacteria (p<0.0001), and

Water and solute balances as a basis for sustainable irrigation agriculture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pla-Sentís, Ildefonso

2015-04-01

The growing development of irrigated agriculture is necessary for the sustainable production of the food required by the increasing World's population. Such development is limited by the increasing scarcity and low quality of the available water resources and by the competitive use of the water for other purposes. There are also increasing problems of contamination of surface and ground waters to be used for other purposes by the drainage effluents of irrigated lands. Irrigation and drainage may cause drastic changes in the regime and balance of water and solutes (salts, sodium, contaminants) in the soil profile, resulting in problems of water supply to crops and problems of salinization, sodification and contamination of soils and ground waters. This is affected by climate, crops, soils, ground water depth, irrigation and groundwater composition, and by irrigation and drainage management. In order to predict and prevent such problems for a sustainable irrigated agriculture and increased efficiency in water use, under each particular set of conditions, there have to be considered both the hydrological, physical and chemical processes determining such water and solute balances in the soil profile. In this contribution there are proposed the new versions of two modeling approaches (SOMORE and SALSODIMAR) to predict those balances and to guide irrigation water use and management, integrating the different factors involved in such processes. Examples of their application under Mediterranean and tropical climate conditions are also presented.

A preliminary study of a new endodontic irrigation system: Clean Jet Endo.

PubMed

Nouioua, F; Slimani, A; Levallois, B; Camps, J; Tassery, H; Cuisinier, F; Bukiet, F

2015-03-01

The purpose of the present study was to assess the irrigant penetration and cleaning ability of a new irrigation system, the Clean Jet Endo (Produits Dentaires SA, Switzerland) in comparison to conventional irrigation followed or not by sonic activation. Irrigant penetration was evaluated on resin blocks simulators by measuring the methylene blue absorbance thanks to a UV/visible spectrophotometer and cleaning ability was assessed in an ex vivo experiment according to the debris score in an artificial canal extension before and after the final irrigation protocol. A statistical analysis was carried out in order to highlight the significant differences between the irrigation techniques. Clean Jet Endo permitted to better eliminate the methylene blue into the simulated canals. A significant difference between the 2 techniques was observed in the middle third (p = 0.005) as well as in the apical third (p < 0.2). An additional microscope observation (16X) confirmed that Clean Jet Endo@ usage led to a better penetration of irrigant within the lateral canals of the simulators. Likewise, this irrigating system permitted to better eliminate the debris in the lateral groove than the other techniques. In conclusion, our findings implied the potential of this new irrigation system to enhance root canal debridement and disinfection.

Monitoring and Evaluation of Cultivated Land Irrigation Guarantee Capability with Remote Sensing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, C., Sr.; Huang, J.; Li, L.; Wang, H.; Zhu, D.

2015-12-01

Abstract: Cultivated Land Quality Grade monitoring and evaluation is an important way to improve the land production capability and ensure the country food safety. Irrigation guarantee capability is one of important aspects in the cultivated land quality monitoring and evaluation. In the current cultivated land quality monitoring processing based on field survey, the irrigation rate need much human resources investment in long investigation process. This study choses Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei as study region, taking the 1 km × 1 km grid size of cultivated land unit with a winter wheat-summer maize double cropping system as study object. A new irrigation capacity evaluation index based on the ratio of the annual irrigation requirement retrieved from MODIS data and the actual quantity of irrigation was proposed. With the years of monitoring results the irrigation guarantee capability of study area was evaluated comprehensively. The change trend of the irrigation guarantee capability index (IGCI) with the agricultural drought disaster area in rural statistical yearbook of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area was generally consistent. The average of IGCI value, the probability of irrigation-guaranteed year and the weighted average which controlled by the irrigation demand index were used and compared in this paper. The experiment results indicate that the classification result from the present method was close to that from irrigation probability in the gradation on agriculture land quality in 2012, with overlap of 73% similar units. The method of monitoring and evaluation of cultivated land IGCI proposed in this paper has a potential in cultivated land quality level monitoring and evaluation in China. Key words: remote sensing, evapotranspiration, MODIS cultivated land quality, irrigation guarantee capability Authors: Chao Zhang, Jianxi Huang, Li Li, Hongshuo Wang, Dehai Zhu China Agricultural University zhangchaobj@gmail.com

Uptake and Accumulation of Pharmaceuticals in Lettuce Under Surface and Overhead Irrigations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bhalsod, G.; Chuang, Y. H.; Jeon, S.; Gui, W.; Li, H.; Guber, A.; Zhang, W.

2015-12-01

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products are being widely detected in wastewater and surface waters. As fresh water becomes scarcer, interests in using reclaimed water for crop irrigation is intensified. Since reclaimed waters often carry trace levels of pharmaceuticals, accumulation of pharmaceuticals in food crops could increase the risk of human exposure. This study aims to investigate uptake and accumulations of pharmaceuticals in greenhouse-grown lettuce under contrasting irrigation practices (i.e., overhead and surface irrigations). Lettuce was irrigated with water spiked with 11 commonly used pharmaceuticals (acetaminophen, caffeine, carbamazepine, sulfadiazine, sulfamethoxazole, carbadox, trimethoprim, lincomycin hydrochloride, oxytetracycline hydrochloride, monensin sodium, and tylosin). Weekly sampling of lettuce roots, shoots, and soils were continued for 5 weeks, and the samples were freeze dried, extracted for pharmaceuticals and analyzed by LC-MS/MS. Preliminary results indicate that higher concentrations of pharmaceuticals were found in overhead irrigated lettuce compared to surface irrigated lettuce. For carbamezapine, sulfadiazine, trimethoprim, oxytetracycline, and monensin sodium, their concentrations generally increased in lettuce shoots in the overhead treatment over time. However, acetaminophen was found at higher concentrations in both shoots and roots, indicating that acetaminophen can be easily transported in the plant system. This study provides insight on developing better strategies for using reclaimed water for crop irrigations, while minimizing the potential risks of pharmaceutical contamination of vegetables.

Risk assessment of vegetables irrigated with arsenic-contaminated water.

PubMed

Bhatti, S M; Anderson, C W N; Stewart, R B; Robinson, B H

2013-10-01

Arsenic (As) contaminated water is used in South Asian countries to irrigate food crops, but the subsequent uptake of As by vegetables and associated human health risk is poorly understood. We used a pot trial to determine the As uptake of four vegetable species (carrot, radish, spinach and tomato) with As irrigation levels ranging from 50 to 1000 μg L(-1) and two irrigation techniques, non-flooded (70% field capacity for all studied vegetables), and flooded (110% field capacity initially followed by aerobic till next irrigation) for carrot and spinach only. Only the 1000 μg As L(-1) treatment showed a significant increase of As concentration in the vegetables over all other treatments (P < 0.05). The distribution of As in vegetable tissues was species dependent; As was mainly found in the roots of tomato and spinach, but accumulated in the leaves and skin of root crops. There was a higher concentration of As in the vegetables grown under flood irrigation relative to non-flood irrigation. The trend of As bioaccumulation was spinach > tomato > radish > carrot. The As concentration in spinach leaves exceeded the Chinese maximum permissible concentration for inorganic As (0.05 μg g(-1) fresh weight) by a factor of 1.6 to 6.4 times. No other vegetables recorded an As concentration that exceeded this threshold. The USEPA parameters hazard quotient and cancer risk were calculated for adults and adolescents. A hazard quotient value greater than 1 and a cancer risk value above the highest target value of 10(-4) confirms potential risk to humans from ingestion of spinach leaves. In our study, spinach presents a direct risk to human health where flood irrigated with water containing an arsenic concentration greater than 50 μg As L(-1).

A metagenomic assessment of viral contamination on fresh parsley plants irrigated with fecally tainted river water.

PubMed

Fernandez-Cassi, X; Timoneda, N; Gonzales-Gustavson, E; Abril, J F; Bofill-Mas, S; Girones, R

2017-09-18

Microbial food-borne diseases are still frequently reported despite the implementation of microbial quality legislation to improve food safety. Among all the microbial agents, viruses are the most important causative agents of food-borne outbreaks. The development and application of a new generation of sequencing techniques to test for viral contaminants in fresh produce is an unexplored field that allows for the study of the viral populations that might be transmitted by the fecal-oral route through the consumption of contaminated food. To advance this promising field, parsley was planted and grown under controlled conditions and irrigated using contaminated river water. Viruses polluting the irrigation water and the parsley leaves were studied by using metagenomics. To address possible contamination due to sample manipulation, library preparation, and other sources, parsley plants irrigated with nutritive solution were used as a negative control. In parallel, viruses present in the river water used for plant irrigation were analyzed using the same methodology. It was possible to assign viral taxons from 2.4 to 74.88% of the total reads sequenced depending on the sample. Most of the viral reads detected in the river water were related to the plant viral families Tymoviridae (66.13%) and Virgaviridae (14.45%) and the phage viral families Myoviridae (5.70%), Siphoviridae (5.06%), and Microviridae (2.89%). Less than 1% of the viral reads were related to viral families that infect humans, including members of the Adenoviridae, Reoviridae, Picornaviridae and Astroviridae families. On the surface of the parsley plants, most of the viral reads that were detected were assigned to the Dicistroviridae family (41.52%). Sequences related to important viral pathogens, such as the hepatitis E virus, several picornaviruses from species A and B as well as human sapoviruses and GIV noroviruses were detected. The high diversity of viral sequences found in the parsley plants

Identifying Spatiotemporal Changes In Irrigated Area Across Southwestern Michigan, USA, Using Remote Sensing and Climate Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, T.; Deines, J. M.; Kendall, A. D.; Hyndman, D. W.

2017-12-01

Irrigation, which has become more common in humid regions, is the largest consumptive water use across the US and the globe. In southwestern Michigan, there has been a dramatic expansion in irrigation water use for row crops (primarily corn and soybean) in the past decade, mostly from groundwater pumping. The rapid expansion of irrigated row crops has potentially profound implications for terrestrial water balances, food production, and local to regional climate. Detailed maps of spatio-temporal changes in irrigation are essential to better understand irrigation impacts. However, accurate monitoring of irrigation area can be difficult in humid regions using remotely sensed methods due to the similarity in greenness between non-irrigated and irrigated areas in most years. Here, we use remote sensing to create annual, 30m-resolution maps of irrigated cropland by integrating Landsat and MODIS satellite products along with the PRISM climate dataset. From these data we developed spatial time series of vegetation and extreme weather indices, including novel indices we developed specifically to maximize detection of irrigation. Using these input data, machine learning classification was then performed over the region to identify irrigated crop area for each year. The resulting annual irrigation maps suggest that total irrigated area in southwestern Michigan increased by 160% from 2000 to 2017. The accuracy of the maps is assessed relative to maps created for an arid region using the same method. The maps can be integrated into hydrologic models to quantify irrigation impacts and support water resources management.

Dynamic Predictions of Crop Yield and Irrigation in Sub-Saharan Africa Due to Climate Change Impacts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Foster-Wittig, T.

2012-12-01

The highest damages from climate change are predicted to be in the agricultural sector in sub-Saharan Africa. Agriculture is predicted to be especially vulnerable in this region because of its current state of high temperature and low precipitation and because it is usually rain-fed or relies on relatively basic technologies which therefore limit its ability to sustain in increased poor climatic conditions [1]. The goal of this research is to quantify the vulnerability of this ecosystem by projecting future changes in agriculture due to IPCC predicted climate change impacts on precipitation and temperature. This research will provide a better understanding of the relationship between precipitation and rain-fed agriculture in savannas. In order to quantify the effects of climate change on agriculture, the impacts of climate change are modeled through the use of a land surface vegetation dynamics model previously developed combined with a crop model [2,4]. In this project, it will be used to model yield for point cropland locations within sub-Saharan Africa between Kenya and Botswana with a range of annual rainfall. With this model, future projections are developed for what can be anticipated for the crop yield based on two precipitation climate change scenarios; (1) decreased depth and (2) decreased frequency as well as temperature change scenarios; (3) only temperature increased, (4) temperature increase dand decreased precipitation depth, and (5) temperature increased and decreased precipitation frequency. Therefore, this will allow conclusions to be drawn about how mean precipitation and a changing climate effect food security in sub-Saharan Africa. As an additional analysis, irrigation is added to the model as it is thought to be the solution to protect food security by maximizing on the potential of food production. In water-limited areas such as Sub-Saharan Africa, it is important to consider water efficient irrigation techniques such as demand-based micro-irrigation

Influence of different operating conditions on irrigation uniformity with microperforated tapes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moreno Pizani, María Alejandra; Jesús Farías Ramírez, Asdrúbal

2013-04-01

Irrigated agriculture is a safe alternative to meet the growing demand for food. Numerous studies show that proper management of localized irrigation can increase crop yields and reduce soil salinization. Therefore, periodic field systems irrigation assessments are needed in order to optimize the use efficiency of irrigation water, as well as, to increase the agricultural area covered by the same amount of water and to reduce the environmental impact. It was assessed the behavior of micro perforated tapes under different operating conditions, crops and regions of Venezuela. Evaluations were made on irrigated areas using Santeno ® Type I tape with the following crops: Banana (Musa sp), lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.), carrot (Daucus carota L) and forage sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum). In the other hand, Santeno ® Type II tape was used with papaya (Carica papaya L.) and melon (Cucumis melo L.) crops (the last crop using inverted irrigation tape). The procedures used for sampling and determining the uniformity indices of the system were performed using a series of adjustments to the methodology proposed by Keller and Karmeli (1975), Deniculi (1980) and De Santa and De Juan (1993), in order to increase the number of observations as a function of irrigation time. The calculated irrigation uniformity indices were as follow: Distribution Coefficient (UD), Uniformity Coefficient (CUC), Coefficient of Variation of Flows (CV) and Statistical Uniformity Coefficient (Us). The indices characterization was made according to Merrian and Keller (1978); Bralts (1986); Pizarro (1990) y ASAE (1996), respectively. The results showed that the irrigation uniformity for the evaluated systems varied from excellent to unacceptable, mainly due to the lack of maintenance and the absent of manometric connectors. Among the findings, it is possible to highlight the need for technical support to farmers, both in the installation, management and maintenance of irrigation systems. In this sense

An integrated approach to assess the dynamics of a peri-urban watershed influenced by wastewater irrigation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mahesh, Jampani; Amerasinghe, Priyanie; Pavelic, Paul

2015-04-01

In many urban and peri-urban areas of India, wastewater is under-recognized as a major water resource. Wastewater irrigated agriculture provides direct benefits for the livelihoods and food security of many smallholder farmers. A rapidly urbanizing peri-urban micro-watershed (270 ha) in Hyderabad was assessed over a 10-year period from 2000 to 2010 for changes in land use and associated farming practices, farmer perceptions, socio-economic evaluation, land-use suitability for agriculture and challenges in potential irrigated area development towards wastewater use. This integrated approach showed that the change in the total irrigated area was marginal over the decade, whereas the built-up area within the watershed boundaries doubled and there was a distinct shift in cropping patterns from paddy rice to paragrass and leafy vegetables. Local irrigation supplies were sourced mainly from canal supplies, which accounted for three-quarters of the water used and was largely derived from wastewater. The remainder was groundwater from shallow hard-rock aquifers. Farmer perception was that the high nutrient content of the wastewater was of value, although they were also interested to pay modest amounts for additional pre-treatment. The shift in land use towards paragrass and leafy vegetables was attributed to increased profitability due to the high urban demand. The unutilised scrubland within the watershed has the potential for irrigation development, but the major constraints appear to be unavailability of labour and high land values rather than water availability. The study provides evidence to support the view that the opportunistic use of wastewater and irrigation practices, in general, will continue even under highly evolving peri-urban conditions, to meet the livelihood needs of the poor driven by market demands, as urban sprawl expands into cultivable rural hinterlands. Policy support is needed for enhanced recognition of wastewater for agriculture, with flow

Arsenic contamination in food chain: Thread to food security

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shekhar Azad Kashyap, Chandra; Singh, Swati

2017-04-01

The supply of good quality food is a necessity for economic and social health welfare of urban and rural population. Over the last several decades groundwater contamination in developing countries has assumed dangerous levels as a result millions of people are at risk. This is so particularly with respect to arsenic that has registered high concentration in groundwater in countries like India and Bangladesh. The arsenic content in groundwater varies from 10 to 780 µg/L, which is far above the levels for drinking water standards prescribed by World Health Organization (WHO). Currently arsenic has entered in food chain due to irrigation with arsenic contaminated water. In the present study reports the arsenic contamination in groundwater that is being used for irrigating paddy in Manipur and West Bengal. The arsenic content in irrigation water is 475 µg/L and 780 µg/L in Manipur and West Bengal, respectively. In order to assess the effect of such waters on the rice crop, we collected rice plant from Manipur and determined the arsenic content in roots, stem, and grain. The arsenic content in grain varies from 110 to 190 mg/kg while the limit of arsenic intake by humans is 10 mg/kg (WHO). This problem is not confine to the area, it spread global level, and rice being cultivated in these regions is export to the other countries like USA, Middle East and Europe and will be thread to global food security.

Exploring the energy-water-food-climate nexus for the Indian Economy in 2030

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Taheripour, F.; Hertel, T. W.; Gopalakrishnan, B. N.

2014-12-01

The economy of India is expected to face serious environmental challenges over the coming decades. Population growth, coupled with economic growth of nearly 7%/year to 2030 will translate into strong growth in energy demands - particularly electricity. The electricity sector's claim on total available water could grow from 4% to more than 10% in India in 2030, if the use of wet cooling technologies persists (IGES 2013). Water-saving, dry cooling technologies are available for coal-fired power plants, but this requires significant investment and must be done at the time of construction. Growing water demands from electricity generation, when coupled with industrial, residential and commercial demands, are projected to result in water shortages for irrigation in some key river basins such as Indus, Ganges, Subernarekha, Krishna, and Chotanagpui (Rosegrant et al., 2013). The resulting pressure on agricultural production is likely to be exacerbated by climate change, which itself may increase demands for irrigation as an adaptation strategy to higher temperatures and more variable rainfall (AgMIP, 2013). In this paper we examine the impact of water scarcity on economic growth, food, and energy security in India using an enhanced version of the GTAP-AEZ-WATER model. We find that investments in water-saving technology in the electricity sector are less costly than developing new water supply. However, even when these technologies are implemented, we project shortfalls in water available for irrigated agriculture. These shortfalls result in the contraction of irrigated area and diminished food production relative to the unconstrained baseline. However, trade could help India to mitigate a portion of this pressure by importing more food products from water abundant regions. In addition, allowing for the trading of water within river basins helps to alleviate some of the consequences of water scarcity.

Responses of gross primary production of grasslands and croplands under drought, pluvial, and irrigation conditions during 2010-2016, Oklahoma, USA

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

To accurately estimate carbon cycling and food production, it is essential to understand how gross primary production (GPP) of irrigated and non-irrigated grasslands and croplands respond to drought and pluvial events. Oklahoma experienced extreme drought in 2011 and record-breaking precipitation in...

An evaluation of the water utilization and grain production of irrigated and rain-fed croplands in China.

PubMed

Cao, Xinchun; Wang, Yubao; Wu, Pute; Zhao, Xining; Wang, Juan

2015-10-01

Irrigation plays a major role in Chinese agricultural production, as China is experiencing water and food scarcity. Assessing water use (WU) and water productivity (WP) will contribute to regional water management and grain production improvement. This paper quantifies the water use and productivity in grain production for 31 Chinese provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities (PAMs) by distinguishing between irrigated and rain-fed farmland. An indicator of marginal productivity of blue water (MWPb) is established and calculated to evaluate irrigation profits. National water use (WUt) for grain cultivation from 1998 to 2010 was approximately 689.04 Gm(3) (42.26% blue water and 57.74% green water). The productive water proportions for irrigated and total croplands were 65.57% and 76.85%, respectively. Water use compositions from both blue-green and productive-unproductive perspectives changed slightly over time. The water use productivity (WPU) and water consumption productivity (WPC) for integrated grain products of China during the study period were 0.747 and 0.972 kg/m(3), respectively. The spatial distribution patterns of irrigated WPs (WPUI, WPCI) were consistent with those for total cropland. China has achieved sufficient food supply without increasing water use. The national MWPb was estimated to be 0.673 kg/m(3), revealing a higher increase in crop yield on irrigated land compared to rain-fed land. The northeast provinces urgently need to improve irrigation efficiency, and the North China Plain PAMs should promote rain-fed crop yield to increase grain production and control water use in the future. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The maximum economic depth of groundwater abstraction for irrigation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bierkens, M. F.; Van Beek, L. P.; de Graaf, I. E. M.; Gleeson, T. P.

2017-12-01

Over recent decades, groundwater has become increasingly important for agriculture. Irrigation accounts for 40% of the global food production and its importance is expected to grow further in the near future. Already, about 70% of the globally abstracted water is used for irrigation, and nearly half of that is pumped groundwater. In many irrigated areas where groundwater is the primary source of irrigation water, groundwater abstraction is larger than recharge and we see massive groundwater head decline in these areas. An important question then is: to what maximum depth can groundwater be pumped for it to be still economically recoverable? The objective of this study is therefore to create a global map of the maximum depth of economically recoverable groundwater when used for irrigation. The maximum economic depth is the maximum depth at which revenues are still larger than pumping costs or the maximum depth at which initial investments become too large compared to yearly revenues. To this end we set up a simple economic model where costs of well drilling and the energy costs of pumping, which are a function of well depth and static head depth respectively, are compared with the revenues obtained for the irrigated crops. Parameters for the cost sub-model are obtained from several US-based studies and applied to other countries based on GDP/capita as an index of labour costs. The revenue sub-model is based on gross irrigation water demand calculated with a global hydrological and water resources model, areal coverage of crop types from MIRCA2000 and FAO-based statistics on crop yield and market price. We applied our method to irrigated areas in the world overlying productive aquifers. Estimated maximum economic depths range between 50 and 500 m. Most important factors explaining the maximum economic depth are the dominant crop type in the area and whether or not initial investments in well infrastructure are limiting. In subsequent research, our estimates of

Junk-food enhances conditioned food cup approach to a previously established food cue, but does not alter cue potentiated feeding; implications for the effects of palatable diets on incentive motivation.

PubMed

Derman, Rifka C; Ferrario, Carrie R

2018-03-16

Efforts to stem the global rise in obesity have been minimally effective, perhaps in part because our understanding of the psychological and behavioral drivers of obesity is limited. It is well established that stimuli that are paired with palatable foods can powerfully influence food-seeking and feeding behaviors. However, how consumption of sugary, fatty "junk-foods" affects these motivational responses to food cues is poorly understood. Here, we determined the effects of short- and long-term "junk-food" consumption on the expression of cue potentiated feeding and conditioned food cup approach to Pavlovian conditioned stimuli (CS). Further, to determine the degree to which effects of "junk-food" were selective to Pavlovian motivational processes, we varied the predictive validity of the CS by including training groups conditioned with unique CS-US contingencies ranging from -1.0 to +1.0. "Junk-food" did not enhance cue potentiated feeding in any group, but expression of this potentiation effect varied with the CS-US contingency independent of diet. In contrast, "junk-food" consistently enhanced conditioned approach to the food cup; this effect was dependent on the previously established CS-US contingency. That is, consumption of "junk-food" following training enhanced approach to the food cup only in response to CSs with previously positive CS-US contingencies. This was accompanied by reduced motivation for the US itself. Together these data show that "junk-food" consumption selectively enhances incentive motivational responses to previously established food CSs, without altering cue potentiated feeding induced by these same CSs, and in the absence of enhanced motivation for food itself. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Irrigation to enhance native seed production for Great Basin restoration

Treesearch

Clinton C. Shock; Erik B. G. Feibert; Nancy L. Shaw; Myrtle P. Shock; Lamont D. Saunders

2015-01-01

Native shrublands and their associated grasses and forbs have been disappearing from the Great Basin as a result of grazing practices, exotic weed invasions, altered fire regimes, climate change and other human impacts. Native forb seed is needed to restore these areas. The irrigation requirements for maximum seed production of four key native forb species (Eriogonum...

Effects on crops of irrigation with treated municipal wastewaters.

PubMed

Fasciolo, G E; Meca, M I; Gabriel, E; Morábito, J

2002-01-01

The fertilizing potential of treated municipal wastewater (oxidation ditch) and crop sanitary acceptability for direct human consumption were evaluated in Mendoza, Argentina. Two experiments were performed on a pilot plot planted with garlic (1998) and onions (1999) using furrow irrigation with three types of water in 10 random blocks: treated effluent (2.5 x 10(3) MPN Escherichia coli/100 ml, 3 helminth eggs/l, and Salmonella (positive); and well water (free of microorganisms), with and without fertilizer. Two responses were evaluated: (1) crop yield, and (2) crop microbiological quality for human consumption at different times after harvest. Crop yields were compared using Variance analysis. Crops' sanitary acceptability was assessed using a two-class sampling program for Salmonella (n=10; c=0), and a three-class program for E. coli (n=5, c=2, M=10(3) and m=10 MPN/g) as proposed by the International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods (ICMSF) for fresh vegetables. Wastewater irrigation acted as well water with fertilizer, increasing garlic and onion yields by 10% and 15%, respectively, compared to irrigation with well water with no fertilizer. Wastewater-irrigated garlic reached sanitary acceptability 90 days after harvest, once attached roots and soil were removed. Onions, which were cleaned immediately after harvest, met this qualification earlier than garlic (55 days). Neither the wastewater-irrigated crops nor the control crops were microbiologically acceptable for consumption raw at harvest.

Root canal irrigants

PubMed Central

Kandaswamy, Deivanayagam; Venkateshbabu, Nagendrababu

2010-01-01

Successful root canal therapy relies on the combination of proper instrumentation, irrigation, and obturation of the root canal. Of these three essential steps of root canal therapy, irrigation of the root canal is the most important determinant in the healing of the periapical tissues. The primary endodontic treatment goal must thus be to optimize root canal disinfection and to prevent reinfection. In this review of the literature, various irrigants and the interactions between irrigants are discussed. We performed a Medline search for English-language papers published untill July 2010. The keywords used were ‘root canal irrigants’ and ‘endodontic irrigants.’ The reference lists of each article were manually checked for additional articles of relevance. PMID:21217955

Possible pathways and tensions in the food and water nexus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grafton, R. Quentin; Williams, John; Jiang, Qiang

2017-05-01

"Bottom-up" field-based, crop-hydrological models are used to estimate food production and irrigation water extractions under multiple scenarios of water and nitrogen use and crop yield increases from 2010 to 2050 for 19 countries. The results show: (1) a food deficit before 2050 under a worst case climate change scenario in terms of annual crop yield improvement; (2) substantial water deficits, as a result of irrigation, for major food-producing countries that will prevent these nations from meeting their domestic food requirements in the absence of investments in water infrastructure or food imports; and (3) a plateau in terms of crop food production associated with increased water extractions given no further increase in the current area of irrigated agriculture. Possible pathways to respond to the tensions in the food-water nexus are evaluated and include: (1) higher water productivity; (2) food trade; (3) improvements in both crop yield and "sustainable" total factor productivity; (4) greater investment in water infrastructure; and (5) integrative policies and decision processes. Without a combination of some, or all, of these possible pathways, appropriately adapted to bio-physical and socio-economic circumstances, the world faces grave risks in food and water security out to 2050.

Modeled effects of irrigation on surface climate in the Heihe River Basin, Northwest China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Xuezhen; Xiong, Zhe; Tang, Qiuhong

2017-08-01

In Northwest China, water originates from the mountain area and is largely used for irrigation agriculture in the middle reaches. This study investigates the local and remote impact of irrigation on regional climate in the Heihe River Basin, the second largest inland river basin in Northwest China. An irrigation scheme was developed and incorporated into the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model with the Noah-MP land surface scheme (WRF/Noah-MP). The effects of irrigation is assessed by comparing the model simulations with and without consideration of irrigation (hereafter, IRRG and NATU simulations, respectively) for five growth seasons (May to September) from 2009 to 2013. As consequences of irrigation, daily mean temperature decreased by 1.7°C and humidity increased by 2.3 g kg-1 (corresponding to 38.5%) over irrigated area. The temperature and humidity of IRRG simulation matched well with the observations, whereas NATU simulation overestimated temperature and underestimated humidity over irrigated area. The effects on temperature and humidity are generally small outside the irrigated area. The cooling and wetting effects have opposing impacts on convective precipitation, resulting in a negligible change in localized precipitation over irrigated area. However, irrigation may induce water vapor convergence and enhance precipitation remotely in the southeastern portion of the Heihe River Basin.

[Effects of ridge and furrow rain harvesting with supplemental irrigation on winter wheat photosynthetic characteristics, yield and water use efficiency in Guanzhong irrigation district].

PubMed

Zhang, Yu; Han, Qing-fang; Cheng, Xue-feng; Yang, Shan-shan; Jia, Zhi-kuan; Ding, Rui-xia; Ren, Xiao-long; Nie, Jun-feng

2015-05-01

A field experiment was conducted to determine the regulation of crop photosynthesis and output and water saving effect under ridge and furrow rain harvesting with supplemental irrigation in Guanzhong irrigation district. The experiment was set with 5 treatments with irrigation at returning green stage, and the widths of both ridge and furrow being 60 cm. T1, T2 and T3 were in the ridge and furrow rain harvesting planting pattern, with the irrigation volumes being 0, 375 and 750 m3 · hm(-2) respectively, T4 was flat planting with irrigation (border irrigation) of 750 m3 · hm(-2) and CK was flat planting without irrigation. Effects on winter wheat photosynthetic organs, photosynthetic rate, yield and water use efficiency, etc. were tested. The results showed that compared with T4, T1, T2 and T3 treatments increased the grain yield by 2.8%, 9.6% and 18.9%, improved the harvest index by 2.0% to 8.5%, advanced the flag leaf chlorophyll content by 41.9% to 64.4% significantly, and improved the 0-40 cm layer soil moisture content by 0.1%-4.6% during the whole growth period. Photosynthetic rates at the flowering and filling stages also increased by 22.3% to 54.2% and -4.3% to 67.2%, respectively. Total water use efficiencies (WUEy) were 17.9%, 10.4% and 15.4% higher than that of T4, and 69.3%, 58.6% and 65.7% higher than that of CK (P < 0.05), respectively, and enhanced precipitation utilization efficiency ( PUE ) by 94.3%-124.5% than CK. Leaf areas of T2 and T3 treatments at each growth stage were significantly higher than that of T4 and CK, irrigation water use efficiencies (IUE) were 119.1% and 18.8% higher than that of T4, respectively. Therefore, it was concluded that ridge and furrow rain harvesting cultivation could maintain higher grain yield than border irrigation without irrigation or with irrigation reduction by 50%. The utilization efficiency of irrigation water under the condition of irrigation reduction by 50% was improved significantly, and the ridge and

Expansion of urban area and wastewater irrigated rice area in Hyderabad, India

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gumma, K.M.; van, Rooijen D.; Nelson, A.; Thenkabail, P.S.; Aakuraju, Radha V.; Amerasinghe, P.

2011-01-01

The goal of this study was to investigate land use changes in urban and peri-urban Hyderabad and their influence on wastewater irrigated rice using Landsat ETM + data and spectral matching techniques. The main source of irrigation water is the Musi River, which collects a large volume of wastewater and stormwater while running through the city. From 1989 to 2002, the wastewater irrigated area along the Musi River increased from 5,213 to 8,939 ha with concurrent expansion of the city boundaries from 22,690 to 42,813 ha and also decreased barren lands and range lands from 86,899 to 66,616 ha. Opportunistic shifts in land use, especially related to wastewater irrigated agriculture, were seen as a response to the demand for fresh vegetables and easy access to markets, exploited mainly by migrant populations. While wastewater irrigated agriculture contributes to income security of marginal groups, it also supplements the food basket of many city dwellers. Landsat ETM + data and advanced methods such as spectral matching techniques are ideal for quantifying urban expansion and associated land use changes, and are useful for urban planners and decision makers alike. ?? 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Integration of soil moisture and geophysical datasets for improved water resource management in irrigated systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Finkenbiner, Catherine; Franz, Trenton E.; Avery, William Alexander; Heeren, Derek M.

2016-04-01

Global trends in consumptive water use indicate a growing and unsustainable reliance on water resources. Approximately 40% of total food production originates from irrigated agriculture. With increasing crop yield demands, water use efficiency must increase to maintain a stable food and water trade. This work aims to increase our understanding of soil hydrologic fluxes at intermediate spatial scales. Fixed and roving cosmic-ray neutron probes were combined in order to characterize the spatial and temporal patterns of soil moisture at three study sites across an East-West precipitation gradient in the state of Nebraska, USA. A coarse scale map was generated for the entire domain (122 km2) at each study site. We used a simplistic data merging technique to produce a statistical daily soil moisture product at a range of key spatial scales in support of current irrigation technologies: the individual sprinkler (˜102m2) for variable rate irrigation, the individual wedge (˜103m2) for variable speed irrigation, and the quarter section (0.82 km2) for uniform rate irrigation. Additionally, we were able to generate a daily soil moisture product over the entire study area at various key modeling and remote sensing scales 12, 32, and 122 km2. Our soil moisture products and derived soil properties were then compared against spatial datasets (i.e. field capacity and wilting point) from the US Department of Agriculture Web Soil Survey. The results show that our "observed" field capacity was higher compared to the Web Soil Survey products. We hypothesize that our results, when provided to irrigators, will decrease water losses due to runoff and deep percolation as sprinkler managers can better estimate irrigation application depth and times in relation to soil moisture depletion below field capacity and above maximum allowable depletion. The incorporation of this non-contact and pragmatic geophysical method into current irrigation practices across the state and globe has the

Socio-economic impacts of irrigated agriculture in Mbarali District of south west Tanzania

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mwakalila, Shadrack

Irrigation has been found to be central in curbing food scarcity not only in Tanzania but also in many other developing countries. It has been proved that continued reliability on rainfall in agriculture cannot sustain the increase in population. This study examines the impacts of smallholder irrigated agriculture in improving social and economic benefits in Igurusi Ward of Mbarali District which is located in the southern-western part of Tanzania. The study applies the Participatory Rural Appraisal Framework for data collection. The study was confined to five villages in Igurusi ward which are Majenje, Igurusi, Chamoto, Uhambule and Mahango. The study examined critically paddy production for smallholder farmers that practice irrigation and those who cultivates rain-fed paddy. The study examined both existing traditional and modern irrigation systems. It was found that, most of the respondents (79%) practice irrigated agriculture in paddy production while the remaining 21% practice rain-fed agriculture. Forty percent of households that practice irrigated agriculture harvest paddy two seasons per year. The return to labour in paddy production for smallholder farmers who irrigate their paddy fields is about US 2.5/manday which is above the poverty line of US 1.0/day. The smallest return to labour (US $ 0.85/manday) is obtained by an average smallholder farmer who cultivates rain-fed paddy using hand hoe and family labour. The potential implication of the current irrigation systems is that if irrigation is managed properly it may lead to sustainable increases in small farmer’s productivity and income, thus alleviating rural poverty.

Agronomic and physiological performance of Teqing x Lemont introgression rice (Oryza sativa L.) lines under limited irrigation system

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Rice is a staple food for almost half of the world. Most rice in the world, including the USA, is produced under a flooded paddy system that makes rice one of the most irrigated grain crops on earth. With many water resources being depleted due to high irrigation demands, it has become essential to ...

Experimental study of faecal continence and colostomy irrigation.

PubMed

O'Bichere, A; Sibbons, P; Doré, C; Green, C; Phillips, R K

2000-07-01

Colostomy irrigation is a useful method of achieving faecal continence in selected conditions, but remains largely underutilized because it is time consuming. This study investigated the effect of modifying irrigation technique (route, infusion regimen and pharmacological manipulation) on colonic emptying time in a porcine model. An end-colostomy and caecostomy were fashioned in six pigs. Twenty markers were introduced into the caecum immediately before colonic irrigation. Irrigation route (antegrade or retrograde), infusion regimen (tap water, polyethylene glycol (PEG), 1.5 per cent glycine) and pharmacological agent (glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) 0.25 mg/kg, diltiazem 3.9 mg/kg, bisacodyl 0.25 mg/kg) were assigned to each animal at random. Colonic transit was assessed by quantifying cumulative expelled markers (CEM) and stool every hour for 12 h. Mean CEM at 6 h for bisacodyl, GTN and diltiazem were 18.17, 12.17 and zero respectively; all pairwise differences in means were significant (P < 0.001). The difference at 12 h between the two routes (P = 0.001) and three fluids (tap water 6.75, glycine 14.83, PEG 16.33; P < 0. 001) was significant, but not for PEG versus glycine and bisacodyl versus GTN. Cumulative output was significantly more with the antegrade than retrograde route using PEG, but the difference in mean cumulative output for bisacodyl and GTN at 12 h was not significant. Colonic emptying is more efficient with antegrade than retrograde irrigation. PEG and glycine enhance emptying similar to bisacodyl and GTN solution. These findings show promise for improved faecal continence by colostomy irrigation and may justify construction of a Malone conduit at the time of colostomy in selected patients who wish to irrigate. Presented in part to the British Society of Gastroenterology in Glasgow, UK, March 1999, and published in abstract form as Gut 1999; 44(Suppl 1): A135

Research on the autumn irrigation schedule of Hetao Irrigation District of China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Han, Y.

2016-12-01

Salinization of soil has great influence on the function of crop land, leading to the crop failure to some extent. One of the inducement of salinization is that the water pressure of frozen soil is lower than that of unfrozen, salt is drew up to the frozen layer along with water during the freezing process. To prevent the salinization of soil, people carry out the autumn irrigation in Hetao Irrigation District which located is located in Bayannur City, Inner Mongolia, north of China. Autumn irrigation is an irrigation event before the freezing of soil, the function of autumn irrigation includes soil moisture conservation, loosening the soil and leaching the salt. Among all the crop models, none is designed to simulate the water and salt movement during freezing and thawing progress. So In this study, SWAP (Soil Water Atmosphere Plant) model is modified by adding the freezing and thawing module which enable the model to take into consideration the effect of freezing and thawing on water and salt movement. After validating the modified model using field data and lab test results, the model was used to simulate the results of various autumn irrigation schedules, exploring the influence of different autumn irrigation amounts on the water, salt and heat condition and transportation of soil. Finally, proper autumn irrigation schedule was obtained to instruct the production of Hetao Irrigation District.

A global approach to estimate irrigated areas - a comparison between different data and statistics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meier, Jonas; Zabel, Florian; Mauser, Wolfram

2018-02-01

Agriculture is the largest global consumer of water. Irrigated areas constitute 40 % of the total area used for agricultural production (FAO, 2014a) Information on their spatial distribution is highly relevant for regional water management and food security. Spatial information on irrigation is highly important for policy and decision makers, who are facing the transition towards more efficient sustainable agriculture. However, the mapping of irrigated areas still represents a challenge for land use classifications, and existing global data sets differ strongly in their results. The following study tests an existing irrigation map based on statistics and extends the irrigated area using ancillary data. The approach processes and analyzes multi-temporal normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) SPOT-VGT data and agricultural suitability data - both at a spatial resolution of 30 arcsec - incrementally in a multiple decision tree. It covers the period from 1999 to 2012. The results globally show a 18 % larger irrigated area than existing approaches based on statistical data. The largest differences compared to the official national statistics are found in Asia and particularly in China and India. The additional areas are mainly identified within already known irrigated regions where irrigation is more dense than previously estimated. The validation with global and regional products shows the large divergence of existing data sets with respect to size and distribution of irrigated areas caused by spatial resolution, the considered time period and the input data and assumption made.

Responses of gross primary production of grasslands and croplands to drought and pluvial events and irrigation during 2010-2016, Oklahoma, USA

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

To accurately estimate carbon cycling and food production, it is essential to understand how gross primary production (GPP) of irrigated and non-irrigated grasslands and croplands respond to drought and pluvial events. Oklahoma experienced extreme drought in 2011 and record-breaking precipitation in...

Real-time drought forecasting system for irrigation management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ceppi, A.; Ravazzani, G.; Corbari, C.; Salerno, R.; Meucci, S.; Mancini, M.

2014-09-01

In recent years frequent periods of water scarcity have enhanced the need to use water more carefully, even in European areas which traditionally have an abundant supply of water, such as the Po Valley in northern Italy. In dry periods, water shortage problems can be enhanced by conflicting uses of water, such as irrigation, industry and power production (hydroelectric and thermoelectric). Furthermore, in the last decade the social perspective in relation to this issue has been increasing due to the possible impact of climate change and global warming scenarios which emerge from the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (IPCC, 2013). Hence, the increased frequency of drought periods has stimulated the improvement of irrigation and water management. In this study we show the development and implementation of the PREGI real-time drought forecasting system; PREGI is an Italian acronym that means "hydro-meteorological forecast for irrigation management". The system, planned as a tool for irrigation optimization, is based on meteorological ensemble forecasts (20 members) at medium range (30 days) coupled with hydrological simulations of water balance to forecast the soil water content on a maize field in the Muzza Bassa Lodigiana (MBL) consortium in northern Italy. The hydrological model was validated against measurements of latent heat flux acquired by an eddy-covariance station, and soil moisture measured by TDR (time domain reflectivity) probes; the reliability of this forecasting system and its benefits were assessed in the 2012 growing season. The results obtained show how the proposed drought forecasting system is able to have a high reliability of forecast at least for 7-10 days ahead of time.

Cotton irrigation timing with variable seasonal irrigation capacities in the Texas south plains.

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Within the Ogallala Aquifer Region of Texas, the irrigation capacity (IC) for a given field often changes within a growing season due to seasonal depletion of the aquifer, in season changes in crop irrigation needs in dry years, or consequences of irrigation volume limits imposed by irrigation distr...

Arsenic contamination in food chain: Thread to global food security

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kashyap, C. A.

2016-12-01

The supply of good quality food is a necessity for economic and social health of urban and rural population. Over the last several decades groundwater contamination in developing countries has assumed dangerous levels as a result millions of people are at risk. This is so particularly with respect to arsenic that has registered high concentration in groundwater in countries like India and Bangladesh. The arsenic content in groundwater varies from 10 to 780 µg/L, which is far above the levels for drinking water standards prescribed by World Health Organization (WHO). Currently arsenic has entered in food chain due to irrigation with arsenic contaminated water. In the present study reports the arsenic contamination in groundwater that is being used for irrigating paddy in Manipur and West Bengal. The arsenic content in irrigation water is 475 µg/L and 780 µg/L in Manipur and West Bengal, respectively. In order to assess the effect of such waters on the rice crop, we collected rice plant from Manipur and determined the arsenic content in roots, stem, and grain. The arsenic content in grain varies from 110 to 190 mg/kg while the limit of arsenic intake by humans is 10 mg/kg (WHO). This problem is not confine to the area, it spread global level, and rice being cultivated in these regions is export to the other countries like USA, Middle East and Europe and will be thread to global food security.

Global assessment of urban and peri-urban agriculture: irrigated and rainfed croplands

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thebo, A. L.; Drechsel, P.; Lambin, E. F.

2014-11-01

The role of urban agriculture in global food security is a topic of increasing discussion. Existing research on urban and peri-urban agriculture consists largely of case studies that frequently use disparate definitions of urban and peri-urban agriculture depending on the local context and study objectives. This lack of consistency makes quantification of the extent of this practice at the global scale difficult. This study instead integrates global data on croplands and urban extents using spatial overlay analysis to estimate the global area of urban and peri-urban irrigated and rainfed croplands. The global area of urban irrigated croplands was estimated at about 24 Mha (11.0 percent of all irrigated croplands) with a cropping intensity of 1.48. The global area of urban rainfed croplands found was approximately 44 Mha (4.7 percent of all rainfed croplands) with a cropping intensity of 1.03. These values were derived from the MIRCA2000 Maximum Monthly Cropped Area Grids for irrigated and rainfed crops and therefore their sum does not necessarily represent the total urban cropland area when the maximum extent of irrigated and rainfed croplands occurs in different months. Further analysis of croplands within 20 km of urban extents show that 60 and 35 percent of, respectively, all irrigated and rainfed croplands fall within this distance range.

Irrigation Training Manual. Planning, Design, Operation, and Management of Small-Scale Irrigation Systems [and] Irrigation Reference Manual. A Technical Reference to Be Used with the Peace Corps Irrigation Training Manual T0076 in the Selection, Planning, Design, Operation, and Management of Small-Scale Irrigation Systems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Salazar, LeRoy; And Others

This resource for trainers involved in irrigated agriculture training for Peace Corps volunteers consists of two parts: irrigation training manual and irrigation reference manual. The complete course should fully prepare volunteers serving as irrigation, specialists to plan, implement, evaluate and manage small-scale irrigation projects in arid,…

Two challenges for U.S. irrigation due to climate change: increasing irrigated area in wet states and increasing irrigation rates in dry states.

PubMed

McDonald, Robert I; Girvetz, Evan H

2013-01-01

Agricultural irrigation practices will likely be affected by climate change. In this paper, we use a statistical model relating observed water use by U.S. producers to the moisture deficit, and then use this statistical model to project climate changes impact on both the fraction of agricultural land irrigated and the irrigation rate (m³ ha⁻¹). Data on water withdrawals for US states (1985-2005) show that both quantities are highly positively correlated with moisture deficit (precipitation--PET). If current trends hold, climate change would increase agricultural demand for irrigation in 2090 by 4.5-21.9 million ha (B1 scenario demand: 4.5-8.7 million ha, A2 scenario demand: 9.1-21.9 million ha). Much of this new irrigated area would occur in states that currently have a wet climate and a small fraction of their agricultural land currently irrigated, posing a challenge to policymakers in states with less experience with strict regulation of agriculture water use. Moreover, most of this expansion will occur in states where current agricultural production has relatively low market value per hectare, which may make installation of irrigation uneconomical without significant changes in crops or practices by producers. Without significant increases in irrigation efficiency, climate change would also increase the average irrigation rate from 7,963 to 8,400-10,415 m³ ha⁻¹ (B1 rate: 8,400-9,145 m³ ha⁻¹, A2 rate: 9,380-10,415 m³ ha⁻¹). The irrigation rate will increase the most in states that already have dry climates and large irrigation rates, posing a challenge for water supply systems in these states. Accounting for both the increase in irrigated area and irrigation rate, total withdrawals might increase by 47.7-283.4 billion m³ (B1 withdrawal: 47.7-106.0 billion m³, A2 withdrawal: 117.4-283.4 billion m³). Increases in irrigation water-use efficiency, particularly by reducing the prevalence of surface irrigation, could eliminate the increase in total

Two Challenges for U.S. Irrigation Due to Climate Change: Increasing Irrigated Area in Wet States and Increasing Irrigation Rates in Dry States

PubMed Central

McDonald, Robert I.; Girvetz, Evan H.

2013-01-01

Agricultural irrigation practices will likely be affected by climate change. In this paper, we use a statistical model relating observed water use by U.S. producers to the moisture deficit, and then use this statistical model to project climate changes impact on both the fraction of agricultural land irrigated and the irrigation rate (m3ha−1). Data on water withdrawals for US states (1985–2005) show that both quantities are highly positively correlated with moisture deficit (precipitation – PET). If current trends hold, climate change would increase agricultural demand for irrigation in 2090 by 4.5–21.9 million ha (B1 scenario demand: 4.5–8.7 million ha, A2 scenario demand: 9.1–21.9 million ha). Much of this new irrigated area would occur in states that currently have a wet climate and a small fraction of their agricultural land currently irrigated, posing a challenge to policymakers in states with less experience with strict regulation of agriculture water use. Moreover, most of this expansion will occur in states where current agricultural production has relatively low market value per hectare, which may make installation of irrigation uneconomical without significant changes in crops or practices by producers. Without significant increases in irrigation efficiency, climate change would also increase the average irrigation rate from 7,963 to 8,400–10,415 m3ha−1 (B1 rate: 8,400–9,145 m3ha−1, A2 rate: 9,380–10,415 m3ha−1). The irrigation rate will increase the most in states that already have dry climates and large irrigation rates, posing a challenge for water supply systems in these states. Accounting for both the increase in irrigated area and irrigation rate, total withdrawals might increase by 47.7–283.4 billion m3 (B1 withdrawal: 47.7–106.0 billion m3, A2 withdrawal: 117.4–283.4 billion m3). Increases in irrigation water-use efficiency, particularly by reducing the prevalence of surface irrigation, could eliminate the increase in

Rice Water use efficiency and yield under continuous and intermittent irrigation

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

In the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, rice (Oryza sativa L.) is predominantly grown using continuous fl ood irrigation, which requires large quantities of fresh water. Due to increasing scarcity and demand for water, modern agricultural systems need to produce more food with less water. Th e ...

Combination of wet irrigation and nitrification inhibitor reduced nitrous oxide and methane emissions from a rice cropping system.

PubMed

Liu, Gang; Yu, Haiyang; Zhang, Guangbin; Xu, Hua; Ma, Jing

2016-09-01

To conserve water resources and guarantee food security, a new technology termed as "wet irrigation" is developed and practiced in rice fields; thus, its impact on radiative forcing derived from nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) emissions merits serious attention. Dicyandiamide (DCD), a kind of nitrification inhibitor, is proposed as a viable means to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emission while enhancing crop productivity. However, little is known about the response of GHG emission and grain yield to DCD application in a rice system under wet irrigation. In these regard, effects of water regime and DCD application on CH4 and N2O emissions, grain yield, global warming potential (GWP), and greenhouse gas intensity (GHGI) from rice fields were studied. For this study, a field experiment, designed: Treatment II (intermittent irrigation), Treatment WI (wet irrigation), Treatment IID (II plus DCD), and Treatment WID (WI plus DCD), was conducted in Jurong, Jiangsu Province, China, from 2011 to 2012. Relative to Treatment II, Treatment WI decreased CH4 emission significantly by 49-71 % while increasing N2O emission by 33-72 %. By integrating CH4 and N2O emissions and grain yield, Treatment WI was 20-28 and 11-15 % lower than Treatment II in GWP and GHGI, respectively. The use of DCD under wet irrigation reduced N2O emission significantly by 25-38 % (p < 0.05) and CH4 emission by 7-8 %, relative to Treatment WI, resulting in a decline of 18-30 % in GWP. Due to the increase in N use efficiency, maximal grain yield (6-7 %) and minimal GHGI (22-34 %) was observed in Treatment WID. These findings indicate that combined application of N fertilizer and DCD is a win-win strategy in water-saving high-yield rice production with less GHG emission.

Participatory approach: from problem identification to setting strategies for increased productivity and sustainability in small scale irrigated agriculture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Habtu, Solomon; Ludi, Eva; Jamin, Jean Yves; Oates, Naomi; Fissahaye Yohannes, Degol

2014-05-01

Practicing various innovations pertinent to irrigated farming at local field scale is instrumental to increase productivity and yield for small holder farmers in Africa. However the translation of innovations from local scale to the scale of a jointly operated irrigation scheme is far from trivial. It requires insight on the drivers for adoption of local innovations within the wider farmer communities. Participatory methods are expected to improve not only the acceptance of locally developed innovations within the wider farmer communities, but to allow also an estimation to which extend changes will occur within the entire irrigation scheme. On such a base, more realistic scenarios of future water productivity within an irrigation scheme, which is operated by small holder farmers, can be estimated. Initial participatory problem and innovation appraisal was conducted in Gumselassa small scale irrigation scheme, Ethiopia, from Feb 27 to March 3, 2012 as part of the EAU4FOOD project funded by EC. The objective was to identify and appraise problems which hinder sustainable water management to enhance production and productivity and to identify future research strategies. Workshops were conducted both at local (Community of Practices) and regional (Learning Practice Alliance) level. At local levels, intensive collaboration with farmers using participatory methods produced problem trees and a "Photo Safari" documented a range of problems that negatively impact on productive irrigated farming. A range of participatory methods were also used to identify local innovations. At regional level a Learning Platform was established that includes a wide range of stakeholders (technical experts from various government ministries, policy makers, farmers, extension agents, researchers). This stakeholder group did a range of exercise as well to identify major problems related to irrigated smallholder farming and already identified innovations. Both groups identified similar problems

Phenolic-enriched foods: sources and processing for enhanced health benefits.

PubMed

McDougall, Gordon J

2017-05-01

Polyphenols are ubiquitous secondary products present in many plant foods. Their intake has been associated with health benefits ranging from reduced incidence of CVD, diabetes and cancers to improved neurodegenerative outcomes. Major dietary sources include beverages such as coffee, teas and foods such as chocolate. Fruits are also major sources and berries in particular are a palatable source of a diverse range of polyphenol components. There are a number of ways that polyphenol uptake could be increased and healthier polyphenol-rich foods could be produced with specific compositions to target-specific health effects. Firstly, we could exploit the genetic diversity of plants (with a focus on berries) to select varieties that have enhanced levels of specific polyphenols implicated in disease mitigation (e.g. anthocyanins, tannins or flavonols). Working with variation induced by environmental and agronomic factors, modern molecular breeding techniques could exploit natural variation and beneficially alter polyphenol content and composition, although this could be relatively long term. Alternatively, we could employ a synthetic biology approach and design new plants that overexpress certain genes or re-deploy more metabolic effort into specific polyphenols. However, such 'polyphenol-plus' fruit could prove unpalatable as polyphenols contribute to sensorial properties (e.g. astringency of tannins). However, if the aim was to produce a polyphenol as a pharmaceutical then 'lifting' biosynthetic pathways from plants and expressing them in microbial vectors may be a feasible option. Secondly, we could design processing methods to enhance the polyphenolic composition or content of foods. Fermentation of teas, cocoa beans and grapes, or roasting of cocoa and coffee beans has long been used and can massively influence polyphenol composition and potential bioactivity. Simple methods such as milling, heat treatment, pasteurisation or juicing (v. pureeing) can have notable

Factors affecting irrigant extrusion during root canal irrigation: a systematic review.

PubMed

Boutsioukis, C; Psimma, Z; van der Sluis, L W M

2013-07-01

The aim of the present study was to conduct a systematic review and critical analysis of published data on irrigant extrusion to identify factors causing, affecting or predisposing to irrigant extrusion during root canal irrigation of human mature permanent teeth. An electronic search was conducted in Cochrane Library, LILACS, PubMed, SciELO, Scopus and Web of Knowledge using a combination of the terms 'irrigant', 'rinse', 'extrusion', 'injection', 'complication', 'accident', 'iatrogenic', 'root canal', 'tooth' and 'endodontic'. Additional studies were identified by hand-searching of six endodontic journals and the relevant chapters of four endodontic textbooks, resulting in a total of 460 titles. No language restriction was imposed. After applying screening and strict eligibility criteria by two independent reviewers, 40 case reports and 10 ex vivo studies were included in the review. A lack of clinical studies focusing on irrigant extrusion during root canal irrigation was evident. The reviewed case reports focused mainly on the clinical manifestations and management of the accidents and did not provide adequate details on the possible factors that may influence irrigant extrusion. The data from the included ex vivo studies were inconclusive due to major methodological limitations, such as not simulating the presence of periapical tissues and not assessing the validity of irrigant detection methods. The extensive variability in the protocols employed hindered quantitative synthesis. The choice of factors investigated in ex vivo studies seems not to have been driven by the available clinical evidence. These issues need to be addressed in future studies. © 2012 International Endodontic Journal. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Presence and Persistence of Salmonella enterica Serotype Typhimurium in the Phyllosphere and Rhizosphere of Spray-Irrigated Parsley

PubMed Central

Kisluk, Guy

2012-01-01

Salmonella enterica is one of the major food-borne pathogens associated with ready-to-eat fresh foods. Although polluted water might be a significant source of contamination in the field, factors that influence the transfer of Salmonella from water to the crops are not well understood, especially under conditions of low pathogen levels in water. The aim of this study was to investigate the short- and long-term (1 h to 28 days) persistence of Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium in the phyllosphere and the rhizosphere of parsley following spray irrigation with contaminated water. Plate counting and quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR)-based methods were implemented for the quantification. By applying qRT-PCR with enrichment, we were able to show that even irrigation with water containing as little as ∼300 CFU/ml resulted in the persistence of S. Typhimurium on the plants for 48 h. Irrigation with water containing 8.5 log CFU/ml resulted in persistence of the bacteria in the phyllosphere and the rhizosphere for at least 4 weeks, but the population steadily declined with a major reduction in bacterial counts, of ∼2 log CFU/g, during the first 2 days. Higher levels of Salmonella were detected in the phyllosphere when plants were irrigated during the night compared to irrigation during the morning and during winter compared to the other seasons. Further elucidation of the mechanisms underlying the transfer of Salmonella from contaminated water to crops, as well as its persistence over time, will enable the implementation of effective irrigation and control strategies. PMID:22447598

Presence and persistence of Salmonella enterica serotype typhimurium in the phyllosphere and rhizosphere of spray-irrigated parsley.

PubMed

Kisluk, Guy; Yaron, Sima

2012-06-01

Salmonella enterica is one of the major food-borne pathogens associated with ready-to-eat fresh foods. Although polluted water might be a significant source of contamination in the field, factors that influence the transfer of Salmonella from water to the crops are not well understood, especially under conditions of low pathogen levels in water. The aim of this study was to investigate the short- and long-term (1 h to 28 days) persistence of Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium in the phyllosphere and the rhizosphere of parsley following spray irrigation with contaminated water. Plate counting and quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR)-based methods were implemented for the quantification. By applying qRT-PCR with enrichment, we were able to show that even irrigation with water containing as little as ∼300 CFU/ml resulted in the persistence of S. Typhimurium on the plants for 48 h. Irrigation with water containing 8.5 log CFU/ml resulted in persistence of the bacteria in the phyllosphere and the rhizosphere for at least 4 weeks, but the population steadily declined with a major reduction in bacterial counts, of ∼2 log CFU/g, during the first 2 days. Higher levels of Salmonella were detected in the phyllosphere when plants were irrigated during the night compared to irrigation during the morning and during winter compared to the other seasons. Further elucidation of the mechanisms underlying the transfer of Salmonella from contaminated water to crops, as well as its persistence over time, will enable the implementation of effective irrigation and control strategies.

Developing a Hybrid Solar/Wind Powered Drip Irrigation System for Dragon Fruit Yield

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Widiastuti, I.; Wijayanto, D. S.

2017-03-01

Irrigation operations take a large amount of water and energy which impact to total costs of crop production. Development of an efficient irrigation supplying precise amount of water and conserving the use of energy can have benefits not only by reducing the operating costs but also by enhancing the farmland productivity. This article presents an irrigation method that promotes sustainable use of water and energy appropriate for a developing tropical country. It proposes a drip irrigation system supported by a combined solar-wind electric power generation system for efficient use of water in dragon fruit cultivation. The electric power generated is used to drive a water pump filling a storage tank for irrigating a 3000 m2 dragon fruit yield in Nguntoronadi, Wonogiri, Indonesia. In designing the irrigation system, the plant’s water requirement was identified based on the value of reference evapotranspiration of the area. A cost/benefit analysis was performed to evaluate the economic feasibility of the proposed scheme. The installation of this solar and wind drip irrigation helps provide sufficient quantity of water to each plant using renewable energy sources which reduce dependence on fossil fuel.

Soil properties evolution after irrigation with reclaimed water

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leal, M.; González-Naranjo, V.; de Miguel, A.; Martínez-Hernández, V.; Lillo, J.

2012-04-01

Many arid and semi-arid countries are forced to look for new and alternative water sources. The availability of suitable quality water for agriculture in these regions often is threatened. In this context of water scarcity, the reuse of treated wastewater for crop irrigation could represent a feasible solution. Through rigorous planning and management, irrigation with reclaimed water presents some advantages such as saving freshwater, reducing wastewater discharges into freshwater bodies and decreasing the amount of added fertilizers due to the extra supply of nutrients by reclaimed water. The current study, which involves wastewater reuse in agriculture, has been carried out in the Experimental Plant of Carrión de los Céspedes (Sevile, Spain). Here, two survey parcels equally designed have been cultivated with Jatropha curcas L, a bioenergetic plant and a non-interfering food security crop. The only difference between the two parcels lies on the irrigation water quality: one is irrigated with groundwater and another one with reclaimed water. The main aim of this study focuses on analysing the outstanding differences in soil properties derived from irrigation with two water qualities, due to their implications for plant growth. To control and monitor the soil variables, soil samples were collected before and after irrigation in the two parcels. pH, electrical conductivity, cation exchange capacity, exchangeable cations (Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+ and K+), kjeldahl nitrogen, organic matter content and nutrients (boron, phosphorus, nitrogen, potassium) were measured. Data were statistically analyzed using the R package. To evaluate the variance ANOVA test was used and to obtain the relations between water quality and soil parameters, Pearson correlation coefficient was computed. According to other authors, a decrease in the organic matter content and an increase of parameters such as pH, electrical conductivity and some exchangeable cations were expected. To date and after

Reduction of predictive uncertainty in estimating irrigation water requirement through multi-model ensembles and ensemble averaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Multsch, S.; Exbrayat, J.-F.; Kirby, M.; Viney, N. R.; Frede, H.-G.; Breuer, L.

2014-11-01

Irrigation agriculture plays an increasingly important role in food supply. Many evapotranspiration models are used today to estimate the water demand for irrigation. They consider different stages of crop growth by empirical crop coefficients to adapt evapotranspiration throughout the vegetation period. We investigate the importance of the model structural vs. model parametric uncertainty for irrigation simulations by considering six evapotranspiration models and five crop coefficient sets to estimate irrigation water requirements for growing wheat in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia. The study is carried out using the spatial decision support system SPARE:WATER. We find that structural model uncertainty is far more important than model parametric uncertainty to estimate irrigation water requirement. Using the Reliability Ensemble Averaging (REA) technique, we are able to reduce the overall predictive model uncertainty by more than 10%. The exceedance probability curve of irrigation water requirements shows that a certain threshold, e.g. an irrigation water limit due to water right of 400 mm, would be less frequently exceeded in case of the REA ensemble average (45%) in comparison to the equally weighted ensemble average (66%). We conclude that multi-model ensemble predictions and sophisticated model averaging techniques are helpful in predicting irrigation demand and provide relevant information for decision making.

The Running Wheel Enhances Food Anticipatory Activity: An Exploratory Study

PubMed Central

Flôres, Danilo E. F. L.; Bettilyon, Crystal N.; Jia, Lori; Yamazaki, Shin

2016-01-01

Rodents anticipate rewarding stimuli such as daily meals, mates, and stimulant drugs. When a single meal is provided daily at a fixed time of day, an increase in activity, known as food anticipatory activity (FAA), occurs several hours before feeding time. The factors affecting the expression of FAA have not been well-studied. Understanding these factors may provide clues to the undiscovered anatomical substrates of food entrainment. In this study we determined whether wheel-running activity, which is also rewarding to rodents, modulated the robustness of FAA. We found that access to a freely rotating wheel enhanced the robustness of FAA. This enhancement was lost when the wheel was removed. In addition, while prior exposure to a running wheel alone did not enhance FAA, the presence of a locked wheel did enhance FAA as long as mice had previously run in the wheel. Together, these data suggest that FAA, like wheel-running activity, is influenced by reward signaling. PMID:27458354

The Running Wheel Enhances Food Anticipatory Activity: An Exploratory Study.

PubMed

Flôres, Danilo E F L; Bettilyon, Crystal N; Jia, Lori; Yamazaki, Shin

2016-01-01

Rodents anticipate rewarding stimuli such as daily meals, mates, and stimulant drugs. When a single meal is provided daily at a fixed time of day, an increase in activity, known as food anticipatory activity (FAA), occurs several hours before feeding time. The factors affecting the expression of FAA have not been well-studied. Understanding these factors may provide clues to the undiscovered anatomical substrates of food entrainment. In this study we determined whether wheel-running activity, which is also rewarding to rodents, modulated the robustness of FAA. We found that access to a freely rotating wheel enhanced the robustness of FAA. This enhancement was lost when the wheel was removed. In addition, while prior exposure to a running wheel alone did not enhance FAA, the presence of a locked wheel did enhance FAA as long as mice had previously run in the wheel. Together, these data suggest that FAA, like wheel-running activity, is influenced by reward signaling.

Municipal, industrial, and irrigation water use in Washington, 1975

USGS Publications Warehouse

Dion, N.P.; Lum, W.E.

1977-01-01

An assessment of water use in 1975 in the 39 counties and 62 Water Resources Inventory Areas of Washington, indicated that 2.49 trillion gallons of water was used for municipal, industrial, and irrigation purposes. That amount represents a 10-percent increase over a similar water-use assessment in 1965, but a slight decrease from that of 1970. Total municipal water use, which includes municipally supplied industrial water, was 283 billion gallons. Industry used 442 billion gallons, of which 121 billion gallons was from municipal systems and 321 billion gallons was for self-suppled systems. Of the 604 billion gallons of water used for municipal and industrial supplies 145 billion gallons was ground water, 444 billion gallons was fresh surface water, and 14.8 billion gallons was saline surface water. A compilation of statewide industrial use as categorized by SIC (Lumber and Wood Products), SIC 28 (Chemicals and Allied Products), and SIC 20 (Food and Kindred Products)--accounted for about 65 percent of the total water used in industrial processes , In 1975, 5.79 million acre-feet of irrigation water (1,890 billion gallons) as applied to 1.52 million acres. This water was 95 percent surface water and 5 percent ground water. About 97 percent of the irrigation water was supplied in eastern Washington, to about 94 percent of the irrigated acreage in the State. (Woodard-USGS)

Quantifying the link between crop production and mined groundwater irrigation in China.

PubMed

Grogan, Danielle S; Zhang, Fan; Prusevich, Alexander; Lammers, Richard B; Wisser, Dominik; Glidden, Stanley; Li, Changsheng; Frolking, Steve

2015-04-01

In response to increasing demand for food, Chinese agriculture has both expanded and intensified over the past several decades. Irrigation has played a key role in increasing crop production, and groundwater is now an important source of irrigation water. Groundwater abstraction in excess of recharge (which we use here to estimate groundwater mining) has resulted in declining groundwater levels and could eventually restrict groundwater availability. In this study we used a hydrological model, WBMplus, in conjunction with a process based crop growth model, DNDC, to evaluate Chinese agriculture's recent dependence upon mined groundwater, and to quantify mined groundwater-dependent crop production across a domain that includes variation in climate, crop choice, and management practices. This methodology allowed for the direct attribution of crop production to irrigation water from rivers and reservoirs, shallow (renewable) groundwater, and mined groundwater. Simulating 20 years of weather variability and circa year 2000 crop areas, we found that mined groundwater fulfilled 20%-49% of gross irrigation water demand, assuming all demand was met. Mined groundwater accounted for 15%-27% of national total crop production. There was high spatial variability across China in irrigation water demand and crop production derived from mined groundwater. We find that climate variability and mined groundwater demand do not operate independently; rather, years in which irrigation water demand is high due to the relatively hot and dry climate also experience limited surface water supplies and therefore have less surface water with which to meet that high irrigation water demand. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Changes in rainfed and irrigated crop yield response to climate in the western US

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, X.; Troy, T. J.

2018-06-01

As the global population increases and the climate changes, ensuring a secure food supply is increasingly important. One strategy is irrigation, which allows for crops to be grown outside their optimal climate growing regions and which buffers against climate variability. Although irrigation is a positive climate adaptation mechanism for agriculture, it has a potentially negative effect on water resources as it can lead to groundwater depletion and diminished surface water supplies. This study quantifies how crop yields are affected by climate variability and extremes and the impact of irrigation on crop yield increases under various growing-season climate conditions. To do this, we use historical climate data and county-level rainfed and irrigated crop yields for maize, soybean, winter and spring wheat over the US to analyze the relationship between climate, crop yields, and irrigation. We find that there are optimal climates, specific to each crop, where irrigation provides a benefit and other conditions where irrigation proves to have marginal, if any, benefits. Furthermore, the relationship between crop yields and climate has changed over the last decades, with a changing sensitivity in the relationship of soybean and winter wheat yields to certain climate variables, like crop reference evapotranspiration. These two conclusions have important implications for agricultural and water resource system planning, as it implies there are more optimal climate conditions where irrigation is particularly productive and regions where irrigation should be reconsidered as there is not a significant agricultural benefit and the water could be used more productively.

Prevalence of E. coli, Salmonella spp. and L. monocytogenes in non-traditional irrigation waters in the Mid-Atlantic U.S.: a conserve project

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Introduction: Surface and non-traditional irrigation water (SNIW) sources can increase the irrigation water supplies without consuming potable water. However, these sources must be evaluated for enteric pathogens that could adulterate crops intended for human consumption and comply with Food Safety ...

Estimation of Infiltration Parameters and the Irrigation Coefficients with the Surface Irrigation Advance Distance

PubMed Central

Beibei, Zhou; Quanjiu, Wang; Shuai, Tan

2014-01-01

A theory based on Manning roughness equation, Philip equation and water balance equation was developed which only employed the advance distance in the calculation of the infiltration parameters and irrigation coefficients in both the border irrigation and the surge irrigation. The improved procedure was validated with both the border irrigation and surge irrigation experiments. The main results are shown as follows. Infiltration parameters of the Philip equation could be calculated accurately only using water advance distance in the irrigation process comparing to the experimental data. With the calculated parameters and the water balance equation, the irrigation coefficients were also estimated. The water advance velocity should be measured at about 0.5 m to 1.0 m far from the water advance in the experimental corn fields. PMID:25061664

A modeling study of irrigation effects on global surface water and groundwater resources under a changing climate

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Leng, Guoyong; Huang, Maoyi; Tang, Qiuhong

In this paper, the effects of irrigation on global surface water (SW) and groundwater (GW) resources are investigated by performing simulations using Community Land Model 4.0 (CLM4) at 0.5-degree resolution driven by downscaled/bias-corrected historical simulations and future projections from five General Circulation Models (GCMs) for 1950-2099. For each climate scenario, three sets of numerical experiments were configured: (1) a control experiment (CTRL) in which all crops are assumed to be rainfed; (2) an irrigation experiment (IRRIG) in which the irrigation module using only SW for irrigation is activated; and (3) a groundwater pumping experiment (PUMP) in which a groundwater pumpingmore » scheme coupled with the irrigation module is activated for conjunctive use of SW and GW for irrigation. The parameters associated with irrigation and groundwater pumping are calibrated based on a global inventory of census-based SW and GW use compiled by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). Our results suggest that irrigation could lead to two major opposing effects: SW depletion/GW accumulation in regions with irrigation primarily fed by SW, and SW accumulation/GW depletion in regions with irrigation fed primarily by GW. Furthermore, irrigation depending primarily on SW tends to have larger impacts on low-flow than high-flow conditions, suggesting the potential to increase vulnerability to drought. By the end of the 21st century (2070-2099), climate change significantly increases (relative to 1971-2000) irrigation water demand across the world. Combined with the increased temporal-spatial variability of water supply, this may lead to severe issues of local water scarcity for irrigation. Regionally, irrigation has the potential to aggravate/alleviate climate-induced changes of SW/GW although such effects are negligible when averaged globally. Our results emphasize the importance of accounting for irrigation effects and irrigation sources in regional climate change

A modeling study of irrigation effects on global surface water and groundwater resources under a changing climate

DOE PAGES

Leng, Guoyong; Huang, Maoyi; Tang, Qiuhong; ...

2015-08-25

In this paper, the effects of irrigation on global surface water (SW) and groundwater (GW) resources are investigated by performing simulations using Community Land Model 4.0 (CLM4) at 0.5-degree resolution driven by downscaled/bias-corrected historical simulations and future projections from five General Circulation Models (GCMs) for 1950-2099. For each climate scenario, three sets of numerical experiments were configured: (1) a control experiment (CTRL) in which all crops are assumed to be rainfed; (2) an irrigation experiment (IRRIG) in which the irrigation module using only SW for irrigation is activated; and (3) a groundwater pumping experiment (PUMP) in which a groundwater pumpingmore » scheme coupled with the irrigation module is activated for conjunctive use of SW and GW for irrigation. The parameters associated with irrigation and groundwater pumping are calibrated based on a global inventory of census-based SW and GW use compiled by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). Our results suggest that irrigation could lead to two major opposing effects: SW depletion/GW accumulation in regions with irrigation primarily fed by SW, and SW accumulation/GW depletion in regions with irrigation fed primarily by GW. Furthermore, irrigation depending primarily on SW tends to have larger impacts on low-flow than high-flow conditions, suggesting the potential to increase vulnerability to drought. By the end of the 21st century (2070-2099), climate change significantly increases (relative to 1971-2000) irrigation water demand across the world. Combined with the increased temporal-spatial variability of water supply, this may lead to severe issues of local water scarcity for irrigation. Regionally, irrigation has the potential to aggravate/alleviate climate-induced changes of SW/GW although such effects are negligible when averaged globally. Our results emphasize the importance of accounting for irrigation effects and irrigation sources in regional climate change

78 FR 52899 - Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Enhancing Retail Food Store Eligibility...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-08-27

... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Food and Nutrition Service Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Enhancing Retail Food Store Eligibility--Listening Sessions AGENCY: Food and Nutrition Service... for Information (RFI) published by FNS regarding Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP...

Detection and assessment of flood susceptible irrigation networks in Licab, Nueva Ecija, Philippines using LiDAR DTM

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alberto, R. T.; Hernando, P. J. C.; Tagaca, R. C.; Celestino, A. B.; Palado, G. C.; Camaso, E. E.; Damian, G. B.

2017-09-01

Climate change has wide-ranging effects on the environment and socio-economic and related sectors which includes water resources, agriculture and food security, human health, terrestrial ecosystems, coastal zones and biodiversity. Farmers are under pressure to the changing weather and increasing unpredictable water supply. Because of rainfall deficiencies, artificial application of water has been made through irrigation. Irrigation is a basic determinant of agriculture because its inadequacies are the most powerful constraints on the increase of agricultural production. Irrigation networks are permanent and temporary conduits that supply water to agricultural areas from an irrigation source. Detection of irrigation networks using LiDAR DTM, and flood susceptible assessment of irrigation networks could give baseline information on the development and management of sustainable agriculture. Map Gully Depth (MGD) in Whitebox GAT was used to generate the potential irrigation networks. The extracted MGD was overlaid in ArcGIS as guide in the digitization of potential irrigation networks. A flood hazard map was also used to identify the flood susceptible irrigation networks in the study area. The study was assessed through field validation of points which were generated using random sampling method. Results of the study showed that most of the detected irrigation networks have low to moderate susceptibility to flooding while the rest have high susceptibility to flooding which is due to shifting weather. These irrigation networks may cause flood when it overflows that could also bring huge damage to rice and other agricultural areas.

Advances in Irrigation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gardner, W. R.

This is the first volume of Advances in Irrigation, a new serial publication by the publishers of Advances in Agronomy and Advances in Hydroscience and designed to follow the same format. The editor is a well-known researcher and writer on irrigation and related subjects and has assembled a collection of highly regarded and respected authors for the initial volume. The readership for this volume will probably be mainly specialists and students interested in irrigation and an occasional design engineer.The seven contributions in this volume fall roughly into two classes: research and practice. Three papers (“Conjunctive Use of Rainfall and Irrigation in Semi-arid Regions,” by Stewart and Musik, “Irrigation Scheduling Using Soil Moisture Measurements: Theory and Practice,” by G. S. and M. D. Campbell, and “Use of Solute Transport Models to Estimate Salt Balance Below Irrigated Cropland,” by Jury) cover topics that have been the subject of a number of reviews. The contributions here provide brief, well-written, and authoritative summaries of the chosen topics and serve as good introductions or reviews. They should lend themselves well to classroom use in various ways. They also should be helpful to the nonspecialist interested in getting a sense of the subject without going into great detail.

Impacts of irrigation on groundwater depletion in the North China Plain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ge, Yuqi; Lei, Huimin

2017-04-01

Groundwater resources is an essential water supply for agriculture in the North China Plain (NCP) which is one of the most important food production areas in China. In the past decades, excessive groundwater-fed irrigation in this area has caused sharp decline in groundwater table. However, accurate monitoring on the net groundwater exploitation is still difficult, mainly due to a lack of complete groundwater exploitation monitoring network. This hinders an accurate evaluation of the effects of agricultural managements on shallow groundwater table. In this study, we use an existing method to estimate the net irrigation amount at the county level, and evaluate the effects of current agricultural management on groundwater depletion. We apply this method in five typical counties in the NCP to estimate annual net irrigation amount from 2002 to 2015, based on meteorological data (2002-2015) and remote sensing ET data (2002-2015) . First, an agro-hydrological model (Soil-Water-Atmosphere-Plant, SWAP) is calibrated and validated at field scale based on the measured data from flux towers. Second, the model is established at reginal scale by spatial discretization. Third, we use an optimization tool (Parameter ESTimation, PEST) to optimize the irrigation parameter in SWAP so as the simulated evapotranspiration (ET) by SWAP is closest to the remote sensing ET. We expect that the simulated irrigation amount from the optimized parameter is the estimated net irrigation amount. Finally, the contribution of agricultural management to the observed groundwater depletion is assessed by calculating the groundwater balance which considers the estimated net irrigation amount, observed lateral groundwater, rainfall recharge, deep seepage, evaporation from phreatic water and domestic water use. The study is expected to give a scientific basis for alleviating the over-exploitation of groundwater resources in the area.

Adaptive management of irrigation and crops' biodiversity: a case study on tomato

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

De Lorenzi, Francesca; Alfieri, Silvia Maria; Basile, Angelo; Bonfante, Antonello; Monaco, Eugenia; Riccardi, Maria; Menenti, Massimo

2013-04-01

evaluate the tomato crop adaptability to future climate. To this purpose, for several tomato cultivars, threshold values of their yield responses to soil water availability were determined (data from scientific literature). Cultivars' threshold values were evaluated, in all soil units, against the indicators' values, for irrigation levels with different ΔT/I. Less water intensive cultivars and irrigation volumes that optimize transpiration (and yield) could thus be identified in both climate scenarios, and irrigation management scenarios were determined taking into account soils' hydrological properties, crop biodiversity, and efficient use of water resource. The work was carried out within the Italian national project AGROSCENARI funded by the Ministry for Agricultural, Food and Forest Policies (MIPAAF, D.M. 8608/7303/2008) Keywords: climate change, adaptation, simulation models, deficit irrigation, water resource efficiency, SWAP

Water availability and management for food security

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Food security is directly linked to water security for food production. Water availability for crop production will be dependent upon precipitation or irrigation, soil water holding capacity, and crop water demand. The linkages among these components in rainfed agricultural systems shows the impact ...

Economic performance of water storage capacity expansion for food security

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gohar, Abdelaziz A.; Ward, Frank A.; Amer, Saud A.

2013-03-01

SummaryContinued climate variability, population growth, and rising food prices present ongoing challenges for achieving food and water security in poor countries that lack adequate water infrastructure. Undeveloped storage infrastructure presents a special challenge in northern Afghanistan, where food security is undermined by highly variable water supplies, inefficient water allocation rules, and a damaged irrigation system due three decades of war and conflict. Little peer-reviewed research to date has analyzed the economic benefits of water storage capacity expansions as a mechanism to sustain food security over long periods of variable climate and growing food demands needed to feed growing populations. This paper develops and applies an integrated water resources management framework that analyzes impacts of storage capacity expansions for sustaining farm income and food security in the face of highly fluctuating water supplies. Findings illustrate that in Afghanistan's Balkh Basin, total farm income and food security from crop irrigation increase, but at a declining rate as water storage capacity increases from zero to an amount equal to six times the basin's long term water supply. Total farm income increases by 21%, 41%, and 42% for small, medium, and large reservoir capacity, respectively, compared to the existing irrigation system unassisted by reservoir storage capacity. Results provide a framework to target water infrastructure investments that improve food security for river basins in the world's dry regions with low existing storage capacity that face ongoing climate variability and increased demands for food security for growing populations.

Automation of irrigation systems to control irrigation applications and crop water use efficiency

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Agricultural irrigation management to slow water withdrawals from non-replenishing quality water resources is a global endeavor and vital to sustaining irrigated agriculture and dependent rural economies. Research in site-specific irrigation management has shown that water use efficiency, and crop p...

Protein association of β-N-methylamino-L-alanine in Triticum aestivum via irrigation.

PubMed

Contardo-Jara, Valeska; Schwanemann, Torsten; Esterhuizen-Londt, Maranda; Pflugmacher, Stephan

2018-04-01

Bioaccumulation of several cyanotoxins has been observed in numerous food webs. More recently, the neurotoxic, non-proteinogenic amino acid β-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA) was shown to biomagnify in marine food webs. It was thus necessary to assess whether a human exposure risk via a terrestrial food source could exist. As shown for other cyanotoxins, spray irrigation of crop plants with cyanobacterial bloom-contaminated surface water poses the risk of toxin transfer into edible plant parts. Therefore, in the present study, we evaluated a possible transfer of BMAA via spray irrigation into the seeds of one of the world's most widely cultivated crop plants, Triticum aestivum. Wheat plants were irrigated with water containing 10 µg L -1 BMAA until they reached maturity and seed-bearing stage (205 days). Several morphological characteristics, such as germination rate, number of roots per seedling, length of primary root and cotyledon, and diameter of the stems were evaluated to assess the effects of chronic exposure. After 205 days, BMAA bioaccumulation was quantified in roots, shoots, and mature seeds of T. aestivum. No adverse morphology effects were observed and no free intracellular BMAA was detected in any of the exposed plants. However, in mature seeds, protein-associated BMAA was detected at 217 ± 150 ng g FW -1 ; significantly more than in roots and shoots. This result demonstrates the unexpected bioaccumulation of a hydrophilic compound and highlights the demand to specify in addition to limit values for drinking water, tolerable daily intake rates for the cyanobacterial-neurotoxin BMAA.

Advances in sprinkler irrigation management

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Sprinkler irrigation is being increasingly adopted in the US and worldwide because it offers increased crop water productivity over what is possible with gravity irrigation. Most sprinkler irrigation is by center pivot, which is presently used on about 50 and 80 percent of land irrigated in the US a...

Association between salt substitutes/enhancers and changes in sodium levels in fast-food restaurants: a cross-sectional analysis.

PubMed

Scourboutakos, Mary J; Murphy, Sarah A; L'Abbé, Mary R

2018-03-07

Restaurant foods have high sodium levels, and efforts have been made to promote reductions. The objective of this study was to understand if salt substitutes and enhancers are associated with changes in sodium levels in fast-food restaurants. A longitudinal database (MENU-FLIP) containing nutrition information for Canadian chain restaurants with 20 or more locations nationally was created in 2010 and updated in 2013 and 2016. In 2016, when available, ingredient lists were collected from restaurant websites and searched for the presence of salt substitutes/enhancers. Changes in sodium levels (per serving) and the prevalence of salt substitutes/enhancers in 222 foods from 12 of the leading fast-food restaurant chains were compared across 3 time points. Sixty-nine percent of foods contained a salt substitute/enhancer. Substitutes/enhancers were found in every restaurant chain ( n = 12) for which ingredient data were available. The most common substitutes/enhancers were yeast extracts (in 30% of foods), calcium chloride (28%), monosodium glutamate (14%) and potassium chloride (12%). Sodium levels in foods that contained substitutes/enhancers decreased significantly more (190 ± 42 mg/serving) over the study period than those in foods that did not contain a substitute/enhancer (40 ± 17 mg/serving, p < 0.001). Salt substitutes and enhancers are prevalent in restaurant foods and are one means by which restaurants may be lowering sodium levels in their foods. At this time, the potential consequences of these findings, if any, are uncertain. Copyright 2018, Joule Inc. or its licensors.

Planning for deficit irrigation

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Irrigators with limited water supplies that lead to deficit irrigation management need to make decisions about crop selection, water allocations to each crop, and irrigation schedules. Many of these decisions need to occur before the crop is planted and depend on yield-evapotranspiration (ET) and yi...

Evaluation of leafy vegetables as bioindicators of gaseous mercury pollution in sewage-irrigated areas.

PubMed

Zheng, Shun-An; Wu, Zeying; Chen, Chun; Liang, Junfeng; Huang, Hongkun; Zheng, Xiangqun

2018-01-01

Mercury (Hg) can evaporate and enter the plants through the stomata of plant leaves, which will cause a serious threat to local food safety and human health. For the risk assessment, this study aimed to investigate the concentration and accumulation of total gaseous mercury (TGM) in five typical leafy vegetables (Chinese chives (Allium tuberosum Rottler), amaranth (Amaranthus mangostanus L.), rape (Brassica campestris L.), lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.), and spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.)) grown on sewage-irrigated areas in Tianjin, China. The following three sites were chosen to biomonitor Hg pollution: a paddy field receiving sewage irrigation (industrial and urban sewage effluents) for the last 30 years, a vegetable field receiving sewage irrigation for 15 years, and a grass field which did not receive sewage irrigation in history. Results showed that the total Hg levels in the paddy (0.65 mg kg -1 ) and vegetation fields (0.42 mg kg -1 ) were significantly higher than the local background level (0.073 mg kg -1 ) and the China national soil environment quality standard for Hg in grade I (0.30 mg kg -1 ). The TGM levels in ambient air were significantly higher in the paddy (71.3 ng m -3 ) and vegetable fields (39.2 ng m -3 ) relative to the control (9.4 ng m -3 ) and previously reported levels (1.45 ng m -3 ), indicating severe Hg pollution in the atmospheric environment of the sewage-irrigated areas. Furthermore, gaseous mercury was the dominant form of Hg uptake in the leaves or irreversibly bound to leaves. The comparison of Hg uptake levels among the five vegetables showed that the gradient of Hg accumulation followed the order spinach > red amaranth > Chinese chives > rape > lettuce. These results suggest that gaseous Hg exposure in the sewage-irrigated areas is a dominant Hg uptake route in leafy vegetables and may pose a potential threat to agricultural food safety and human health.

Reduction of predictive uncertainty in estimating irrigation water requirement through multi-model ensembles and ensemble averaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Multsch, S.; Exbrayat, J.-F.; Kirby, M.; Viney, N. R.; Frede, H.-G.; Breuer, L.

2015-04-01

Irrigation agriculture plays an increasingly important role in food supply. Many evapotranspiration models are used today to estimate the water demand for irrigation. They consider different stages of crop growth by empirical crop coefficients to adapt evapotranspiration throughout the vegetation period. We investigate the importance of the model structural versus model parametric uncertainty for irrigation simulations by considering six evapotranspiration models and five crop coefficient sets to estimate irrigation water requirements for growing wheat in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia. The study is carried out using the spatial decision support system SPARE:WATER. We find that structural model uncertainty among reference ET is far more important than model parametric uncertainty introduced by crop coefficients. These crop coefficients are used to estimate irrigation water requirement following the single crop coefficient approach. Using the reliability ensemble averaging (REA) technique, we are able to reduce the overall predictive model uncertainty by more than 10%. The exceedance probability curve of irrigation water requirements shows that a certain threshold, e.g. an irrigation water limit due to water right of 400 mm, would be less frequently exceeded in case of the REA ensemble average (45%) in comparison to the equally weighted ensemble average (66%). We conclude that multi-model ensemble predictions and sophisticated model averaging techniques are helpful in predicting irrigation demand and provide relevant information for decision making.

Management of water for irrigation agriculture in semi-arid areas: Problems and prospects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mvungi, A.; Mashauri, D.; Madulu, N. F.

Most of the Mwanga district is classified as semi-arid with a rainfall range of 300 and 600 mm. Rainfall patterns in the district are unpredictable and are subject to great fluctuations. Like other semi-arid areas, the district is characterized with land degradation, unreliable rainfall, repeated water shortage, periodic famine, overgrazing, dry land cultivation in the marginal areas and heavy competition for limited biomass between farmers and cattle. Vulnerability here is high due to unreliability of weather. The people of Mwanga are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. However agriculture is difficult in the area due to inadequate rainfall. For a very long time the people have been dependent on irrigation agriculture to ensure food security. Of late the traditional irrigation system is on the decline threatening food security in the area. This paper examines the state and status of the irrigation canal system in Mwanga district with the view of recommending ways in which it can be improved. The study used participatory, survey and in-depth interviews to obtain both quantitative and qualitative data. The major findings are that social, political, environmental and demographic bases that supported the traditional irrigation system have changed drastically. As a corollary to this, the cultural and religious belief systems that supported and guided the traditional canal system management have been replaced by mistrust and corruption in water allocation. In addition the ownership and management system of the water resources that was vested in the initiator clans has changed and now water user groups own the canals/furrows but they do not own the water sources. This has rendered the control of the water sources difficult if not impossible. Currently the system is faced by a number of problems including shortage of water and poor management as demand for water increases and this has led to serious conflicts among and between crop producers and pastoralists

Multi-year mapping of irrigated croplands over the US High Plains Aquifer using satellite data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deines, J.; Kendall, A. D.; Hyndman, D. W.

2016-12-01

Irrigated agriculture is the largest consumer of freshwater globally. Effective water management is crucial to support ongoing agricultural intensification to meet increasing demand for food, fuel, and fiber production. Knowledge of where and when irrigation occurs is critical for effective management and hydrological modeling, yet data on patterns of irrigation through time are surprisingly rare. Existing regional datasets in the United States tend to be either aspatial county-level estimates or static, single-year remotely sensed products with relatively low spatial resolution ( 250 m or coarser). Spatially explicit, dynamic maps are needed to understand water use trends, create accurate hydrological models, and inform forecasts of future water availability under projected climate change. In the High Plains Aquifer (HPA), repeat mapping efforts in 2002 and 2007 indicated only 60% of irrigated lands were static between these periods. To better understand annual irrigation dynamics, we used remote sensing to produce annual maps of irrigated cropland across the HPA region from a data fusion of Landsat satellites, annual time series of vegetation indices, and ancillary data such as precipitation, soil properties, and terrain slope. We performed machine learning classification using Google Earth Engine, allowing efficient image processing over a large region for multiple years. We then analyzed maps for water use trends and found that although total irrigated area has increased only slightly, there was substantial variability in the spatial pattern of irrigated lands over time. This dataset will support efforts towards groundwater sustainability by providing consistent, spatially explicit tracking of irrigation dynamics over time.

Tillage effects on soil quality after three years of irrigation in Northern Spain

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Irrigation is being initiated on large areas of traditionally rainfed land to meet increasing global demand for food, feed, fiber, and fuel. However, the consequences of this transition on soil quality (SQ) have scarcely been studied. Therefore, after previously identifying the most tillage-sensitiv...

Irrigation efficiency and quality of irrigation return flows in the Ebro River Basin: an overview.

PubMed

Causapé, J; Quílez, D; Aragüés, R

2006-06-01

The review analysis of twenty two irrigation efficiency (IE) studies carried out in the Ebro River Basin shows that IE is low (average IE)(avg)(= 53%) in surface-irrigated areas with high-permeable and shallow soils inadequate for this irrigation system, high (IE)(avg)(= 79%) in surface-irrigated areas with appropriate soils for this system, and very high (IE)(avg)(= 94%) in modern, automated and well managed sprinkler-irrigated areas. The unitary salt (total dissolved solids) and nitrate loads exported in the irrigation return flows (IRF) of seven districts vary, depending on soil salinity and on irrigation and N fertilization management, between 3-16 Mg salt/ha x year and 23-195 kg NO)(3) (-)-N/ha x year, respectively. The lower nitrate loads exported from high IE districts show that a proper irrigation design and management is a key factor to reduce off-site nitrogen pollution. Although high IE's also reduce off-site salt pollution, the presence of salts in the soil or subsoil may induce relatively high salt loads (>or=14 Mg/ha x year) even in high IE districts. Two important constrains identified in our revision were the short duration of most surveys and the lack of standards for conducting irrigation efficiency and mass balance studies at the irrigation district level. These limitations {emphasize the need for the establishment of a permanent and standardized network of drainage monitoring stations for the appropriate off-site pollution diagnosis and control of irrigated agriculture.

The simulation of cropping pattern to improve the performance of irrigation network in Cau irrigation area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wahyuningsih, Retno; Rintis Hadiani, RR; Sobriyah

2017-01-01

Cau irrigation area located in Madiun district, East Java Province, irrigates 1.232 Ha of land which covers Cau primary channel irrigation network, Wungu Secondary channel irrigation network, and Grape secondary channel irrigation network. The problems in Cau irrigation area are limited availability of water especially during the dry season (planting season II and III) and non-compliance to cropping patterns. The evaluation of irrigation system performance of Cau irrigation area needs to be done in order to know how far the irrigation system performance is, especially based on planting productivity aspect. The improvement of irrigation network performance through cropping pattern optimization is based on the increase of water necessity fulfillment (k factor), the realization of planting area and rice productivity. The research method of irrigation system performance is by analyzing the secondary data based on the Regulation of Ministry of Public Work and State Minister for Public Housing Number: 12/PRT/M/2015. The analysis of water necessity fulfillment (k factor) uses Public Work Plan Criteria Method. The performance level of planting productivity aspect in existing condition is 87.10%, alternative 1 is 93.90% dan alternative 2 is 96.90%. It means that the performance of the irrigation network from productivity aspect increases 6.80% for alternative 1 and 9.80% for alternative 2.

Soil water nitrate and ammonium dynamics under a sewage effluent irrigated eucalypt plantation.

PubMed

Livesley, S J; Adams, M A; Grierson, P F

2007-01-01

Managed forests and plantations are appropriate ecosystems for land-based treatment of effluent, but concerns remain regarding nutrient contamination of ground- and surface waters. Monthly NO3-N and NH4-N concentrations in soil water, accumulated soil N, and gross ammonification and nitrification rates were measured in the second year of a second rotation of an effluent irrigated Eucalyptus globulus plantation in southern Western Australia to investigate the separate and interactive effects of drip and sprinkler irrigation, effluent and water irrigation, irrigation rate, and harvest residues retention. Nitrate concentrations of soil water were greater under effluent irrigation than water irrigation but remained <15 mg L(-1) when irrigated at the normal rate (1.5-2.0 mm d(-1)), and there was little evidence of downward movement. In contrast, NH4-N concentrations of soil water at 30 and 100 cm were generally greater under effluent irrigation than water irrigation when irrigated at the normal rate because of direct effluent NH4-N input and indirect ammonification of soil organic N. Drip irrigation of effluent approximately doubled peak NO3-N and NH4-N concentrations in soil water. Harvest residue retention reduced concentrations of soil water NO3-N at 30 cm during active sprinkler irrigation, but after 1 yr of irrigation there was no significant difference in the amount of N stored in the soil system, although harvest residue retention did enhance the "nitrate flush" in the following spring. Gross mineralization rates without irrigation increased with harvest residue retention and further increased with water irrigation. Irrigation with effluent further increased gross nitrification to 3.1 mg N kg(-1) d(-1) when harvest residues were retained but had no effect on gross ammonification, which suggested the importance of heterotrophic nitrification. The downward movement of N under effluent irrigation was dominated by NH4-N rather than NO3-N. Improving the capacity of

Irrigation trends in Kansas, 1991-2011

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kenny, Joan F.; Juracek, Kyle E.

2013-01-01

This fact sheet examines trends in total reported irrigation water use and acres irrigated as well as irrigation water use by crop type and system type in Kansas for the years 1991 through 2011. During the 21-year period, total reported irrigation water diversions varied substantially from year to year as affected primarily by climatic fluctuations. Total reported acres irrigated remained comparatively constant during this time, although acreages of irrigated corn increased and center pivots with drop nozzles became the dominant system type used for irrigation.

Energy requirements in pressure irrigation systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sánchez, R.; Rodríguez-Sinobas, L.; Juana, L.; Laguna, F. V.; Castañón, G.; Gil, M.; Benítez, J.

2012-04-01

Modernization of irrigation schemes, generally understood as transformation of surface irrigation systems into pressure -sprinkler and trickle- irrigation systems, aims at, among others, improving irrigation efficiency and reduction of operation and maintenance efforts made by the irrigators. However, pressure irrigation systems, in contrast, carry a serious energy cost. Energy requirements depend on decisions taken on management strategies during the operation phase, which are conditioned by previous decisions taken on the design project of the different elements which compose the irrigation system. Most of the countries where irrigation activity is significant bear in mind that modernization irrigation must play a key role in the agricultural infrastructure policies. The objective of this study is to characterize and estimate the mean and variation of the energy consumed by common types of irrigation systems and their management possibilities. The work includes all processes involved from the diversion of water into irrigation specific infrastructure to water discharge by the emitters installed on the crop fields. Simulation taking into account all elements comprising the irrigation system has been used to estimate the energy requirements of typical irrigation systems of several crop production systems. It has been applied to extensive and intensive crop systems, such us extensive winter crops, summer crops and olive trees, fruit trees and vineyards and intensive horticulture in greenhouses. The simulation of various types of irrigation systems and management strategies, in the framework imposed by particular cropping systems, would help to develop criteria for improving the energy balance in relation to the irrigation water supply productivity.

Water saving at the field scale with Irrig-OH, an open-hardware environment device for soil water potential monitoring and irrigation management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Masseroni, Daniele; Facchi, Arianna; Gandolfi, Claudio

2015-04-01

Sustainability of irrigation practices is an important objective which should be pursued in many countries, especially in areas where water scarcity causes strong conflicts among the different water uses. The efficient use of water is a key factor in coping with the food demand of an increasing world population and with the negative effects of the climate change on water resources availability in many areas. In this complex context, it is important that farmers adopt instruments and practices that enable a better management of water at the field scale, whatever the irrigation method they adopt. This work presents the hardware structure and the functioning of an open-hardware microstation based on the Arduino technology, called Irrig-OH, which allows the continuous and low-cost monitoring of the soil water potential (SWP) in the root zone for supporting the irrigation scheduling at the field scale. In order to test the microstation, an experiment was carried out during the agricultural season 2014 at Lodi (Italy), with the purpose of comparing the farmers' traditional management of irrigation of a peach variety and the scheduling based on the SWP measurements provided by the microstation. Additional measurements of leaf water potential (LWP), stomatal resistance, transpiration (T), crop water stress index (CWSI) and fruit size evolution were performed respectively on leafs and fruits for verifying the plant physiological responses on different SWP levels in soil. At the harvesting time, the peach production in term of quantity and quality (sucrose content was measured by a rifractometer over a sample of one hundred fruits) of the two rows were compared. Irrigation criteria was changed with respect to three macro-periods: up to the endocarp hardening phase (begin of May) soil was kept well watered fixing the SWP threshold in the first 35 cm of the soil profile at -20 kPa, during the pit hardening period (about the entire month of May) the allowed SWP threshold was

The future of irrigated agriculture under environmental flow requirements restrictions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pastor, Amandine; Palazzo, Amanda; Havlik, Petr; Kabat, Pavel; Obersteiner, Michael; Ludwig, Fulco

2016-04-01

Water is not an infinite resource and demand from irrigation, household and industry is constantly increasing. This study focused on including global water availability including environmental flow requirements with water withdrawal from irrigation and other sectors at a monthly time-step in the GLOBIOM model. This model allows re-adjustment of land-use allocation, crop management, consumption and international trade. The GLOBIOM model induces an endogenous change in water price depending on water supply and demand. In this study, the focus was on how the inclusion of water resources affects land-use and, in particular, how global change will influence repartition of irrigated and rainfed lands at global scale. We used the climate change scenario including a radiative forcing of 8.5 W/m2 (RCP8.5), the socio-economic scenario (SSP2: middle-of-road), and the environmental flow method based on monthly flow allocation (the Variable Monthly Flow method) with high and low restrictions. Irrigation withdrawals were adjusted to a monthly time-step to account for biophysical water limitations at finer time resolution. Our results show that irrigated land might decrease up to 40% on average depending on the choice of EFR restrictions. Several areas were identified as future hot-spots of water stress such as the Mediterranean and Middle-East regions. Other countries were identified to be in safe position in terms of water stress such as North-European countries. Re-allocation of rainfed and irrigated land might be useful information for land-use planners and water managers at an international level to decide on appropriate legislations on climate change mitigation/adaptation when exposure and sensitivity to climate change is high and/or on adaptation measures to face increasing water demand. For example, some countries are likely to adopt measures to increase their water use efficiencies (irrigation system, soil and water conservation practices) to face water shortages, while

Irrigation water quality influences heavy metal uptake by willows in biosolids.

PubMed

Laidlaw, W Scott; Baker, Alan J M; Gregory, David; Arndt, Stefan K

2015-05-15

Phytoextraction is an effective method to remediate heavy metal contaminated landscapes but is often applied for single metal contaminants. Plants used for phytoextraction may not always be able to grow in drier environments without irrigation. This study investigated if willows (Salix x reichardtii A. Kerner) can be used for phytoextraction of multiple metals in biosolids, an end-product of the wastewater treatment process, and if irrigation with reclaimed and freshwater influences the extraction process. A plantation of willows was established directly onto a tilled stockpile of metal-contaminated biosolids and irrigated with slightly saline reclaimed water (EC ∼2 dS/cm) at a wastewater processing plant in Victoria, Australia. Biomass was harvested annually and analysed for heavy metal content. Phytoextraction of cadmium, copper, nickel and zinc was benchmarked against freshwater irrigated willows. The minimum irrigation rate of 700 mm per growing season was sufficient for willows to grow and extract metals. Increasing irrigation rates produced no differences in total biomass and also no differences in the extraction of heavy metals. The reclaimed water reduced both the salinity and the acidity of the biosolids significantly within the first 12 months after irrigation commenced and after three seasons the salinity of the biosolids had dropped to <15% of initial values. A flushing treatment to remove excess salts was therefore not necessary. Irrigation had an impact on biosolids attributes such as salinity and pH, and that this had an influence on metal extraction. Reclaimed water irrigation reduced the biosolid pH and this was associated with reductions of the extraction of Ni and Zn, it did not influence the extraction of Cu and enhanced the phytoextraction of Cd, which was probably related to the high chloride content of the reclaimed water. Our results demonstrate that flood-irrigation with reclaimed water was a successful treatment to grow willows in a

TeleFood: a worldwide appeal.

PubMed

1997-12-01

In 1997, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) broadcast its first global television program on the theme of "Food for All" to an audience of approximately 450 million viewers. The objective of "TeleFood" was to raise awareness of the scale of the problem and to encourage solidarity in the fight against hunger. TeleFood raised funds to support the FAO's Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS) and similar grassroots projects that target rural people in developing countries. The SPFS project, now operational in 19 countries and being formulated in 32 more, emphasizes national ownership, farmer participation, environmental awareness, and recognition of the role of women in food production and marketing. The 3-year SPFS pilot phase involves 1) small-scale water harvesting, irrigation, and drainage; 2) sustainable intensification of crop production; 3) diversification of production; and 4) removal of policies that impede food security. Results to date include 1) greatly increased maize and potato yields in Bolivia and more modest increases in Nepal; 2) doubled yields of maize and rice in Tanzania; and 3) expansion of the area under low-cost irrigation in Zambia. South-South cooperation is allowing some developing countries to benefit from experience gained in other developing countries. The pilot activities are being funded with an increasing number of "soft" loans from governments and financial institutions.

Modern Endodontic Principles Part 4: Irrigation.

PubMed

Darcey, James; Jawad, Sarra; Taylor, Carly; Roudsari, Reza Vahid; Hunter, Mark

2016-01-01

The complex anatomy of the tooth limits the ability to eradicate pathogens by mechanical means alone. Irrigation is the key to solving this problem. This paper highlights the importance of irrigation, the key irrigants available and methods of improving the performance of irrigants within the canal. CPD/CLINICAL RELEVANCE: To provide advice on which irrigants to use, how to use them effectively and safely and what to do if irrigants are extruded beyond the apex.

Village-level supply reliability of surface water irrigation in rural China: effects of climate change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Yanrong; Wang, Jinxia

2018-06-01

Surface water, as the largest part of water resources, plays an important role on China's agricultural production and food security. And surface water is vulnerable to climate change. This paper aims to examine the status of the supply reliability of surface water irrigation, and discusses how it is affected by climate change in rural China. The field data we used in this study was collected from a nine-province field survey during 2012 and 2013. Climate data are offered by China's National Meteorological Information Center which contains temperature and precipitation in the past 30 years. A Tobit model (or censored regression model) was used to estimate the influence of climate change on supply reliability of surface water irrigation. Descriptive results showed that, surface water supply reliability was 74 % in the past 3 years. Econometric results revealed that climate variables significantly influenced the supply reliability of surface water irrigation. Specifically, temperature is negatively related with the supply reliability of surface water irrigation; but precipitation positively influences the supply reliability of surface water irrigation. Besides, climate influence differs by seasons. In a word, this paper improves our understanding of the impact of climate change on agriculture irrigation and water supply reliability in the micro scale, and provides a scientific basis for relevant policy making.

Climate Change Implications to Irrigated Rice Production in Southern Brazil: A Modelling Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dos Santos, Thiago

Rice is one of the staple foods for more than three billion people worldwide. When cultivated under irrigated conditions (i.e. lowland rice), rice is one of the most intensive water consumer crops globally. Therefore, representation of rice growth should be integrated into the latest land surface models to allow studies on food security and to ensure that accurate simulations of the bidirectional feedbacks between the land surface and atmosphere take place. In this study, I present a new process-based model for rice fields that includes rice growth and rice irrigation as modules within the Agro-IBIS dynamic agro-ecosystem model. The model includes a series of equations, agricultural management parameters and an irrigation scheme that are specifically tailored for rice crops. The model was evaluated against leaf area index and biomass observations, obtained for one growing season in Rio Grande do Sul state (southern Brazil), and in Los Banos, Philippines. The model accurately captured the temporal dynamics of leaf area index in both the Brazilian and the Philippine sites, and predicted end-of-season biomass with an error of between -9.5% and 11.3% depending on the location and the plant organ. Rice phenology is predicted by the model based on experimentally-derived growth rates, and was evaluated by comparing simulated and observed durations of the four growth phases considered by the model. Agro-IBIS showed a tendency to overestimate the duration of the growth stages between 3% and 16%, but underestimated by 8% the duration of the panicle formation phase in one growing season. The new irrigation model is based on the water balance at the surface and applies irrigation in order to keep the water layer at the paddy field always in the optimum level. A set of climate projections from global climate models under two emission scenarios, and excluding and considering CO2 fertilizations effects, was used to drive the updated Agro-IBIS to estimate the effects of climate

Irrigation in endodontic treatment.

PubMed

Basrani, Bettina

2011-01-01

The primary endodontic treatment goal is to optimize root canal disinfection and to prevent reinfection. Successful root canal therapy relies on the combination of proper instrumentation, irrigation, and obturation of the root canal system. In this review of the literature, various irrigants and the interactions between irrigants are discussed and new delivery systems are introduced.

Carbon and water footprints of irrigated corn and non-irrigated wheat in Northeast Spain.

PubMed

Abrahão, Raphael; Carvalho, Monica; Causapé, Jesús

2017-02-01

Irrigation increases yields and allows several crops to be produced in regions where it would be naturally impossible due to limited rainfall. However, irrigation can cause several negative environmental impacts, and it is important to understand these in depth for the correct application of mitigation measures. The life cycle assessment methodology was applied herein to compare the main irrigated and non-irrigated crops in Northeast Spain (corn and wheat, respectively), identifying those processes with greater contribution to environmental impacts (carbon and water footprint categories) and providing scientifically-sound information to facilitate government decisions. Due to concerns about climate change and water availability, the methods selected for evaluation of environmental impacts were IPCC 2013 GWP (carbon footprint) and water scarcity indicator (water footprint). The area studied, a 7.38-km 2 basin, was monitored for 12 years, including the period before, during, and after the implementation of irrigation. The functional unit, to which all material and energy flows were associated with, was the cultivation of 1 ha, throughout 1 year. The overall carbon footprint for irrigated corn was higher, but when considering the higher productivity achieved with irrigation, the emissions per kilogram of corn decrease and finally favor this irrigated crop. When considering the water footprint, the volumes of irrigation water applied were so high that productivity could not compensate for the negative impacts associated with water use in the case of corn. Nevertheless, consideration of productivities and gross incomes brings the results closer. Fertilizer use (carbon footprint) and irrigation water (water footprint) were the main contributors to the negative impacts detected.

Nitrogen removal and power generation from treated municipal wastewater by its circulated irrigation for resource-saving rice cultivation.

PubMed

Watanabe, Toru; Mashiko, Takuma; Maftukhah, Rizki; Kaku, Nobuo; Pham, Dong Duy; Ito, Hiroaki

2017-02-01

This study aims at improving the performance of the cultivating system of rice for animal feed with circulated irrigation of treated municipal wastewater by applying a larger amount of wastewater, as well as adding a microbial fuel cell (MFC) to the system. The results of bench-scale experiments indicate that this modification has increased the rice yield, achieving the target for the rice cultivar used in the experiment. In addition, an assessment of protein content of the harvested rice showed that the value of the rice as animal fodder has improved. Compared with normal one-way irrigation, circulated irrigation significantly enhanced the plant growth and rice production. The direction of the irrigation (bottom-to-top or top-to-bottom) in the soil layer had no significant effect. This modified system demonstrated >96% for nitrogen removal from the treated wastewater used for the irrigation, with approximately 40% of the nitrogen being used for rice plant growth. The MFC installed in the system facilitated power generation comparable with that reported for normal paddy fields. The power generation appeared to be enhanced by bottom-to-top irrigation, which could provide organic-rich treated wastewater directly to the bacterial community living on the anode of the MFC set in the soil layer.

Contamination of soils with microbial pathogens originating from effluent water used for agricultural irrigation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bernstein, N.

2009-04-01

The use of wastewater for agricultural irrigation is steadily increasing world-wide and due to shortages of fresh water is common today in most arid regions of the world. The use of treated wastewater for agricultural irrigation may result in soil exposure to pathogens, creating potential public health problems. A variety of human pathogens are present in raw sewage water. Although their concentrations decrease during the wastewater reclamation process, the secondary treated effluents most commonly used for irrigation today still contain bacterial human pathogens. A range of bacterial pathogens, introduced through contaminated irrigation water or manure, are capable of surviving for long periods in soil and water where they have the potential to contaminate crops in the field. Therefore, there is a risk of direct contamination of crops by human pathogens from the treated effluents used for irrigation, as well as a risk of indirect contamination of the crops from contaminated soil at the agricultural site. Contradictory to previous notion, recent studies have demonstrated that human pathogens can enter plants through their roots and translocate and survive in edible, aerial plant tissues. The practical implications of these new findings for food safety are still not clear, but no doubt reflect the pathogenic microorganisms' ability to survive and multiply in the irrigated soil, water, and the harvested edible crop.

Managing diminished irrigation capacity with preseason irrigation and plant density for corn production

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Many of the irrigation systems today in the U.S. Central Great Plains no longer have the capacity to match peak irrigation needs during the summer and must rely on soil water reserves to buffer the crop from water stress. Considerable research was conducted on preseason irrigation in the U.S. Great ...

Trade-offs and Opportunities in the Nexus of Energy and Water-for-Food

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rosegrant, M. W.

2015-12-01

The world economy is under pressure for greater, more efficient and more sustainable use of natural resources to meet complementary and competing objectives in the energy, water, and food sectors. Increasing national, regional, and seasonal water scarcities in much of the world pose severe challenges for national governments, the international development community, and ultimately, for individual water users. This presentation assesses the nexus between energy and water, with an emphasis on the interactions and trade-offs between energy and water for food production. It examines the impact of biofuel production on water quantity and quality, and the potential for hydropower potential to meet energy challenges while expanding irrigation water supplies and food production potential, thereby enhancing global food security. Biofuel production affects both water quantity and quality. Expanding production of biofuels—through either crop-based production systems or direct biomass production—can significantly increase demand for water as more acreage is planted or the crop mix begins to favor thirstier crops; water demand for bio-refineries creates additional competition with agricultural water use. Water quality can also be adversely affected by increased acreage for fertilizer-intensive crops, such as maize or sugarcane, which can result in increased nitrate run-off and soil erosion. Hydropower has become a relatively forgotten part of the energy-water security picture that deserves renewed attention. Unlike biofuels, hydropower does not normally compete with agricultural water. Instead, development of hydropower could complement food production by developing dam structures and power that also provide irrigation water and support its distribution for growing food crops. But balanced hydropower policies require consideration of potential trade-offs with environmental and social impacts.

Advances in Irrigation: Select Works from 2010 Decennial Irrigation Symposium

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

This paper is an introduction to the Advances in Irrigation Special Collection in this issue of Transactions ASABE and the next issue of Applied Engineering in Agriculture of 14 papers selected from 88 papers and presentations at the ASABE 5th Decennial National Irrigation Symposium, December 2010, ...

Wastewater retreatment and reuse system for agricultural irrigation in rural villages.

PubMed

Kim, Minyoung; Lee, Hyejin; Kim, Minkyeong; Kang, Donghyeon; Kim, Dongeok; Kim, YoungJin; Lee, Sangbong

2014-01-01

Climate changes and continuous population growth increase water demands that will not be met by traditional water resources, like surface and ground water. To handle increased water demand, treated municipal wastewater is offered to farmers for agricultural irrigation. This study aimed to enhance the effluent quality from worn-out sewage treatment facilities in rural villages, retreat effluent to meet water quality criteria for irrigation, and assess any health-related and environmental impacts from using retreated wastewater irrigation on crops and in soil. We developed the compact wastewater retreatment and reuse system (WRRS), equipped with filters, ultraviolet light, and bubble elements. A pilot greenhouse experiment was conducted to evaluate lettuce growth patterns and quantify the heavy metal concentration and pathogenic microorganisms on lettuce and in soil after irrigating with tap water, treated wastewater, and WRRS retreated wastewater. The purification performance of each WRRS component was also assessed. The study findings revealed that existing worn-out sewage treatment facilities in rural villages could meet the water quality criteria for treated effluent and also reuse retreated wastewater for crop growth and other miscellaneous agricultural purposes.

Food processing strategies to enhance phenolic compounds bioaccessibility and bioavailability in plant-based foods.

PubMed

Ribas-Agustí, Albert; Martín-Belloso, Olga; Soliva-Fortuny, Robert; Elez-Martínez, Pedro

2017-06-13

Phenolic compounds are important constituents of plant-based foods, as their presence is related to protective effects on health. To exert their biological activity, phenolic compounds must be released from the matrix during digestion in an absorbable form (bioaccessible) and finally absorbed and transferred to the bloodstream (bioavailable). Chemical structure and matrix interactions are some food-related factors that hamper phenolic compounds bioaccessibility and bioavailability, and that can be counteracted by food processing. It has been shown that food processing can induce chemical or physical modifications in food that enhance phenolic compounds bioaccessibility and bioavailability. These changes include: (i) chemical modifications into more bioaccessible and bioavailable forms; (ii) cleavage of covalent or hydrogen bonds or hydrophobic forces that attach phenolic compounds to matrix macromolecules; (iii) damaging microstructural barriers such as cell walls that impede the release from the matrix; and (iv) create microstructures that protect phenolic compounds until they are absorbed. Indeed, food processing can produce degradation of phenolic compounds, however, it is possible to counteract it by modulating the operating conditions in favor of increased bioaccessibility and bioavailability. This review compiles the current knowledge on the effects of processing on phenolic compounds bioaccessibility or bioavailability, while suggesting new guidelines in the search of optimal processing conditions as a step forward towards the design of healthier foods.

[Effects of different irrigations on the water physiological characteristics of Haloxylon ammodendron in Taklimakan Desert hinterland].

PubMed

Xie, Ting-ting; Zhang, Xi-ming; Liang, Shao-min; Shan, Li-shan; Yang, Xiao-lin; Hua, Yong-hui

2008-04-01

By using heat-balance stem flow gauge and press chamber, the water physiological characteristics of Haloxylon ammodendron under different irrigations in Taklimakan Desert hinterland were measured and analyzed. The results indicated that the diurnal variation curve of H. ammodendron stem sap flow varied with irrigations. When irrigated 35 and 24.5 kg x plant(-1) once time, the diurnal variation of stem sap flow changed in single peak curve and the variation extent was higher; while irrigated 14 kg x plant(-1) once time, the diurnal variation changed in two-peak curve and the variation extent was small. With the decrease of irrigations, the average daily sap flow rate and the daily water consumption of H. ammodendron decreased gradually, the dawn and postmeridian water potential also had a gradual decrease, and the correlations of stem sap flow with total radiation, air temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed enhanced. Under different irrigations, the correlation between stem sap flow rate and total radiation was always the best.

Estimating the impacts of a reservoir for improved water use in irrigation in the Yarabamba region, Peru

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Swiech, Theoclea; Ertsen, Maurits W.; Pererya, Carlos Machicao

The pressure on irrigation is increasing worldwide, not only because of - perceived or real - high water consumption in the irrigated sector, but also because an increased world population puts stress on food production. Numerous irrigated areas around the world face similar issues of water scarcity, disparity in water distribution and deficient infrastructure. As a result, farmers are typically restricted in their production strategies. A general strategy in the irrigation sector is the introduction of so-called modern techniques in existing irrigation systems, with the aim to increase agricultural production. This paper discusses such a modernization effort in the sub-basin of Yarabamba, Arequipa, Peru, in which a reservoir is being constructed to improve water use and stimulate economic development. Based on fieldwork, including interviews and scenario modeling with WEAP, the relationships between water users, their irrigation systems and the water balances in the basin were studied. Scenario studies showed that the reservoir might alleviate the current water shortages in the sub-basin, but that restrictions in the current infrastructure and management of irrigation may be of more importance than the reservoir. Especially existing interests and actions of upstream and downstream areas appear to be important factors; these will not be automatically solved with the new reservoir.

Climate change impacts on food system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, X.; Cai, X.; Zhu, T.

2014-12-01

Food system includes biophysical factors (climate, land and water), human environments (production technologies and food consumption, distribution and marketing), as well as the dynamic interactions within them. Climate change affects agriculture and food systems in various ways. Agricultural production can be influenced directly by climatic factors such as mean temperature rising, change in rainfall patterns, and more frequent extreme events. Eventually, climate change could cause shift of arable land, alteration of water availability, abnormal fluctuation of food prices, and increase of people at risk of malnutrition. This work aims to evaluate how climate change would affect agricultural production biophysically and how these effects would propagate to social factors at the global level. In order to model the complex interactions between the natural and social components, a Global Optimization model of Agricultural Land and Water resources (GOALW) is applied to the analysis. GOALW includes various demands of human society (food, feed, other), explicit production module, and irrigation water availability constraint. The objective of GOALW is to maximize global social welfare (consumers' surplus and producers' surplus).Crop-wise irrigation water use in different regions around the world are determined by the model; marginal value of water (MVW) can be obtained from the model, which implies how much additional welfare benefit could be gained with one unit increase in local water availability. Using GOALW, we will analyze two questions in this presentation: 1) how climate change will alter irrigation requirements and how the social system would buffer that by price/demand adjustment; 2) how will the MVW be affected by climate change and what are the controlling factors. These results facilitate meaningful insights for investment and adaptation strategies in sustaining world's food security under climate change.

Relationships between primary production and crop yields in semi-arid and arid irrigated agro-ecosystems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jaafar, H. H.; Ahmad, F. A.

2015-04-01

In semi-arid areas within the MENA region, food security problems are the main problematic imposed. Remote sensing can be a promising too early diagnose food shortages and further prevent the population from famine risks. This study is aimed at examining the possibility of forecasting yield before harvest from remotely sensed MODIS-derived Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Net photosynthesis (net PSN), and Gross Primary Production (GPP) in semi-arid and arid irrigated agro-ecosystems within the conflict affected country of Syria. Relationships between summer yield and remotely sensed indices were derived and analyzed. Simple regression spatially-based models were developed to predict summer crop production. The validation of these models was tested during conflict years. A significant correlation (p<0.05) was found between summer crop yield and EVI, GPP and net PSN. Results indicate the efficiency of remotely sensed-based models in predicting summer yield, mostly for cotton yields and vegetables. Cumulative summer EVI-based model can predict summer crop yield during crisis period, with deviation less than 20% where vegetables are the major yield. This approach prompts to an early assessment of food shortages and lead to a real time management and decision making, especially in periods of crisis such as wars and drought.

Decreasing Agricultural Irrigation has not reversed Groundwater Depletion in the Yellow River Basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kang, Z.; Xie, X.; Zhu, B.

2017-12-01

Agricultural irrigation is considered as the major water use sector accounting for over 60% of the global freshwater withdrawals. Especially in the arid and semiarid areas, irrigation from groundwater storage substantially sustain crop growth and food security. China's Yellow River Basin (YRB) is a typical arid and semiarid area with average annual precipitation about 450 mm. In this basin, more than 52 million hm2 of arable land needs irrigation for planting wheat, cotton, paddy rice etc, and groundwater contributes over one-third irrigation water. However, agricultural irrigation remained a certain level or decreased to some degree due to water-saving technologies and returning farmland to forest projects. Then an interesting question arises: has the groundwater storage (GWS) in YRB kept a consistent variation with the agricultural irrigation? In this study, to address this question, we employed multi-source data from ground measurements, remote sensing monitoring and large-scale hydrological modeling. Specifically, groundwater storage variation was identified using Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data and ground observations, and groundwater recharge was estimated based on the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) modeling. Results indicated that GWS in YRB still holds a significant depletion with a rate of about -3 mm per year during the past decade, which was consistently demonstrated by the GRACE and the ground observations. Ground water recharge shows negligible upward trends despite climate change. The roles of different sectors contributing to groundwater depletion have changed. Agricultural irrigation accounting for over 60% of groundwater depletion, but its impact decreased. However, the domestic and the industrial purposes play an increasing role in shaping groundwater depletion.

Ensuring Food Security Through Enhancing Microbiological Food Safety

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mikš-Krajnik, Marta; Yuk, Hyun-Gyun; Kumar, Amit; Yang, Yishan; Zheng, Qianwang; Kim, Min-Jeong; Ghate, Vinayak; Yuan, Wenqian; Pang, Xinyi

2015-10-01

Food safety and food security are interrelated concepts with a profound impact on the quality of human life. Food security describes the overall availability of food at different levels from global to individual household. While, food safety focuses on handling, preparation and storage of foods in order to prevent foodborne illnesses. This review focuses on innovative thermal and non-thermal technologies in the area of food processing as the means to ensure food security through improving food safety with emphasis on the reduction and control of microbiological risks. The antimicrobial efficiency and mechanism of new technologies to extend the shelf life of food product were also discussed.

Scintigraphic assessment of colostomy irrigation.

PubMed

Christensen, P.; Olsen, N.; Krogh, K.; Laurberg, S.

2002-09-01

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate colonic transport following colostomy irrigation with a new scintigraphic technique. MATERIALS AND METHODS: To label the bowel contents 19 patients (11 uncomplicated colostomy irrigation, 8 complicated colostomy irrigation) took 111In-labelled polystyrene pellets one and two days before investigation. 99mTc-DTPA was mixed with the irrigation fluid to assess its extent within the bowel. Scintigraphy was performed before and after a standardized washout procedure. The colon was divided into three segments 1: the caecum andascending colon; 2: the transverse colon; 3: the descending and sigmoid colon. Assuming ordered evacuation of the colon, the contribution of each colonic segment to the total evacuation was expressed as a percentage of the original segmental counts. These were added to reach a total defaecation score (range: 0-300). RESULTS: In uncomplicated colostomy irrigation, the median defaecation score was 235 (range: 145-289) corresponding to complete evacuation of the descending and transverse colon and 35% evacuation of the caecum/ascending colon. In complicated colostomy irrigation it was possible to distinguish specific emptying patterns. The retained irrigation fluid reached the caecum in all but one patient. CONCLUSION: Scintigraphy can be used to evaluate colonic emptying following colostomy irrigation.

Modeling irrigation behavior in groundwater systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Foster, Timothy; Brozović, Nicholas; Butler, Adrian P.

2014-08-01

Integrated hydro-economic models have been widely applied to water management problems in regions of intensive groundwater-fed irrigation. However, policy interpretations may be limited as most existing models do not explicitly consider two important aspects of observed irrigation decision making, namely the limits on instantaneous irrigation rates imposed by well yield and the intraseasonal structure of irrigation planning. We develop a new modeling approach for determining irrigation demand that is based on observed farmer behavior and captures the impacts on production and water use of both well yield and climate. Through a case study of irrigated corn production in the Texas High Plains region of the United States we predict optimal irrigation strategies under variable levels of groundwater supply, and assess the limits of existing models for predicting land and groundwater use decisions by farmers. Our results show that irrigation behavior exhibits complex nonlinear responses to changes in groundwater availability. Declining well yields induce large reductions in the optimal size of irrigated area and irrigation use as constraints on instantaneous application rates limit the ability to maintain sufficient soil moisture to avoid negative impacts on crop yield. We demonstrate that this important behavioral response to limited groundwater availability is not captured by existing modeling approaches, which therefore may be unreliable predictors of irrigation demand, agricultural profitability, and resilience to climate change and aquifer depletion.

Optimization of irrigation scheduling for spring wheat with mulching and limited irrigation water in an arid climate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wen, Y.

2017-12-01

Combining mulch and irrigation scheduling may lead to an increase of crop yield and water use efficiency (WUE = crop yield/evapotranspiration) with limited irrigation water, especially in arid regions. Based on 2 years' field experiments with ten irrigation-mulching treatments of spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in the Shiyang River Basin Experiment Station in Gansu Province of Northwest China, a simulation-based optimization model for deficit irrigation scheduling of plastic mulching spring wheat was used to analyze an optimal irrigation scheduling for different deficit irrigation scenarios. Results revealed that mulching may increase maximum grain yield without water stress by 0.4-0.6 t ha-1 in different years and WUE by 0.2-0.3 kg m-3 for different irrigation amounts compared with no mulching. Yield of plastic mulching spring wheat was more sensitive to water stress in the early and development growth stages with an increase of cumulative crop water sensitive index (CCWSI) by 42%, and less sensitive to water stress in the mid and late growth stages with a reduction of CCWSI by 24%. For a relative wet year, when irrigation water is only applied once it should be at the mid to end of booting growth stage. Two irrigations should be applied at the beginning of booting and heading growth stages. The irrigation date can be extended to the beginning of jointing and grain formation growth stages with more water available for irrigation. For a normal or a dry year, the first irrigation should be applied 5-8 days earlier than the wet year. The highest WUE of 3.6 kg m-3 was achieved with 180 mm of irrigation applied twice for mulching in a wet year. Combining mulch and an optimal deficit irrigation scheduling is an effective way to increase crop yield and WUE in arid regions.

Grey water footprint reduction in irrigated crop production: effect of nitrogen application rate, nitrogen form, tillage practice and irrigation strategy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chukalla, Abebe D.; Krol, Maarten S.; Hoekstra, Arjen Y.

2018-06-01

Grey water footprint (WF) reduction is essential given the increasing water pollution associated with food production and the limited assimilation capacity of fresh water. Fertilizer application can contribute significantly to the grey WF as a result of nutrient leaching to groundwater and runoff to streams. The objective of this study is to explore the effect of the nitrogen application rate (from 25 to 300 kg N ha-1), nitrogen form (inorganic N or manure N), tillage practice (conventional or no-tillage) and irrigation strategy (full or deficit irrigation) on the nitrogen load to groundwater and surface water, crop yield and the N-related grey water footprint of crop production by a systematic model-based assessment. As a case study, we consider irrigated maize grown in Spain on loam soil in a semi-arid environment, whereby we simulate the 20-year period 1993-2012. The water and nitrogen balances of the soil and plant growth at the field scale were simulated with the Agricultural Policy Environmental eXtender (APEX) model. As a reference management package, we assume the use of inorganic N (nitrate), conventional tillage and full irrigation. For this reference, the grey WF at a usual N application rate of 300 kg N ha-1 (with crop yield of 11.1 t ha-1) is 1100 m3 t-1, which can be reduced by 91 % towards 95 m3 t-1 when the N application rate is reduced to 50 kg N ha-1 (with a yield of 3.7 t ha-1). The grey WF can be further reduced to 75 m3 t-1 by shifting the management package to manure N and deficit irrigation (with crop yield of 3.5 t ha-1). Although water pollution can thus be reduced dramatically, this comes together with a great yield reduction, and a much lower water productivity (larger green plus blue WF) as well. The overall (green, blue and grey) WF per tonne is found to be minimal at an N application rate of 150 kg N ha-1, with manure, no-tillage and deficit irrigation (with crop yield of 9.3 t ha-1). The paper shows that there is a trade-off between

An assessment of colostomy irrigation.

PubMed

Laucks, S S; Mazier, W P; Milsom, J W; Buffin, S E; Anderson, J M; Warwick, M K; Surrell, J A

1988-04-01

One hundred patients with permanent sigmoid colostomies were surveyed to determine their satisfaction and success with the "irrigation" technique of colostomy management. Most patients who irrigate their colostomies achieve continence. Odors and skin irritation are minimized. The irrigation method is economical, time efficient, and allows a reasonably liberal diet. It avoids bulky appliances and is safe. In appropriately selected patients, the irrigation technique is the method of choice for management of an end-sigmoid colostomy.

The effects of experimental irrigation on plant productivity, insect abundance and the non-breeding season performance of a migratory songbird.

PubMed

Wilson, Scott; Marra, Peter P; Sillett, T Scott

2013-01-01

Migratory bird populations are often limited by food during the non-breeding season. Correlative evidence suggests that food abundance on territories varies among years in relation to rainfall, which affects plant productivity and arthropod biomass. At the Font Hill Nature Preserve in Jamaica, we used an irrigation experiment to test the hypothesis that rainfall affects the condition of wintering American redstarts (Setophaga ruticilla) via intermediate effects on plant productivity and arthropod abundance. Experimental plots were irrigated in late February and early March to simulate a mid-season pulse of 200 mm of rain. Irrigation maintained soil moisture levels near saturation and had immediate effects on plant productivity. Cumulative leaf abscission over the dry season was 50% lower on experimental plots resulting in greater canopy cover, and we observed significantly higher ground level shoot growth and the flushing of new leaves on about 58% of logwood (Haematoxylon campechianum) individuals. Arthropod biomass was 1.5 times higher on irrigated plots, but there was considerable inter-plot variability within a treatment and a strong seasonal decline in biomass. Consequently, we found no significant effect of irrigation on arthropod abundance or redstart condition. We suspect that the lack of an irrigation effect for taxa higher on the trophic chain was due to the small spatial scale of the treatment relative to the scale at which these taxa operate. Although redstart condition was not affected, we did observe turnover from subordinate to dominant territorial individuals on experimental plots suggesting a perceived difference in habitat quality that influenced individual behavior.

Enhancing Māori food security using traditional kai.

PubMed

McKerchar, Christina; Bowers, Sharron; Heta, Craig; Signal, Louise; Matoe, Leonie

2015-09-01

Lack of food security is one of the major nutrition issues facing Māori today. Loss of traditional kai (food) gathering places and practices following colonisation and urbanisation has impacted negatively on food security for Māori. This paper explores the role of Māori in enhancing Māori food security through revitalising traditional kai. A narrative literature review of peer reviewed and grey literature on revitalising traditional kai for Māori was conducted. The focus was on two areas: increasing the availability of traditional kai to Māori households (such as through replenishing fish stocks, and gardening projects) and increasing the financial means available to Māori households to purchase food (by economic development of traditional kai industries and employment creation). A range of activities to improve food security for Māori by revitalising traditional kai was identified in the literature. Māori are now significant players in New Zealand's fishing industry, and are developing their horticultural resources. Gardening initiatives have also grown considerably in Māori communities. Enabling factors included: the return of traditional kai resources by the Crown, and successful pursuit by Māori of the legal rights to develop them; development of Māori models of governance; government policy around Māori economic development and healthy eating; and Māori leadership on the issue. Barriers to revitalising traditional kai that remain to be addressed include: tensions between Government and Māori goals and models of resource management; economic pressures resulting in severely depleted fishing stocks; and pollution of marine and freshwater fish. Revitalising traditional kai has considerable potential to improve food security for Māori, both directly in terms of food supply and by providing income, and warrants policy and practical support. These findings have implications for other indigenous cultures who are struggling to be food secure. © The

Balancing water scarcity and quality for sustainable irrigated agriculture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Assouline, Shmuel; Russo, David; Silber, Avner; Or, Dani

2015-05-01

The challenge of meeting the projected doubling of global demand for food by 2050 is monumental. It is further exacerbated by the limited prospects for land expansion and rapidly dwindling water resources. A promising strategy for increasing crop yields per unit land requires the expansion of irrigated agriculture and the harnessing of water sources previously considered "marginal" (saline, treated effluent, and desalinated water). Such an expansion, however, must carefully consider potential long-term risks on soil hydroecological functioning. The study provides critical analyses of use of marginal water and management approaches to map out potential risks. Long-term application of treated effluent (TE) for irrigation has shown adverse impacts on soil transport properties, and introduces certain health risks due to the persistent exposure of soil biota to anthropogenic compounds (e.g., promoting antibiotic resistance). The availability of desalinated water (DS) for irrigation expands management options and improves yields while reducing irrigation amounts and salt loading into the soil. Quantitative models are used to delineate trends associated with long-term use of TE and DS considering agricultural, hydrological, and environmental aspects. The primary challenges to the sustainability of agroecosystems lies with the hazards of saline and sodic conditions, and the unintended consequences on soil hydroecological functioning. Multidisciplinary approaches that combine new scientific knowhow with legislative, economic, and societal tools are required to ensure safe and sustainable use of water resources of different qualities. The new scientific knowhow should provide quantitative models for integrating key biophysical processes with ecological interactions at appropriate spatial and temporal scales.

Deficit irrigation strategies enhance health-promoting compounds through the intensification of specific enzymes in early peaches.

PubMed

Falagán, Natalia; Artés, Francisco; Gómez, Perla Azucena; Artés-Hernández, Francisco; Conejero, Wenceslao; Aguayo, Encarna

2016-03-30

Biochemical and enzymatic responses to long-term regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) at harvest, during cold storage and after the retail sale period of 'Flordastar' early peaches were evaluated. Irrigation strategies were Control, and two RDI applied during post-harvest period (RDI1 , severe; RDI2 , moderate), based on different thresholds of maximum daily shrinkage signal intensity (RDI1 , 1.4 to dry; RDI2 , 1.3 to 1.6). Both RDI provoked stress in the plant. This meant higher antioxidant concentration [averaging 1.30 ± 0.27 g ascorbic acid equivalents (AAE) kg(-1) fresh weight (FW) for control and 1.77 ± 0.35 and 1.50 ± 0.30 g AAE kg(-1) FW for RDI1 and RDI2 , respectively]. Antioxidant levels decreased with storage by polyphenoloxydase action, which increased (from 0.04 ± 0.01 U mg(-1) protein to 0.32 ± 0.08 U mg(-1) protein). Vitamin C was initially higher in RDI samples (44.22 ± 0.05 g total vitamin C kg(-1) FW for control vs. 46.77 ± 0.02 and 46.27 ± 0.03 g total vitamin C kg(-1) FW for RDI1 and RDI2 , respectively). The way RDI was applied affected bioactive fruit composition, being catalase and dehydroascorbic acid good water stress indicators. RDI strategies can be used as field practice, allowing water savings while enhanced healthy compound content in early peaches. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry.

Future irrigation expansion outweigh groundwater recharge gains from climate change in semi-arid India.

PubMed

Sishodia, Rajendra P; Shukla, Sanjay; Wani, Suhas P; Graham, Wendy D; Jones, James W

2018-09-01

Simultaneous effects of future climate and irrigation intensification on surface and groundwater systems are not well understood. Efforts are needed to understand the future groundwater availability and associated surface flows under business-as-usual management to formulate policy changes to improve water sustainability. We combine measurements with integrated modeling (MIKE SHE/MIKE11) to evaluate the effects of future climate (2040-2069), with and without irrigation expansion, on water levels and flows in an agricultural watershed in low-storage crystalline aquifer region of south India. Demand and supply management changes, including improved efficiency of irrigation water as well as energy uses, were evaluated. Increased future rainfall (7-43%, from 5 Global Climate Models) with no further expansion of irrigation wells increased the groundwater recharge (10-55%); however, most of the recharge moved out of watershed as increased baseflow (17-154%) with a small increase in net recharge (+0.2mm/year). When increased rainfall was considered with projected increase in irrigation withdrawals, both hydrologic extremes of well drying and flooding were predicted. A 100-year flow event was predicted to be a 5-year event in the future. If irrigation expansion follows the historical trends, earlier and more frequent well drying, a source of farmers' distress in India, was predicted to worsen in the future despite the recharge gains from increased rainfall. Storage and use of excess flows, improved irrigation efficiency with flood to drip conversion in 25% of irrigated area, and reduced energy subsidy (free electricity for 3.5h compared to 7h/day; $1 billion savings) provided sufficient water savings to support future expansion in irrigated areas while mitigating well drying as well as flooding. Reductions in energy subsidy to fund the implementation of economically desirable (high benefit-cost ratio) demand (drip irrigation) and supply (water capture and storage

Economic feasibility of converting center pivot irrigation to subsurface drip irrigation

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Advancements in irrigation technology have increased water use efficiency. However, producers can be reluctant to convert to a more efficient irrigation system when the initial investment costs are high. This study examines the economic feasibility of replacing low energy precision application (LEPA...

Opportunities for Automated Demand Response in California Agricultural Irrigation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Olsen, Daniel; Aghajanzadeh, Arian; McKane, Aimee

Pumping water for agricultural irrigation represents a significant share of California’s annual electricity use and peak demand. It also represents a large source of potential flexibility, as farms possess a form of storage in their wetted soil. By carefully modifying their irrigation schedules, growers can participate in demand response without adverse effects on their crops. This report describes the potential for participation in demand response and automated demand response by agricultural irrigators in California, as well as barriers to widespread participation. The report first describes the magnitude, timing, location, purpose, and manner of energy use in California. Typical on-­farm controlsmore » are discussed, as well as common impediments to participation in demand response and automated demand response programs. Case studies of demand response programs in California and across the country are reviewed, and their results along with overall California demand estimates are used to estimate statewide demand response potential. Finally, recommendations are made for future research that can enhance the understanding of demand response potential in this industry.« less

Managing Microbial Risks from Indirect Wastewater Reuse for Irrigation in Urbanizing Watersheds.

PubMed

Verbyla, Matthew E; Symonds, Erin M; Kafle, Ram C; Cairns, Maryann R; Iriarte, Mercedes; Mercado Guzmán, Alvaro; Coronado, Olver; Breitbart, Mya; Ledo, Carmen; Mihelcic, James R

2016-07-05

Limited supply of clean water in urbanizing watersheds creates challenges for safely sustaining irrigated agriculture and global food security. On-farm interventions, such as riverbank filtration (RBF), are used in developing countries to treat irrigation water from rivers with extensive fecal contamination. Using a Bayesian approach incorporating ethnographic data and pathogen measurements, quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) methods were employed to assess the impact of RBF on consumer health burdens for Giardia, Cryptosporidium, rotavirus, norovirus, and adenovirus infections resulting from indirect wastewater reuse, with lettuce irrigation in Bolivia as a model system. Concentrations of the microbial source tracking markers pepper mild mottle virus and HF183 Bacteroides were respectively 2.9 and 5.5 log10 units lower in RBF-treated water than in the river water. Consumption of lettuce irrigated with river water caused an estimated median health burden that represents 37% of Bolivia's overall diarrheal disease burden, but RBF resulted in an estimated health burden that is only 1.1% of this overall diarrheal disease burden. Variability and uncertainty associated with environmental and cultural factors affecting exposure correlated more with QMRA-predicted health outcomes than factors related to disease vulnerability. Policies governing simple on-farm interventions like RBF can be intermediary solutions for communities in urbanizing watersheds that currently lack wastewater treatment.

Simulation of Soil Wetting Patterns in Drip and Subsurface Irrigation. Effects in Design and Irrigation Management Variables.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodríguez-Sinobas, L.; Gil-Rodríguez, M.; Sánchez, R.; Losada, A.; Castañón, G.; Juana, L.; Laguna, F. V.; Benítez, J.

2010-05-01

Conventional drip irrigation is considered one of the most efficient irrigation systems. Alternatively to traditional surface drip irrigation systems (DI), laterals are deployed underneath the soil surface, as in subsurface drip irrigation (SDI), leading to a higher potential efficiency, which is of especial interest in places where water is a limited source. The design and management of DI and SDI systems involve selection of an appropriate combination of emitter discharge rate and spacing between emitters and the inlet pressure and irrigation time for any given set of soil, crop, and climatic conditions, as well as understanding the wetted zone pattern around the emitter. Likewise, water distribution is affected by soil hydraulic properties, initial water content, emitter discharge, irrigation frequency, evapotranspiration and root characteristics. However, complexity arousing of soil water properties and soil profile characteristics means that these are often not properly considered in the design and management of those systems. A better understanding of the infiltration process around the discharge point source should contribute to increase water use efficiency and thus to reduce the risk of environmental impact of irrigation. In this regard, numerical models have been proved to be a powerful tool to analyze the evolution of the wetting pattern during the distribution and redistribution processes, in order to explore irrigation management strategies, to set up the duration of irrigation, and finally to optimize water use efficiency. Also, irrigation design variables such as emitter spacing and discharge could also be assessed. In this study the suitability of the HYDRUS-2D to simulate infiltration process around an emitter during irrigation of a loamy soil with drip and SDI laterals has been addressed. The model was then applied in order to evaluate the main dimensions of the wetted soil volume surrounding the emitter during irrigation. Irrigation uniformity

Soil management and conservation: Irrigation: Methods

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Irrigation applies water to soil to improve crop production. The three main methods of irrigation are surface, sprinkler and micro. Surface irrigation is used on 85% of the irrigated land in the world. It generally requires lower capital investment because the soil conveys water within the field, ra...

Are There Infinite Irrigation Trees?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bernot, M.; Caselles, V.; Morel, J. M.

2006-08-01

In many natural or artificial flow systems, a fluid flow network succeeds in irrigating every point of a volume from a source. Examples are the blood vessels, the bronchial tree and many irrigation and draining systems. Such systems have raised recently a lot of interest and some attempts have been made to formalize their description, as a finite tree of tubes, and their scaling laws [25], [26]. In contrast, several mathematical models [5], [22], [10], propose an idealization of these irrigation trees, where a countable set of tubes irrigates any point of a volume with positive Lebesgue measure. There is no geometric obstruction to this infinitesimal model and general existence and structure theorems have been proved. As we show, there may instead be an energetic obstruction. Under Poiseuille law R(s) = s -2 for the resistance of tubes with section s, the dissipated power of a volume irrigating tree cannot be finite. In other terms, infinite irrigation trees seem to be impossible from the fluid mechanics viewpoint. This also implies that the usual principle analysis performed for the biological models needs not to impose a minimal size for the tubes of an irrigating tree; the existence of the minimal size can be proven from the only two obvious conditions for such irrigation trees, namely the Kirchhoff and Poiseuille laws.

Irrigation as a determinant of the land use impacts of biofuels

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, J.; Hertel, T. W.; Taheripour, F.

2011-12-01

presence of potential irrigation constraints significantly alters the geographic pattern of land use change in the wake of the US ethanol expansion. Since rainfed agriculture is more likely than irrigated agriculture to compete with forest, the irrigation-enhanced model shows greater conversion of forest to cropland (up from 23% to 27% of total cropland conversion globally). As a consequence, the GHG emissions from this indirect land use change are significantly higher than the previous estimates - this stems both from greater cropland expansion overall, as well as from the tendency to convert more forest per hectare of cropland.

Residual pesticide detection on food with particle-enhanced Raman scattering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ranjan, Bikas; Huang, LiChuan; Masui, Kyoko; Saito, Yuika; Verma, Prabhat

2014-08-01

Modern farming relies highly on pesticides to protect agricultural food items from insects for high yield and better quality. Increasing use of pesticide has raised concern about its harmful effects on human health and hence it has become very important to detect even small amount of pesticide residues. Raman spectroscopy is a suitable nondestructive method for pesticide detection, however, it is not very effective for low concentration of pesticide molecules. Here, we report an approach based on plasmonic enhancement, namely, particle enhanced Raman spectroscopy (PERS), which is rapid, nondestructive and sensitive. In this technique, Raman signals are enhanced via the resonance excitation of localized plasmons in metallic nanoparticles. Gold nanostructures are promising materials that have ability to tune surface plasmon resonance frequency in visible to near-IR, which depends on shape and size of nanostructures. We synthesized gold nanorods (GNRs) with desired shape and size by seed mediated growth method, and successfully detected very tiny amount of pesticide present on food items. We also conformed that the detection of pesticide was not possible by usual Raman spectroscopy.

Irrigation Dynamics and Tactics - Developing a Sustainable and Profitable Irrigation Strategy for Agricultural Areas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Van Opstal, J.; Neale, C. M. U.; Lecina, S.

2014-12-01

Irrigation management is a dynamic process that adapts according to weather conditions and water availability, as well as socio-economic influences. The goal of water users is to adapt their management to achieve maximum profits. However, these decisions should take into account the environmental impact on the surroundings. Agricultural irrigation systems need to be viewed as a system that is an integral part of a watershed. Therefore changes in the infrastructure, operation and management of an irrigated area, has an impact on the water quantity and quality available for other water users. A strategy can be developed for decision-makers using an irrigation system modelling tool. Such a tool can simulate the impact of the infrastructure, operation and management of an irrigation area on its hydrology and agricultural productivity. This combination of factors is successfully simulated with the Ador model, which is able to reproduce on-farm irrigation and water delivery by a canal system. Model simulations for this study are supported with spatial analysis tools using GIS and remote sensing. Continuous measurements of drainage water will be added to indicate the water quality aspects. The Bear River Canal Company located in Northern Utah (U.S.A.) is used as a case study for this research. The irrigation area encompasses 26,000 ha and grows mainly alfalfa, grains, corn and onions. The model allows the simulation of different strategies related to water delivery, on-farm water use, crop rotations, and reservoirs and networks capacities under different weather and water availability conditions. Such changes in the irrigation area will have consequences for farmers in the study area regarding crop production, and for downstream users concerning both the quantity and quality of outflows. The findings from this study give insight to decision-makers and water users for changing irrigation water delivery strategies to improve the sustainability and profitability of

Environmental, Economic and Social Efficiencies of Irrigated Farming Systems: Using Water Footprint Indicators to Compare Farm Income and Labor Generated per Volume of Water Available in Irrigated Farming Systems in Campania, Italy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Altobelli, F.; Meybeck, A.; Gitz, V.; Dalla Marta, A.; Cimino, O.

2014-12-01

Agriculture is not only producing food and other products. It is also a major economic sector, representing, especially in developing countries, an important part of GDP; and a major employer, with often more than half of the total workforce in many low income countries. In many of these countries irrigation plays a key role to increase and stabilize income, and it is likely to increase with climate change and increased variability of rain patterns. It is also a crucial mean to increase productivity of small holdings. In many countries, where holdings are small and even in some cases decreasing it is essential to enable farmers to ensure their food security and a decent income. In some countries, including India and many African countries, the workforce is expected to grow, with an important part of it to be employed in agriculture. At the same time many of the regions where agriculture is the most important from an economical and social point of view, are experiencing increasing water scarcity. In many cases, as has been noted for instance for the Mediterranean area, water availability is the main limiting factor to agricultural development. Increasingly agriculture is also in competition for water use with other economic activities. This calls for means to assess and compare agricultural productions systems and irrigation projects not only in terms of physical production of agricultural products but also in terms of income and jobs generated by the activity. In this study, we propose a methodology based on the blue water footprint for assessing and comparing different agricultural productions and farming systems in terms of economic and social outcomes for a given volume of blue water. Examples are drawn from the Campania region of Italy and based on data extracted from the Italian Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN). This database contains, among other, data on crop production, irrigation management (irrigated surface, length of irrigation season, volumes of

Drip irrigation research update at NPRL

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Drip irrigation research has been conducted since 1998 at NPRL. Systems include deep subsurface drip irrigation (SSDI), surface drip irrigation (SDI), and shallow subsurface drip irrigation (S3DI). Results have shown that SDI and S3DI are more economical to install than SSDI. SDI systems have more r...

Simulating the Effects of Widespread Adoption of Efficient Irrigation Technologies on Irrigation Water Use

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kendall, A. D.; Deines, J. M.; Hyndman, D. W.

2017-12-01

Irrigation technologies are changing: becoming more efficient, better managed, and capable of more precise targeting. Widespread adoption of these technologies is shifting water balances and significantly altering the hydrologic cycle in some of the largest irrigated regions in the world, such as the High Plains Aquifer of the USA. There, declining groundwater resources, increased competition from alternate uses, changing surface water supplies, and increased subsidies and incentives are pushing farmers to adopt these new technologies. Their decisions about adoption, irrigation extent, and total water use are largely unrecorded, limiting critical data for what is the single largest consumptive water use globally. Here, we present a novel data fusion of an annual water use and technology database in Kansas with our recent remotely-sensed Annual Irrigation Maps (AIM) dataset to produce a spatially and temporally complete record of these decisions. We then use this fusion to drive the Landscape Hydrologic Model (LHM), which simulates the full terrestrial water cycle at hourly timesteps for large regions. The irrigation module within LHM explicitly simulates each major irrigation technology, allowing for a comprehensive evaluation of changes in irrigation water use over time and space. Here we simulate 2000 - 2016, a period which includes a major increase in the use of modern efficient irrigation technology (such as Low Energy Precision Application, LEPA) as well as both drought and relative wet periods. Impacts on water use are presented through time and space, along with implications for adopting these technologies across the USA and globally.

Irrigation Without Waste

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shea, Kevin P.

1975-01-01

A new means of irrigation, called the drip or trickle system, has been proven more efficient and less wasteful than the current system of flood irrigation. As a result of this drip system, fertilizer-use efficiency is improved and crop yield, though never decreased, is sometimes increased in some crops. (MA)

The Influence of Climate Change on Irrigated Water Demands and Surface Water Availability of the Yellow River Basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Troy, T. J.; Zhang, J.

2017-12-01

Balancing irrigated water demands and surface water availability is critical for sustainable water resources management. In China, irrigation is the largest water user, and there is concern that irrigated water demands will be affected by climate change. If the relationship between climate change, irrigated water demands and surface water availability is quantified, then effective measures can be developed to maintain food production while ensuring water sustainability. This research focuses on the Yellow River, the second longest in China, and analyzes the impact of historical and projected climate change on agricultural water demands and surface water availability. Corn and wheat are selected as representative crops to estimate the effect of temperature and precipitin changes on irrigated water demands. The VIC model is used to simulate daily streamflow throughout the Yellow River, providing estimates of surface water availability. Overall, results indicate the irrigated water need and surface water availability are impacted by climate change, with spatially varying impacts depending on spatial patterns of climate trends and river network position. This research provides insight into water security in the Yellow River basin, indicating where water efficiency measures are needed and where they are not.

Comparison of sealer penetration using the EndoVac irrigation system and conventional needle root canal irrigation.

PubMed

Kara Tuncer, Aysun; Unal, Bayram

2014-05-01

The aim of this study was to compare the effect of the EndoVac irrigation system (SybronEndo, Orange, CA) and conventional endodontic needle irrigation on sealer penetration into dentinal tubules. Forty single-rooted, recently extracted human maxillary central incisors were randomly divided into 2 groups according to the irrigation technique used: conventional endodontic needle irrigation and EndoVac irrigation. All teeth were instrumented using the ProFile rotary system (Dentsply Maillefer, Ballaigues, Switzerland) and obturated with gutta-percha and AH Plus sealer (Dentsply DeTrey, Konstanz, Germany) labeled with fluorescent dye. Transverse sections at 1, 3, and 5 mm from the root apex were examined using confocal laser scanning microscopy. The total percentage and maximum depth of sealer penetration were then measured. Mann-Whitney test results showed that EndoVac irrigation resulted in a significantly higher percentage of sealer penetration than conventional irrigation at both the 1- and 3-mm levels (P < .05). However, no difference was found at the 5-mm level. The 5-mm sections in each group showed a significantly higher percentage and maximum depth of sealer penetration than did the 1- and 3-mm sections (P < .05). The EndoVac irrigation system significantly improved the sealer penetration at the 1- to 3-mm level over that of conventional endodontic needle irrigation. Copyright © 2014 American Association of Endodontists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Eating 'Junk-Food' Produces Rapid and Long-Lasting Increases in NAc CP-AMPA Receptors: Implications for Enhanced Cue-Induced Motivation and Food Addiction.

PubMed

Oginsky, Max F; Goforth, Paulette B; Nobile, Cameron W; Lopez-Santiago, Luis F; Ferrario, Carrie R

2016-12-01

Urges to eat are influenced by stimuli in the environment that are associated with food (food cues). Obese people are more sensitive to food cues, reporting stronger craving and consuming larger portions after food cue exposure. The nucleus accumbens (NAc) mediates cue-triggered motivational responses, and activations in the NAc triggered by food cues are stronger in people who are susceptible to obesity. This has led to the idea that alterations in NAc function similar to those underlying drug addiction may contribute to obesity, particularly in obesity-susceptible individuals. Motivational responses are mediated in part by NAc AMPA receptor (AMPAR) transmission, and recent work shows that cue-triggered motivation is enhanced in obesity-susceptible rats after 'junk-food' diet consumption. Therefore, here we determined whether NAc AMPAR expression and function is increased by 'junk-food' diet consumption in obesity-susceptible vs -resistant populations using both outbred and selectively bred models of susceptibility. In addition, cocaine-induced locomotor activity was used as a general 'read out' of mesolimbic function after 'junk-food' consumption. We found a sensitized locomotor response to cocaine in rats that gained weight on a 'junk-food' diet, consistent with greater responsivity of mesolimbic circuits in obesity-susceptible groups. In addition, eating 'junk-food' increased NAc calcium-permeable-AMPAR (CP-AMPAR) function only in obesity-susceptible rats. This increase occurred rapidly, persisted for weeks after 'junk-food' consumption ceased, and preceded the development of obesity. These data are considered in light of enhanced cue-triggered motivation and striatal function in obesity-susceptible rats and the role of NAc CP-AMPARs in enhanced motivation and addiction.

Modelling the influence of irrigation on the shrinking Aral Sea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aus der Beek, Tim; Voss, Frank; Floerke, Martina

2010-05-01

The Aral Sea is fed by two tributaries, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, and often is considered as one of the most complex hydrological basins of the world. The shrinkage of the Aral Sea during the last 50 years, which has been caused by excessive irrigation projects, has led to numerous ecological, human and economical problems. This study focuses on historic modelling (1960-2002) of the Amu Darya (535,000 km²) and the Syr Darya (219,000 km²) to assess the influence of land-use change, i.e. conversion of non-cultivated land to irrigated crops, on the hydrological cycle and on the shrinkage of the Aral Sea. Therefore, we have compiled crop- and irrigation-specific land use maps in five year intervals from extensive literature and data base reviews. These maps are first applied within the WaterGAP irrigation model, which has been further developed to account for the seven major crops of Central Asia, to compute crop-specific net irrigation requirements. In combination with a newly set up data base on time series of irrigation project efficiencies for Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan we have also been able to depict crop-specific gross irrigation requirements. These results have then been applied within the WaterGAP hydrology model, where they alter the water balance of each affected grid cell, and thus, runoff generation. All irrigation and hydrology calculations have been conducted in daily time steps and five arc minutes spatial resolution (~ 8 x 10 km grid cells) for the entire Aral Sea basin. Climate forcing data for the 42 year period has been taken from the CRU TS2.1 data set. First results of this model experiment show that not only massive water abstractions have caused the changes in the hydrological regime of both rivers, but also poor land and water management has taken its toll. Between 1960 and 1990 a state driven land use conversion from locally adapted food crops, such as cereals, to water intensive cash crops

Characterizing tradeoffs between water and food under different climate regimes across the United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Troy, T.; Zhu, X.; Kipgen, C.; Li, X.; Pal, I.

2015-12-01

As water demand approaches or exceeds the available water supply in many regions of the globe, water stress will become increasingly prevalent with potentially necessary tradeoffs required between water prioritization amongst sectors. Agriculture is the largest consumptive water user in the US, and irrigation plays a vital role in ensuring a stable food supply by buffering against climate extremes. However, it also plays a negative role in inducing water stress in many regions. Much research has focused on reducing agricultural water use, but this needs to be complemented by better quantifying the benefit of irrigation on crop yields under a range of climate conditions. Regions are identified with significant irrigation benefits with and without water stress to parse apart the role of climate, crop choice, and water usage to then evaluate tradeoffs with food production in a climate-water-food nexus.

Interactive effects of elevated CO2 concentration and irrigation on photosynthetic parameters and yield of maize in Northeast China.

PubMed

Meng, Fanchao; Zhang, Jiahua; Yao, Fengmei; Hao, Cui

2014-01-01

Maize is one of the major cultivated crops of China, having a central role in ensuring the food security of the country. There has been a significant increase in studies of maize under interactive effects of elevated CO2 concentration ([CO2]) and other factors, yet the interactive effects of elevated [CO2] and increasing precipitation on maize has remained unclear. In this study, a manipulative experiment in Jinzhou, Liaoning province, Northeast China was performed so as to obtain reliable results concerning the later effects. The Open Top Chambers (OTCs) experiment was designed to control contrasting [CO2] i.e., 390, 450 and 550 µmol·mol(-1), and the experiment with 15% increasing precipitation levels was also set based on the average monthly precipitation of 5-9 month from 1981 to 2010 and controlled by irrigation. Thus, six treatments, i.e. C550W+15%, C550W0, C450W+15%, C450W0, C390W+15% and C390W0 were included in this study. The results showed that the irrigation under elevated [CO2] levels increased the leaf net photosynthetic rate (Pn) and intercellular CO2 concentration (Ci) of maize. Similarly, the stomatal conductance (Gs) and transpiration rate (Tr) decreased with elevated [CO2], but irrigation have a positive effect on increased of them at each [CO2] level, resulting in the water use efficiency (WUE) higher in natural precipitation treatment than irrigation treatment at elevated [CO2] levels. Irradiance-response parameters, e.g., maximum net photosynthetic rate (Pnmax) and light saturation points (LSP) were increased under elevated [CO2] and irrigation, and dark respiration (Rd) was increased as well. The growth characteristics, e.g., plant height, leaf area and aboveground biomass were enhanced, resulting in an improved of yield and ear characteristics except axle diameter. The study concluded by reporting that, future elevated [CO2] may favor to maize when coupled with increasing amount of precipitation in Northeast China.

Interactive Effects of Elevated CO2 Concentration and Irrigation on Photosynthetic Parameters and Yield of Maize in Northeast China

PubMed Central

Meng, Fanchao; Zhang, Jiahua; Yao, Fengmei; Hao, Cui

2014-01-01

Maize is one of the major cultivated crops of China, having a central role in ensuring the food security of the country. There has been a significant increase in studies of maize under interactive effects of elevated CO2 concentration ([CO2]) and other factors, yet the interactive effects of elevated [CO2] and increasing precipitation on maize has remained unclear. In this study, a manipulative experiment in Jinzhou, Liaoning province, Northeast China was performed so as to obtain reliable results concerning the later effects. The Open Top Chambers (OTCs) experiment was designed to control contrasting [CO2] i.e., 390, 450 and 550 µmol·mol−1, and the experiment with 15% increasing precipitation levels was also set based on the average monthly precipitation of 5–9 month from 1981 to 2010 and controlled by irrigation. Thus, six treatments, i.e. C550W+15%, C550W0, C450W+15%, C450W0, C390W+15% and C390W0 were included in this study. The results showed that the irrigation under elevated [CO2] levels increased the leaf net photosynthetic rate (P n) and intercellular CO2 concentration (C i) of maize. Similarly, the stomatal conductance (G s) and transpiration rate (T r) decreased with elevated [CO2], but irrigation have a positive effect on increased of them at each [CO2] level, resulting in the water use efficiency (WUE) higher in natural precipitation treatment than irrigation treatment at elevated [CO2] levels. Irradiance-response parameters, e.g., maximum net photosynthetic rate (P nmax) and light saturation points (LSP) were increased under elevated [CO2] and irrigation, and dark respiration (R d) was increased as well. The growth characteristics, e.g., plant height, leaf area and aboveground biomass were enhanced, resulting in an improved of yield and ear characteristics except axle diameter. The study concluded by reporting that, future elevated [CO2] may favor to maize when coupled with increasing amount of precipitation in Northeast China. PMID:24848097

Real-time drought forecasting system for irrigation managment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ceppi, Alessandro; Ravazzani, Giovanni; Corbari, Chiara; Masseroni, Daniele; Meucci, Stefania; Pala, Francesca; Salerno, Raffaele; Meazza, Giuseppe; Chiesa, Marco; Mancini, Marco

2013-04-01

In recent years frequent periods of water scarcity have enhanced the need to use water more carefully, even in in European areas traditionally rich of water such as the Po Valley. In dry periods, the problem of water shortage can be enhanced by conflictual use of water such as irrigation, industrial and power production (hydroelectric and thermoelectric). Further, over the last decade the social perspective on this issue is increasing due to climate change and global warming scenarios which come out from the last IPCC Report. The increased frequency of dry periods has stimulated the improvement of irrigation and water management. In this study we show the development and implementation of the real-time drought forecasting system Pre.G.I., an Italian acronym that stands for "Hydro-Meteorological forecast for irrigation management". The system is based on ensemble prediction at long range (30 days) with hydrological simulation of water balance to forecast the soil water content in every parcel over the Consorzio Muzza basin. The studied area covers 74,000 ha in the middle of the Po Valley, near the city of Lodi. The hydrological ensemble forecasts are based on 20 meteorological members of the non-hydrostatic WRF model with 30 days as lead-time, provided by Epson Meteo Centre, while the hydrological model used to generate the soil moisture and water table simulations is the rainfall-runoff distributed FEST-WB model, developed at Politecnico di Milano. The hydrological model was validated against measurements of latent heat flux and soil moisture acquired by an eddy-covariance station. Reliability of the forecasting system and its benefits was assessed on some cases-study occurred in the recent years.

Irrigation of steppe soils in the south of Russia: Problems and solutions (Analysis of Irrigation Practices in 1950-1990)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Minashina, N. G.

2009-07-01

Experience in irrigation of chernozems in the steppe zone of Russia for a period from 1950 to 1990 is analyzed. By the end of this period and in the subsequent years, the areas under irrigation reduced considerably, and the soil productivity worsened. This was caused by the improper design of irrigation systems, on the one hand, and by the low tolerance of chernozems toward increased moistening upon irrigation, on the other hand. The analysis of the factors and regimes of soil formation under irrigation conditions shows that irrigation-induced changes in the soil hydrology also lead to changes in the soil physicochemical, biochemical, and other properties. In particular, changes in the composition of exchangeable cations lead to the development of solonetzic process. In many areas, irrigation of chernozems was accompanied by the appearance of solonetzic, vertic, saline, and eroded soils. The development of soil degradation processes is described. In general, the deterioration of irrigated chernozems was related to the absence of adequate experience in irrigation of steppe soils, unskilled personnel, improper regime of irrigation, and excessively high rates of watering. In some cases, the poor quality of irrigation water resulted in the development of soil salinization and alkalization. To improve the situation, the training of personnel is necessary; the strategy of continuous irrigation should be replaced by the strategy of supplementary irrigation in the critical periods of crop development.

An example of treated waste water use for soil irrigation in the SAFIR project.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cary, L.; Jovanovic, Z.; Stikic, R.; Blagojevic, S.; Kloppmann, W.

2009-04-01

The safe use of treated domestic wastewater for irrigation needs to address the risks for humans (workers, exposed via contact with irrigation water, soil, crops and food, consumers, exposed via ingestion of fresh and processed food), for animals (via ingestion of crops on soil), for the crops and agricultural productivity (via salinity and trace element uptake), for soil (via accumulation or release of pollutants) as well as for surface, groundwaters and the associated ecosystems (via runoff and infiltration, Kass et al., 2005, Bouwer, 2000). In this context, the European FP6 SAFIR project (Safe and High Quality Food Production using Low Quality Waters and Improved Irrigation Systems and Management) investigates the geochemical quality of the root zone soil, knowing it is the main transit and storage compartment for pollutants. The type of reaction (sorption, co-precipitation…) and the reactive mineral phases also determine the availability of trace elements for the plant and determine the passage towards crops and products. Reactions of the infiltrating water with the soil solid phase are important for the solute cycling, temporary fixation and remobilisation of trace pollutants. Therefore the soil water quality was directly or indirectly assessed. Direct measurements of soil water were made through porous cups. The experiments were carried out during the growing season of 2006, 2007 and 2008 in a vegetable commercial farm, located at 10 km north of Belgrade. The soil is silty clayey, and developed on alluvial deposits. It was classified as humogley according to USDA Soil Classification. The climate of the field side is a continental type with hot and dry summers and cold and rainy winters. As in the rest of Serbia, farm suffers from water deficits during the main growing season. The initial soil quality was assessed through a sampling campaign before the onset of first year irrigation; the soil quality was then monitored throughout three years. Soil sampling

Irrigation management of sigmoid colostomy.

PubMed

Jao, S W; Beart, R W; Wendorf, L J; Ilstrup, D M

1985-08-01

Questionnaires were sent to 270 patients who had undergone abdominoperineal resection and sigmoid colostomy at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn, during the ten years from 1972 to 1982; 223 patients returned their questionnaires with evaluable data. Sixty percent of the patients were continent with irrigation, and 22% were incontinent with irrigation. Eighteen percent had discontinued irrigation for various reasons. The proportion continent was higher in women, younger patients, and previously constipated patients. A poorly constructed colostomy may cause acute angle, parastoma hernia, stomal prolapse, or stenosis and thus be the cause of failure of irrigation.

Role of irrigation and irrigation automation in improving crop water use efficiency

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

In arid climates, irrigation is required for significant agricultural production. In subhumid and semiarid climates, supplemental irrigation is recognized as both economically necessary (prevention of crop losses in periodic droughts) and as a means to improve overall crop water use effi...

Apical pressure created during irrigation with the GentleWave™ system compared to conventional syringe irrigation.

PubMed

Haapasalo, Markus; Shen, Ya; Wang, Zhejun; Park, Ellen; Curtis, Allison; Patel, Payal; Vandrangi, Prashanthi

2016-09-01

The purpose of this study is to compare pressures at the apical foramen created by conventional syringe irrigation and the GentleWave™ System, which releases high-velocity degassed irrigants to the pulp chamber and uses broad-spectrum sound energy for cleaning. The apical pressure generated during irrigation was measured for palatal and distobuccal root canals of four extracted maxillary molars after no instrumentation, minimal instrumentation to a size #15/.04, instrumentation to a size #40/.04 taper, and after perforating the apical foramen to size #40. The root canals opened into an air-tight custom fixture coupled to a piezoresistive pressure transducer. Apical pressures were measured for the GentleWave™ System and syringe-needle irrigation at different irrigant flow rates, with the needle tip at 1 and 3 mm from the apical foramen using 30-gauge (G) open-ended or side-vented safety tip needles. The GentleWave™ System generated negative apical pressures (P < 0.001 compared with syringe irrigation); the mean pressures were between -13.07 and -17.19 mmHg. The 30 G needles could not reach the 1 and 3 mm from the working length in uninstrumented and 1 mm in minimally instrumented canals. The mean positive pressures between 6.46 and 110.34 mmHg were measured with needle irrigation depending on the flow rate, needle insertion depth, and size of the root canal. The GentleWave™ System creates negative pressure at the apical foramen during root canal cleaning irrespective of the size of canal instrumentation. Positive apical pressures were measured for syringe irrigation. Negative pressure during irrigation contributes to improved safety as compared to high-positive pressure.

Irrigating forest plantations

Treesearch

Edward A. Hansen

1983-01-01

Irrigating forest plantations cannot be justified economically on yield increases alone under present market conditions. Other factors such as bringing noncommercial land into high production, insuring a constant wood supply, or providing a means to dispose of wastewater can add to the value of increasing yields and may make irrigation feasible in certain situations....

Enhancing Food Processing by Pulsed and High Voltage Electric Fields: Principles and Applications.

PubMed

Wang, Qijun; Li, Yifei; Sun, Da-Wen; Zhu, Zhiwei

2018-02-02

Improvements in living standards result in a growing demand for food with high quality attributes including freshness, nutrition and safety. However, current industrial processing methods rely on traditional thermal and chemical methods, such as sterilization and solvent extraction, which could induce negative effects on food quality and safety. The electric fields (EFs) involving pulsed electric fields (PEFs) and high voltage electric fields (HVEFs) have been studied and developed for assisting and enhancing various food processes. In this review, the principles and applications of pulsed and high voltage electric fields are described in details for a range of food processes, including microbial inactivation, component extraction, and winemaking, thawing and drying, freezing and enzymatic inactivation. Moreover, the advantages and limitations of electric field related technologies are discussed to foresee future developments in the food industry. This review demonstrates that electric field technology has a great potential to enhance food processing by supplementing or replacing the conventional methods employed in different food manufacturing processes. Successful industrial applications of electric field treatments have been achieved in some areas such as microbial inactivation and extraction. However, investigations of HVEFs are still in an early stage and translating the technology into industrial applications need further research efforts.

Assessing the changes of groundwater recharge / irrigation water use between SRI and traditional irrigation schemes in Central Taiwan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Shih-Kai; Jang, Cheng-Shin; Tsai, Cheng-Bin

2015-04-01

To respond to agricultural water shortage impacted by climate change without affecting rice yield in the future, the application of water-saving irrigation, such as SRI methodology, is considered to be adopted in rice-cultivation in Taiwan. However, the flooded paddy fields could be considered as an important source of groundwater recharge in Central Taiwan. The water-saving benefit of this new methodology and its impact on the reducing of groundwater recharge should be integrally assessed in this area. The objective of this study was to evaluate the changes of groundwater recharge/ irrigation water use between the SRI and traditional irrigation schemes (continuous irrigation, rotational irrigation). An experimental paddy field located in the proximal area of the Choushui River alluvial fan (the largest groundwater pumping region in Taiwan) was chosen as the study area. The 3-D finite element groundwater model (FEMWATER) with the variable boundary condition analog functions, was applied in simulating groundwater recharge process and amount under traditional irrigation schemes and SRI methodology. The use of effective rainfall was taken into account or not in different simulation scenarios for each irrigation scheme. The simulation results showed that there were no significant variations of infiltration rate in the use of effective rainfall or not, but the low soil moisture setting in deep soil layers resulted in higher infiltration rate. Taking the use of effective rainfall into account, the average infiltration rate for continuous irrigation, rotational irrigation, and SRI methodology in the first crop season of 2013 were 4.04 mm/day, 4.00 mm/day and 3.92 mm/day, respectively. The groundwater recharge amount of SRI methodology was slightly lower than those of traditional irrigation schemes, reducing 4% and 2% compared with continuous irrigation and rotational irrigation, respectively. The field irrigation requirement amount of SRI methodology was significantly

Constraints and potentials of future irrigation water availability on agricultural production under climate change.

PubMed

Elliott, Joshua; Deryng, Delphine; Müller, Christoph; Frieler, Katja; Konzmann, Markus; Gerten, Dieter; Glotter, Michael; Flörke, Martina; Wada, Yoshihide; Best, Neil; Eisner, Stephanie; Fekete, Balázs M; Folberth, Christian; Foster, Ian; Gosling, Simon N; Haddeland, Ingjerd; Khabarov, Nikolay; Ludwig, Fulco; Masaki, Yoshimitsu; Olin, Stefan; Rosenzweig, Cynthia; Ruane, Alex C; Satoh, Yusuke; Schmid, Erwin; Stacke, Tobias; Tang, Qiuhong; Wisser, Dominik

2014-03-04

We compare ensembles of water supply and demand projections from 10 global hydrological models and six global gridded crop models. These are produced as part of the Inter-Sectoral Impacts Model Intercomparison Project, with coordination from the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project, and driven by outputs of general circulation models run under representative concentration pathway 8.5 as part of the Fifth Coupled Model Intercomparison Project. Models project that direct climate impacts to maize, soybean, wheat, and rice involve losses of 400-1,400 Pcal (8-24% of present-day total) when CO2 fertilization effects are accounted for or 1,400-2,600 Pcal (24-43%) otherwise. Freshwater limitations in some irrigated regions (western United States; China; and West, South, and Central Asia) could necessitate the reversion of 20-60 Mha of cropland from irrigated to rainfed management by end-of-century, and a further loss of 600-2,900 Pcal of food production. In other regions (northern/eastern United States, parts of South America, much of Europe, and South East Asia) surplus water supply could in principle support a net increase in irrigation, although substantial investments in irrigation infrastructure would be required.

Impact of climate change on irrigation management for olive orchards at southern Spain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lorite, Ignacio; Gabaldón-Leal, Clara; Santos, Cristina; Belaj, Angjelina; de la Rosa, Raul; Leon, Lorenzo; Ruiz-Ramos, Margarita

2017-04-01

(equal to 0.5%). However, when the individual projections from the 11 climate models were considered the variation of irrigation requirements for far future compared with baseline period ranged from increases of 8.5% to reductions of 10.7%. This fact demonstrates the necessity to consider ensembles of climate models for identifying averaged impacts and the range of variability of these impacts, quantifying the uncertainty in the estimates related with water management in the future. The study concludes that the promotion of controlled deficit irrigation strategies is an excellent adaptation strategy. However, this strategy must be supported with the enhance of farmers' training by the implementation of local or regional irrigation advisory services.

Where Does the Irrigation Water Go? An Estimate of the Contribution of Irrigation to Precipitation Using MERRA

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wei, Jiangfeng; Dirmeyer, Paul A.; Wisser, Dominik; Bosilovich, Michael G.; Mocko, David M.

2013-01-01

Irrigation is an important human activity that may impact local and regional climate, but current climate model simulations and data assimilation systems generally do not explicitly include it. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Interim Re-Analysis (ERA-Interim) shows more irrigation signal in surface evapotranspiration (ET) than the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) because ERA-Interim adjusts soil moisture according to the observed surface temperature and humidity while MERRA has no explicit consideration of irrigation at the surface. But, when compared with the results from a hydrological model with detailed considerations of agriculture, the ET from both reanalyses show large deficiencies in capturing the impact of irrigation. Here, a back-trajectory method is used to estimate the contribution of irrigation to precipitation over local and surrounding regions, using MERRA with observation-based corrections and added irrigation-caused ET increase from the hydrological model. Results show substantial contributions of irrigation to precipitation over heavily irrigated regions in Asia, but the precipitation increase is much less than the ET increase over most areas, indicating that irrigation could lead to water deficits over these regions. For the same increase in ET, precipitation increases are larger over wetter areas where convection is more easily triggered, but the percentage increase in precipitation is similar for different areas. There are substantial regional differences in the patterns of irrigation impact, but, for all the studied regions, the highest percentage contribution to precipitation is over local land.

Effective colostomy irrigation.

PubMed

Mazier, W P; Dignan, R D; Capehart, R J; Smith, B G

1976-06-01

The ultimate goal of the cone method of colostomy irrigation is to return patients with colostomies to their former role in society with confidence in themselves to the extent that having a colostomy is not considered a handicap. The results have generally been excellent. We believe all patients with stomas should be afforded the opportunity to attempt colostomy irrigation.

Irrigated sugarbeet sucrose content in relation to growing season climatic conditions in the northwest U.S.

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The potential effects of changing climate on world food production have become a political and scientific focus. This study was conducted to investigate linkages between seasonal climatic conditions and sugarbeet sucrose content in southern Idaho and eastern Oregon. Sucrose content of irrigated suga...

Evaluation of polyacrylamide on irrigation efficiency, soil conservation, and water quality in furrow irrigated Mid-South cotton production

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Arkansas is a leading state in irrigated acres in the United States. As such, resulting groundwater decline and irrigation-induced soil erosion can have negative impacts. This establishes a need for irrigation management practices to improve irrigation efficiency as well as reduce soil erosion and i...

Arsenic accumulation in irrigated agricultural soils in Northern Greece.

PubMed

Casentini, B; Hug, S J; Nikolaidis, N P

2011-10-15

The accumulation of arsenic in soils and food crops due to the use of arsenic contaminated groundwater for irrigation has created worldwide concern. In the Chalkidiki prefecture in Northern Greece, groundwater As reach levels above 1000μg/L within the Nea Triglia geothermal area. While this groundwater is no longer used for drinking, it represents the sole source for irrigation. This paper provides a first assessment of the spatial extent of As accumulation and of As mobility during rainfall and irrigation periods. Arsenic content in sampled soils ranged from 20 to 513mg/kg inside to 5-66mg/kg outside the geothermal area. Around irrigation sprinklers, high As concentrations extended horizontally to distances of at least 1.5m, and to 50cm in depth. During simulated rain events in soil columns (pH=5, 0μg As/L), accumulated As was quite mobile, resulting in porewater As concentrations of 500-1500μg/L and exposing plant roots to high As(V) concentrations. In experiments with irrigation water (pH=7.5, 1500μg As/L), As was strongly retained (50.5-99.5%) by the majority of the soils. Uncontaminated soils (<30mg As/kg) kept soil porewater As concentrations to below 50μg/L. An estimated retardation factor R(f)=434 for weakly contaminated soil (<100mg/kg) indicates good ability to reduce As mobility. Highly contaminated soils (>500mg/kg) could not retain any of the added As. Invoked mechanisms affecting As mobility in those soils were adsorption on solid phases such as Fe/Mn-phases and As co-precipitation with Ca. Low As accumulation was found in collected olives (0.3-25μg/kg in flesh and 0.3-5.6μg/kg in pits). However, soil arsenic concentrations are frequently elevated to far above recommended levels and arsenic uptake in faster growing plants has to be assessed. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Irrigation dynamics associated with positive pressure, apical negative pressure and passive ultrasonic irrigations: a computational fluid dynamics analysis.

PubMed

Chen, José Enrique; Nurbakhsh, Babak; Layton, Gillian; Bussmann, Markus; Kishen, Anil

2014-08-01

Complexities in root canal anatomy and surface adherent biofilm structures remain as challenges in endodontic disinfection. The ability of an irrigant to penetrate into the apical region of a canal, along with its interaction with the root canal walls, will aid in endodontic disinfection. The aim of this study was to qualitatively examine the irrigation dynamics of syringe irrigation with different needle tip designs (open-ended and closed-ended), apical negative pressure irrigation with the EndoVac® system, and passive ultrasonic-assisted irrigation, using a computational fluid dynamics model. Syringe-based irrigation with a side-vented needle showed a higher wall shear stress than the open-ended but was localised to a small region of the canal wall. The apical negative pressure mode of irrigation generated the lowest wall shear stress, while the passive-ultrasonic irrigation group showed the highest wall shear stress along with the greatest magnitude of velocity. © 2013 The Authors. Australian Endodontic Journal © 2013 Australian Society of Endodontology.

Population biology of bluegills, Lepomis macrochirus, in lotic habitats on the irrigated San Joaquin Valley floor

USGS Publications Warehouse

Saiki, M.K.; Schmitt, C.J.

1985-01-01

Rapid expansion of irrigated agriculture in the western United States has prompted concerns for aquatic resources. Although the impacts of irrigation activities on quality and quantity of river water are well documented (e.g., high turbidity from soil erosion, eutrophication from nutrient runoff, pesticide contamination, reduced dis- charge), their effects on fish populations are still poorly understood. We studied the food, growth, and relative weight (a measure of body condition) of bluegills, Lepo- mis macrochirus, in relation to environmental factors in reaches of the San Joaquin and Merced rivers that have been affected to varying degrees by irrigation return flows. Fry of bluegills ate mostly cladocerans and copepods; fingerlings and larger fish ate immature aquatic insects, terrestrial insects, amphipods, and mollusks. Bluegill stomachs were fuller and contained a higher diversity of forage taxa in habitats with low turbidity and conductivity, weak buffering capacity, and low nutrient levels; bluegills also ate a more diverse diet where the potential forage supply (benthic macroinvertebrates) was most diverse. Bluegills attained mean total lengths of about 42 mm at age I, 86 mm at age 11, 116 mm at age III, 153 mm at age IV, and 166 mm at age V. Mean relative weight ranged from 96-111. Growth rate and relative weight were not significantly correlated with environmental or dietary variables. On the basis of our study, we concluded that environmental degradation from irrigation activities affected the diet of bluegills primarily by modifying the food supply, but growth rate and body condition were not affected.

Predcition of Long term Water table Trends in Response to Groundwater Irrigation and Climate Change in an Indian Context

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thekkemeppilly Sivakumar, I.; Steenhuis, T. S.; Walter, M. F.; Ghosh, S.; Salvi, K. A.

2015-12-01

Intensified groundwater irrigation is a major factor that contributes to water table decline. This phenomenon has been documented in many parts of the world. This study investigates trends in water table in response to agriculture intensification to meet increasing food demand, water management practices and climate change. A shallow-aquifer model based on the extended Thornthwaite-Mather procedure is used to predict groundwater levels in response to precipitation, evapotranspiration, and groundwater pumping for irrigation. Krishna district in the state of Andhra Pradesh in southern India which has a sub-humid, monsoon climate and Calicut district of Kerala state with a wet tropical monsoon climate have been chosen as sites for this study. The effect of increasing food demand by a growing population is investigated by increasing the number of crops per year from one to three. We consider three climate scenarios and two water management practices in this study. The three climate scenarios are the ones those envisaged by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC). The two water management practices considered are the traditional flooded agriculture and the system of rice intensification method which does not use total flooding. The results show that single crop agriculture in Krishna district is sustainable for all climate scenarios and water management practices with a maximum depth to water table around 6 - 7 m at the end of dry season and the water table recovers to the surface most of the time. Increasing crop production with two or three crops per year with groundwater irrigation is unsustainable with the water table levels dropping potentially to 200 - 1000 m at the end of 21st century. We found that climate change and better irrigation water management practices affected ground water levels only minimally compared to the growing more than one crop per year. Our study leads to the conclusion that ground water irrigated rice can only be sustainable

Management Strategies to Sustain Irrigated Agriculture with Combination of Remote Sensing, Weather Monitoring & Forecasting and SWAP Modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ermolaeva, Olga; Zeyliger, Anatoly

2017-04-01

Today world's water systems face formidable threats due to climate change and increasing water withdraw for agriculture, industry and domestic use. Projected in many parts of the earth increases in temperature, evaporation, and drought frequency shrunk water availability and magnify water scarcity. Declining irrigation water supplies threaten the sustainability of irrigated agricultural production which plays a critical role in meeting global food needs. In irrigated agriculture there is a strong call for deep efforts in order on the one hand to improve water efficiency use and on the other to maximize yields. The aim of this research is to provide tool to optimize water application with crop irrigation by sprinkling in order to sustain irrigated agriculture under limited water supply by increasing net returns per unit of water. For this aim some field experimental results of 2012 year growing season of alfalfa, corn and soya irrigated by sprinkling machines crops at left bank of Volga River at Saratov Region of Russia. Additionally a combination of data sets was used which includes MODIS images, local meteorological station and results of SWAP (Soil-Water-Atmosphere-Plant) modeling. This combination was used to estimate crop water stress defined as ratio between actual (ETa) and potential (ETc) evapotranspiration. By this way it was determined the effect of applied irrigation scheduling and water application depths on evapotranspiration, crop productivity and water stress coefficient. Aggregation of actual values of crop water stress and biomass data predicted by SWAP agrohydrological model with weather forecasting and irrigation scheduling was used to indicate of both rational timing and amount of irrigation water allocation. This type of analysis facilitating an efficient water management can be extended to irrigated areas by developing maps of water efficiency application serving as an irrigation advice system for farmers at his fields and as a decision support

Drip irrigation management in different chufa planting strategies: yield and irrigation water use efficiency

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pascual-Seva, Nuria; San Bautista, Alberto; López-Galarza, Salvador; Maroto, José Vicente; Pascual, Bernardo

2013-04-01

In a study presented in the EGU assembly 2012, it was analysed how yield and irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) in chufa (Cyperus esculentus L. var. sativus), crop, were affected by planting strategy (ridges and flat raised beds, with two and three plant rows along them) and irrigation system [furrow (FI) and drip irrigation (DI)]. Each irrigation session started when the Volumetric Soil Water Content (VSWC) in ridges dropped to 80% of field capacity; beds were irrigated simultaneously with ridges and with the same irrigation duration. R produced lower yield than the two types of beds, and yields in DI were higher than those FI. Ridges led to the highest IWUE with DI, and to the lowest with FI. Then, it was decided to analyse, in DI, how yield and IWUE responded to start each irrigation session when the VSWC in the central point of different planting strategies [ridges (R), and flat raised beds with two (b) and three (B) plant rows along them] dropped to 80% of field capacity. In R and b, plants were irrigated by a single dripline per plant row, while in B two irrigation layouts were assayed: a single dripline per plant row (B3) and two driplines per bed (B2), placing each dripline between two planting rows. Irrigation session stop was also automated as a function of the VSWC. Results show that yield was affected (P˜0.01) by planting strategy; the greatest yield was obtained in b (2.4 kgm-2), differing (P˜0.05) from that obtained in R (2.1 kgm-2), with intermediate yields in B2 (2.3 kgm-2) and B3 (2.3 kgm-2). Yield was not affected (P˜0.05) by the utilisation of two or three driplines in B. Considerably less irrigation water was applied (IWA) in R (376 mm) than in B3 (465 mm), B2 (475 mm) and b (502 mm). This automatic irrigation management, as a function of the VSWC in each planting strategy, lead to adjust the IWA to the plant water requirements, which were similar in all three flat raised beds, since they correspond to the same planting density, that was

Eating ‘Junk-Food' Produces Rapid and Long-Lasting Increases in NAc CP-AMPA Receptors: Implications for Enhanced Cue-Induced Motivation and Food Addiction

PubMed Central

Oginsky, Max F; Goforth, Paulette B; Nobile, Cameron W; Lopez-Santiago, Luis F; Ferrario, Carrie R

2016-01-01

Urges to eat are influenced by stimuli in the environment that are associated with food (food cues). Obese people are more sensitive to food cues, reporting stronger craving and consuming larger portions after food cue exposure. The nucleus accumbens (NAc) mediates cue-triggered motivational responses, and activations in the NAc triggered by food cues are stronger in people who are susceptible to obesity. This has led to the idea that alterations in NAc function similar to those underlying drug addiction may contribute to obesity, particularly in obesity-susceptible individuals. Motivational responses are mediated in part by NAc AMPA receptor (AMPAR) transmission, and recent work shows that cue-triggered motivation is enhanced in obesity-susceptible rats after ‘junk-food' diet consumption. Therefore, here we determined whether NAc AMPAR expression and function is increased by ‘junk-food' diet consumption in obesity-susceptible vs -resistant populations using both outbred and selectively bred models of susceptibility. In addition, cocaine-induced locomotor activity was used as a general ‘read out' of mesolimbic function after ‘junk-food' consumption. We found a sensitized locomotor response to cocaine in rats that gained weight on a ‘junk-food' diet, consistent with greater responsivity of mesolimbic circuits in obesity-susceptible groups. In addition, eating ‘junk-food' increased NAc calcium-permeable-AMPAR (CP-AMPAR) function only in obesity-susceptible rats. This increase occurred rapidly, persisted for weeks after ‘junk-food' consumption ceased, and preceded the development of obesity. These data are considered in light of enhanced cue-triggered motivation and striatal function in obesity-susceptible rats and the role of NAc CP-AMPARs in enhanced motivation and addiction. PMID:27383008

Photodynamic therapy with two different photosensitizers as a supplement to instrumentation/irrigation procedures in promoting intracanal reduction of Enterococcus faecalis.

PubMed

Souza, Letícia C; Brito, Patrícia R R; de Oliveira, Julio C Machado; Alves, Flávio R F; Moreira, Edson J L; Sampaio-Filho, Hélio R; Rôças, Isabela N; Siqueira, José F

2010-02-01

This in vitro study aimed to investigate the antibacterial effects of photodynamic therapy (PDT) with methylene blue (MB) or toluidine blue (TB) (both at 15 microg/mL) as a supplement to instrumentation/irrigation of root canals experimentally contaminated with Enterococcus faecalis. Seventy extracted teeth had their root canals contaminated with an endodontic strain of E. faecalis for 7 days, instrumented with nickel-titanium instruments and irrigated either with 2.5% NaOCl or with 0.85% NaCl, and then randomly distributed into four experimental groups: MB/NaOCl (PDT with MB and NaOCl as the irrigant), TB/NaOCl (PDT with TB and NaOCl as the irrigant), MB/NaCl (PDT with MB and NaCl as the irrigant), and TB/NaCl (PDT with TB and NaCl as the irrigant). For PDT, the photosensitizer remained in the canal for 2 minutes before exposed to red light emitted from a diode laser for 4 minutes. Samples were taken before and after instrumentation/irrigation and following the specific PDT procedure for each group, plated onto Mitis-salivarius agar and the colony forming units counted. Regardless of the irrigant used (NaOCl or NaCl), instrumentation significantly reduced bacterial counts in comparison to the baseline (p < 0.001). NaOCl as the irrigant was significantly more effective than NaCl, and this difference persisted after PDT, irrespective of the photosensitizer used (p < 0.05). PDT with either MB or TB did not significantly enhance disinfection after chemomechanical preparation using NaOCl as irrigant (p > 0.05). No significant differences were observed between the two photosensitizers (p > 0.05). These in vitro results suggest that PDT with either MB or TB may not exert a significant supplemental effect to instrumentation/irrigation procedures with regard to intracanal disinfection. Further adjustments in the PDT protocol may be required to enhance predictability in bacterial elimination before clinical use is recommended. Copyright 2010 American Association of

Field-Scale Soil Moisture Observations in Irrigated Agriculture Fields Using the Cosmic-ray Neutron Rover

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Franz, T. E.; Avery, W. A.; Finkenbiner, C. E.; Wang, T.; Brocca, L.

2014-12-01

Approximately 40% of global food production comes from irrigated agriculture. With the increasing demand for food even greater pressures will be placed on water resources within these systems. In this work we aimed to characterize the spatial and temporal patterns of soil moisture at the field-scale (~500 m) using the newly developed cosmic-ray neutron rover near Waco, NE. Here we mapped soil moisture of 144 quarter section fields (a mix of maize, soybean, and natural areas) each week during the 2014 growing season (May to September). The 11 x11 km study domain also contained 3 stationary cosmic-ray neutron probes for independent validation of the rover surveys. Basic statistical analysis of the domain indicated a strong inverted parabolic relationship between the mean and variance of soil moisture. The relationship between the mean and higher order moments were not as strong. Geostatistical analysis indicated the range of the soil moisture semi-variogram was significantly shorter during periods of heavy irrigation as compared to non-irrigated periods. Scaling analysis indicated strong power law behavior between the variance of soil moisture and averaging area with minimal dependence of mean soil moisture on the slope of the power law function. Statistical relationships derived from the rover dataset offer a novel set of observations that will be useful in: 1) calibrating and validating land surface models, 2) calibrating and validating crop models, 3) soil moisture covariance estimates for statistical downscaling of remote sensing products such as SMOS and SMAP, and 4) provide center-pivot scale mean soil moisture data for optimal irrigation timing and volume amounts.

Appropriate Technology, Energy and Food Production in an Industrial Arts Curriculum.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pytlik, Edward; Scanlin, Dennis

1979-01-01

With modern agriculture, the growing, processing, packaging, and distribution of food fit well into an industrial arts curriculum. Many areas of this system need closer attention: the high cost of energy in food production, the problems of land preparation, fertilizers, irrigation, food processing, and agriculture in an industrial arts curriculum.…

Evaluation of limited irrigation strategies to improve water use efficiency and wheat yield in the North China Plain.

PubMed

Zhang, Di; Li, Ruiqi; Batchelor, William D; Ju, Hui; Li, Yanming

2018-01-01

The North China Plain is one of the most important grain production regions in China, but is facing serious water shortages. To achieve a balance between water use and the need for food self-sufficiency, new water efficient irrigation strategies need to be developed that balance water use with farmer net return. The Crop Environment Resource Synthesis Wheat (CERES-Wheat model) was calibrated and evaluated with two years of data which consisted of 3-4 irrigation treatments, and the model was used to investigate long-term winter wheat productivity and water use from irrigation management in the North China Plain. The calibrated model simulated accurately above-ground biomass, grain yield and evapotranspiration of winter wheat in response to irrigation management. The calibrated model was then run using weather data from 1994-2016 in order to evaluate different irrigation strategies. The simulated results using historical weather data showed that grain yield and water use was sensitive to different irrigation strategies including amounts and dates of irrigation applications. The model simulated the highest yield when irrigation was applied at jointing (T9) in normal and dry rainfall years, and gave the highest simulated yields for irrigation at double ridge (T8) in wet years. A single simulated irrigation at jointing (T9) produced yields that were 88% compared to using a double irrigation treatment at T1 and T9 in wet years, 86% of that in normal years, and 91% of that in dry years. A single irrigation at jointing or double ridge produced higher water use efficiency because it obtained higher evapotranspiration. The simulated farmer irrigation practices produced the highest yield and net income. When the cost of water was taken into account, limited irrigation was found to be more profitable based on assumptions about future water costs. In order to increase farmer income, a subsidy will likely be needed to compensate farmers for yield reductions due to water savings

Evaluation of limited irrigation strategies to improve water use efficiency and wheat yield in the North China Plain

PubMed Central

Zhang, Di; Li, Ruiqi; Batchelor, William D.; Ju, Hui

2018-01-01

The North China Plain is one of the most important grain production regions in China, but is facing serious water shortages. To achieve a balance between water use and the need for food self-sufficiency, new water efficient irrigation strategies need to be developed that balance water use with farmer net return. The Crop Environment Resource Synthesis Wheat (CERES-Wheat model) was calibrated and evaluated with two years of data which consisted of 3–4 irrigation treatments, and the model was used to investigate long-term winter wheat productivity and water use from irrigation management in the North China Plain. The calibrated model simulated accurately above-ground biomass, grain yield and evapotranspiration of winter wheat in response to irrigation management. The calibrated model was then run using weather data from 1994–2016 in order to evaluate different irrigation strategies. The simulated results using historical weather data showed that grain yield and water use was sensitive to different irrigation strategies including amounts and dates of irrigation applications. The model simulated the highest yield when irrigation was applied at jointing (T9) in normal and dry rainfall years, and gave the highest simulated yields for irrigation at double ridge (T8) in wet years. A single simulated irrigation at jointing (T9) produced yields that were 88% compared to using a double irrigation treatment at T1 and T9 in wet years, 86% of that in normal years, and 91% of that in dry years. A single irrigation at jointing or double ridge produced higher water use efficiency because it obtained higher evapotranspiration. The simulated farmer irrigation practices produced the highest yield and net income. When the cost of water was taken into account, limited irrigation was found to be more profitable based on assumptions about future water costs. In order to increase farmer income, a subsidy will likely be needed to compensate farmers for yield reductions due to water

Changes in Water-Food-Energy Nexus in India and its consistency with changes in Monsoon

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barik, B.; Ghosh, S.; Pathak, A.

2017-12-01

Meeting the growing demand for food, water, and energy for a densely populated country like India is a major challenge. Green Revolution helped to maintain the food security, with Government policies such as distribution of electricity at a subsidised rate, resulting in an unregulated withdrawal of groundwater. Thus, the depleting groundwater went unnoticed as the high agricultural productivity overshadowed it. Here we present a comprehensive analysis which assess the present status of the water-food-energy nexus in India. We find that with the growth of population and consequent increase in the food demands, the food production has also increased, and this has been made possible with the intensification of irrigation. However, during the recent decade (after 1996), the increase in food production has not been sufficient to meet its growing demands, precipitating a decline in the per-capita food availability. Also, there has been a decline in the groundwater storage in India during the last decade, as derived from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data. Regional studies reveal contrasting trends, where North-western India and the middle Ganga basin show a decrease in the groundwater storage as opposed to an increasing storage over western-central India. We also find that, after a drought, the groundwater storage drops but is unable to recover to its original condition even after good monsoon years. The groundwater storage reveals a very strong negative correlation with the electricity consumption for agricultural usage, which may also be considered as a proxy for groundwater pumped for irrigation in a region. The electricity usage for agricultural purposes has an increasing trend and, interestingly, it does not have any correlation with the monsoon rainfall. This reveals an important finding that the irrigation has been intensified irrespective of rainfall. This also resulted in a decreasing correlation between the food production and monsoon

Deteriorating food security in India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Milesi, C.; Samanta, A.; Hashimoto, H.; Kumar, K.; Ganguly, S.; Thenkabail, P. S.; Srivastava, A. N.; Nemani, R. R.; Myneni, R. B.

2009-12-01

statistics. We show that while there are no significant changes in long-term precipitation, there are geographically matching patterns of enhanced crop production and irrigation expansion with groundwater, initially, but both of which have levelled off in the past decade. In addition to increasing pressure on water resources, a decline in expansion of cropland area, a warming climate and increasing air pollution compound to challenging long term food security in India.

Long-term impact of sewage irrigation on soil properties and assessing risk in relation to transfer of metals to human food chain.

PubMed

Meena, Ramu; Datta, S P; Golui, Debasis; Dwivedi, B S; Meena, M C

2016-07-01

A case study was undertaken to assess the risk of sewage-irrigated soils in relation to the transfer of trace elements to rice and wheat grain. For this purpose, peri-urban agricultural lands under the Keshopur Effluent Irrigation Scheme (KEIS) of Delhi were selected. These agricultural lands have been receiving irrigation through sewage effluents since 1979. Sewage effluent, groundwater, soil, and plant (rice and wheat grain) samples were collected with GPS coordinates from this peri-urban area. Under wheat crop, sewage irrigation for four decades resulted into a significant buildup of zinc (141 %), copper (219 %), iron (514 %), nickel (75.0 %), and lead (28.1 %) in sewage-irrigated soils over adjacent tube well water-irrigated ones. Under rice crop, there was also a significant buildup of phosphorus (339 %), sulfur (130 %), zinc (287 %), copper (352 %), iron (457 %), nickel (258 %), lead (136 %), and cadmium (147 %) in sewage-irrigated soils as compared to that of tube well water-irrigated soils. The values of hazard quotient (HQ) for intake of trace toxic elements by humans through consumption of rice and wheat grain grown on these sewage-irrigated soils were well within the safe permissible limit. The variation in Zn, Ni, and Cd content in wheat grain could be explained by solubility-free ion activity model (FIAM) to the extent of 50.1, 56.8, and 37.2 %, respectively. Corresponding values for rice grain were 49.9, 41.2, and 42.7 %, respectively. As high as 36.4 % variation in As content in rice grain could be explained by solubility-FIAM model. Toxic limit of extractable Cd and As in soil for rice in relation to soil properties and human health hazard associated with consumption of rice grain by humans was established. A similar exercise was also done in respect of Cd for wheat. The conceptual framework of fixing the toxic limit of extractable metals and metalloid in soils with respect to soil properties and human health hazard under the

Small-Scale Surface (Tank) Irrigation in Asia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Palanisami, K.; Easter, K. William

1987-05-01

Tank irrigation is an ancient tradition in Asia which is now being reviewed as a potential model for future irrigation expansion. South India has thousands of tanks which are in need of rehabilitation after being in operation for over a century. This study evaluates tank irrigation in an area of south India which has the greatest concentration of tanks. Constraints and unique characteristics of tank irrigation are analyzed to provide a basis for devising strategies for improving tank irrigation. A combination of public and private investments along with institutional changes are recommended to help farmers organize to improve irrigation. Yet, only if public investment is carefully integrated with existing private efforts will farmers have incentives to maintain the irrigation systems.

Serotonin enhances the impact of health information on food choice.

PubMed

Vlaev, Ivo; Crockett, Molly J; Clark, Luke; Müller, Ulrich; Robbins, Trevor W

2017-06-01

Serotonin has been implicated in promoting self-control, regulation of hunger and physiological homeostasis, and regulation of caloric intake. However, it remains unclear whether the effects of serotonin on caloric intake reflect purely homeostatic mechanisms, or whether serotonin also modulates cognitive processes involved in dietary decision making. We investigated the effects of an acute dose of the serotonin reuptake inhibitor citalopram on choices between food items that differed along taste and health attributes, compared with placebo and the noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor atomoxetine. Twenty-seven participants attended three sessions and received single doses of atomoxetine, citalopram, and placebo in a double-blind randomised cross-over design. Relative to placebo, citalopram increased choices of more healthy foods over less healthy foods. Citalopram also increased the emphasis on health considerations in decisions. Atomoxetine did not affect decision making relative to placebo. The results support the hypothesis that serotonin may influence food choice by enhancing a focus on long-term goals. The findings are relevant for understanding decisions about food consumption and also for treating health conditions such as eating disorders and obesity.

More crop per drop - Increasing input efficiency in sprinkler irrigated potatoes.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kostka, Stan; Fang, Lisa; Ren, Haiqin; Glucksman, Robert; Gadd, Nick

2014-05-01

Water scarcity, climate change, and population growth are significant global challenges for producing sufficient food, fiber, and fuel in the 21st century. Feeding an increasingly hungry world necessitates innovative strategies and technologies to maximize crop production outputs while simultaneously increasing crop water productivity. In the 20th century, major advances in precision irrigation enabled producers to increase productivity while more efficiently applying water to crops. While pressurized irrigation systems can deliver water effectively to the soil surface, the efficiency of rootzone delivery may be compromised by intrinsic heterogeneities in soil wetting characteristics related to organic matter, biofilms, and hydrophobic coatings on soil particles and aggregates. Efficiently delivering applied irrigation water throughout the soil matrix is critical to increasing crop productivity. We propose that management of soil water access by surfactants is a viable management option to maintain or increase yields under deficit irrigation. Potato yield and tuber quality under sprinkler irrigation were evaluated under standard production practices or with the inclusion of an aqueous nonionic surfactant formulation (10 wt% alkoxylated polyols and 7% glucoethers) applied at 10L ha-1 between emergence and tuberization. Crop responses from multi-year evaluations conducted on irrigated potatoes in Idaho (USA) were compared to multi-year on farm grower evaluations in Australia and China. Surfactant treatment resulted in statistically significant increases in yield (+5%) and US No. 1 grades (+8%) while reducing culls (-10%) in trials conducted in Idaho, USA. Similar responses were observed in commercial grower evaluations conducted in Australia (+8% total yield, +18% mean tuber weight) and in China in 2011 (+8% total yield and +18% premium, -12% culls). Under diverse production conditions, a single application of the surfactant formulation improved crop water

Enhanced Early Neuronal Processing of Food Pictures in Anorexia Nervosa: A Magnetoencephalography Study

PubMed Central

Scaife, Jessica C.; Park, Rebecca J.

2016-01-01

Neuroimaging studies in Anorexia Nervosa (AN) have shown increased activation in reward and cognitive control regions in response to food, and a behavioral attentional bias (AB) towards food stimuli is reported. This study aimed to further investigate the neural processing of food using magnetoencephalography (MEG). Participants were 13 females with restricting-type AN, 14 females recovered from restricting-type AN, and 15 female healthy controls. MEG data was acquired whilst participants viewed high- and low-calorie food pictures. Attention was assessed with a reaction time task and eye tracking. Time-series analysis suggested increased neural activity in response to both calorie conditions in the AN groups, consistent with an early AB. Increased activity was observed at 150 ms in the current AN group. Neuronal activity at this latency was at normal level in the recovered group; however, this group exhibited enhanced activity at 320 ms after stimulus. Consistent with previous studies, analysis in source space and behavioral data suggested enhanced attention and cognitive control processes in response to food stimuli in AN. This may enable avoidance of salient food stimuli and maintenance of dietary restraint in AN. A later latency of increased activity in the recovered group may reflect a reversal of this avoidance, with source space and behavioral data indicating increased visual and cognitive processing of food stimuli. PMID:27525258

Unusual Root Canal Irrigation Solutions.

PubMed

Mohammadi, Zahed; Jafarzadeh, Hamid; Shalavi, Sousan; Kinoshita, Jun-Ichiro

2017-05-01

Microorganisms and their by-products play a critical role in pulp and periradicular pathosis. Therefore, one of the main purposes of root canal treatment is disinfection of the entire system of the canal. This aim may be obtained using mechanical preparation, chemical irrigation, and temporary medication of the canal. For this purpose, various irrigation solutions have been advocated. Common root canal irrigants, such as sodium hypochlorite, chlorhexidine, and a mixture of tetracycline, acid, and detergent have been extensively reviewed. The aim of this review was to address the less common newer root canal irrigation solutions, such as citric acid, maleic acid, electrochemically activated water, green tea, ozonated water, and SmearClear.

Regulated deficit irrigation can decrease soil CO2 emissions in fruit orchards

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zornoza, Raul; Acosta, José Alberto; Martínez-Martínez, Silvia; De la Rosa, Jose M.°; Faz, Angel; Pérez-Pastor, Alejandro

2016-04-01

Irrigation water restrictions in the Mediterranean area have created a growing interest in water conservation. Apart from environmental and economic benefits by water savings, regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) may contribute to reduce soil CO2 emissions and enhance C sequestration in soils, by decreasing microbial and root activity in response to decreased soil moisture levels. An experiment was established in four orchards (peach, apricot, Saturn peach and grape) to investigate the effects of regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) on soil CO2 emissions. Two irrigation treatments were assayed: full irrigation (FI), and RDI, irrigated as FI except for postharvest period (peach, apricot, Saturn peach) or post-veraison period (grape) were 50% of FI was applied. The application of deficit caused a significant decrease in CO2 emission rates, with rates in average of 90 mg CO2-C m-2 h-1, 120 mg CO2-C m-2 h-1, 60 mg CO2-C m-2 h-1 and 60 mg CO2-C m-2 h-1 lower than FI during the period when deficit was applied for peach, apricot, Saturn peach and grape. This confirms the high effectiveness of the RDI strategies not only to save water consumption but also to decrease soil CO2 emissions. However, monitoring during longer periods is needed to verify that this trend is long-term maintained, and assess if soil carbon stocks are increase or most CO2 emissions derive from root respiration. Acknowledgements This work has been funded by the European Union LIFE+ project IRRIMAN (LIFE13 ENV/ES/000539).

Crop water productivity and irrigation management

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Modern irrigation systems offer large increases in crop water productivity compared with rainfed or gravity irrigation, but require different management approaches to achieve this. Flood, sprinkler, low-energy precision application, LEPA, and subsurface drip irrigation methods vary widely in water a...

Monitoring Food Security Indicators from Remote Sensing and Predicting Cereal Production in Afghanistan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pervez, M. S.; Budde, M. E.; Rowland, J.

2015-12-01

We extract percent of basin snow covered areas above 2500m elevation from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) 500-meter 8-day snow cover composites to monitor accumulation and depletion of snow in the basin. While the accumulation and depletion of snow cover extent provides an indication of the temporal progression of the snow pack, it does not provide insight into available water for irrigation. Therefore, we use snow model results from the National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center to quantify snow water equivalent and volume of water available within the snowpack for irrigation. In an effort to understand how water availability, along with its inter-annual variability, relates to the food security of the country, we develop a simple, effective, and easy-to-implement model to identify irrigated areas across the country on both annual and mid-season basis. The model is based on applying thresholds to peak growing season vegetation indices—derived from 250-meter MODIS images—in a decision-tree classifier to separate irrigated crops from non-irrigated vegetation. The spatial distribution and areal estimates of irrigated areas from these maps compare well with irrigated areas classified from multiple snap shots of the landscape from Landsat 5 optical and thermal images over selected locations. We observed that the extents of irrigated areas varied depending on the availability of snowmelt and can be between 1.35 million hectares in a year with significant water deficit and 2.4 million hectares in a year with significant water surplus. The changes in the amount of available water generally can contribute up to a 30% change in irrigated areas. We also observed that the strong correlation between inter-annual variability of irrigated areas and the variability in the country's cereal production could be utilized to predict an annual estimate of cereal production, providing early indication of food security scenarios for the country.

Two Case Studies to Quantify Resilience across Food-Energy-Water Systems: the Columbia River Treaty and Adaptation in Yakima River Basin Irrigation Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Malek, K.; Adam, J. C.; Richey, A.; Rushi, B. R.; Stockle, C.; Yoder, J.; Barik, M.; Lee, S. Y.; Rajagopalan, K.; Brady, M.; Barber, M. E.; Boll, J.; Padowski, J.

2017-12-01

The U.S. Pacific Northwest (PNW) plays a significant role in meeting agricultural and hydroelectric demands nationwide. Climatic and anthropogenic stressors, however, potentially threaten the productivity, resilience, and environmental health of the region. Our objective is to understand how resilience of each Food-Energy-Water (FEW) sector, and the combined Nexus, respond to exogenous perturbations and the extent to which technological and institutional advances can buffer these perturbations. In the process of taking information from complex integrated models and assessing resilience across FEW sectors, we start with two case studies: 1) Columbia River Treaty (CRT) with Canada that determines how multiple reservoirs in the Columbia River basin (CRB) are operated, and 2) climate change adaptation actions in the Yakima River basin (YRB). We discuss these case studies in terms of the similarities and contrasts related to FEW sectors and management complexities. Both the CRB and YBP systems are highly sensitive to climate change (they are both snowmelt-dominant) and already experience water conflict. The CRT is currently undergoing renegotiation; a new CRT will need to consider a much more comprehensive approach, e.g., treating environmental flows explicitly. The YRB also already experiences significant water conflict and thus the comprehensive Yakima Basin Integrated Plan (YBIP) is being pursued. We apply a new modeling framework that mechanistically captures the interactions between the FEW sectors to quantify the impacts of CRT and YBIP planning (as well as adaptation decisions taken by individuals, e.g., irrigators) on resilience in each sector. Proposed modification to the CRT may relieve impacts to multiple sectors. However, in the YRB, irrigators' actions to adapt to climate change (through investing in more efficient irrigation technology) could reduce downstream water availability for other users. Developing a process to quantify resilience to perturbations

Changes of soil organic matter and microbial activity in irrigated and non irrigated olive groves

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kavvadias, Victor; Papadopoulou, Maria; Theocharopoulos, Sideris; Vavoulidou, Evagelia; Doula, Maria; Reppas, Spiros

2014-05-01

rhizosphere and the favorable soil moisture conditions under tree canopy on soil microbial activities. TOC, BR and MB-C values were considerably lower in soil depth of 10-40cm compared with 0-10 cm in both irrigated and rainfed soil parcels. Moreover BR and MB-C was higher in irrigated soil parcels compared with rainfed ones suggesting that the periodic irrigation significantly enhances the soil microbial activity. There were no considerable differences in TOC. For this the TOC and potential activity of microbial community can contribute in the soil nutrient and irrigation management guidelines in order to exploit the utilization of productive soils in the region under studied.

Water-Food Nexus on Lancang-Mekong River Basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Do, P.; Tian, F.; Hu, H.

2017-12-01

Water-Food-Energy nexus on Lancang-Mekong river basin In the Lancang-Mekong river basin, the connexions between climate and the water-food-energy nexus are strong. One of them can be reflected by the hydropower energy and irrigation sectors, impacted since these last years by intense droughts and increasing salinity. The purpose of this study is to understand quantitatively how the current hydropower impact on the streamflow and the irrigated crops will be influenced by the climate change for the next 30 years. A hydropower-crop model is computed to reproduce hydropower generation and revenue, revenue from crop and crop area in 2050. The outcomes will be used for water management in the region and strengthen the cooperation mechanisms between Mekong riparian countries.

Food deprivation enhances both autoshaping and autoshaping impairment by a latent inhibition procedure.

PubMed

Sparber, S B; Bollweg, G L; Messing, R B

1991-02-01

The influence of food deprivation on acquisition of autoshaped operant behavior was measured. In one study separate groups of young, male rats that were deprived to 75%, 80%, 85%, 90%, and 95% of ad lib weight were subjected to an autoshaping procedure in which a 6 s delay was interposed between lever retraction (which occurred when rats made a lever touch, or automatically after 15 s) and food pellet delivery. In a second study, groups of rats were deprived to 80% or 90% of ad lib weight prior to testing in a latent inhibition variation of the same autoshaping procedure. This was done to determine if greater food deprivation would enhance learning which, because of the latent inhibition manipulation, is manifest as less lever-directed behavior. Greater food deprivation was associated both with fast acquisition of autoshaped lever responding and with more reliable failure to increase lever responding in the latent inhibition paradigm. Thus, increasing food deprivation was associated with enhanced acquisition regardless of whether the required performance was an increase or a failure to increase the same behavior, indicating a specific effect on learning. Copyright © 1991. Published by Elsevier B.V.

An integrated modeling framework for real-time irrigation scheduling: the benefit of spectroscopy and weather forecasts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brook, Anna; Polinova, Maria; Housh, Mashor

2016-04-01

Agriculture and agricultural landscapes are increasingly under pressure to meet the demands of a constantly increasing human population and globally changing food patterns. At the same time, there is rising concern that climate change and food security will harm agriculture in many regions of the world (Nelson et al., 2009). Facing those treats, majority of Mediterranean countries had chosen irrigated agriculture. For crop plants water is one of the most important inputs, as it is responsible for crop growth, production and it ensures the efficiency of other inputs (e.g. seeds, fertilizers and pesticide) but its use is in competition with other local sectors (e.g. industry, urban human use). Thus, well-timed availability of water is vital to agriculture for ensured yields. The increasing demand for irrigation has necessitated the need for optimal irrigation scheduling techniques that coordinate the timing and amount of irrigation to optimally manage the water use in agriculture systems. The irrigation scheduling problem can be challenging as farmers try to deal with different conflicting objectives of maximizing their yield while minimizing irrigation water use. Another challenge in the irrigation scheduling problem is attributed to the uncertain factors involved in the plant growth process during the growing season. Most notable, the climatic factors such as evapotranspiration and rainfall, these uncertain factors add a third objective to the farmer perspective, namely, minimizing the risk associated with these uncertain factors. Nevertheless, advancements in weather forecasting reduced the uncertainty level associated with future climatic data. Thus, climatic forecasts can be reliably employed to guide optimal irrigation schedule scheme when coupled with stochastic optimization models (Housh et al., 2012). Many studies have concluded that optimal irrigation decisions can provide substantial economic value over conventional irrigation decisions (Wang and Cai 2009

Plant development and yield of four sugarcane varieties irrigated by a subsurface drip irrigation system in Campinas, Brazil

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Silva, André Luiz Barros de O.; Célia de Matos Pires, Regina; Yukitaka Pessinati Ohashi, Augusto; Vasconcelos Ribeiro, Rafael; Landell, Marcos Guimarães de Andrade; Aparecida Creste Dias de Souza, Silvana

2013-04-01

The biofuel production is a growing concern on modern society due to the agricultural sustainability, in which both food and energy supply should be taken into account. The agroclimatic zoning indicates that sugarcane expansion in Brazil can only take place in marginal lands, where water deficit occurs and irrigation is necessary. The use of subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) in sugarcane cultivation is an interesting cultural practice to improve production and allow cultivation in marginal lands due to water deficit conditions or to attain high yield and to increase longevity of plants. In this context it is necessary to investigate responses of different varieties to water supply. The aim of this work was to evaluate the plant development and yield of four sugarcane varieties irrigated by a subsurface drip irrigation system in Campinas, Brazil in the 1st cane ratoon cycle. The field experiment was carried out in Campinas SP Brazil, with IACSP95-5000, IACSP94-2094, IACSP94-2101 and SP79-1011 cultivars in the 1st cane ratoon cycle, from January (after the harvest of cane plant cycle) to October (harvest the 1st cane ratoon cycle). The plant spacing was 1.5 m between rows. Each cultivar was planted in an area of 0.4 hectares. The irrigation was done by a subsuperficial drip system with one drip line in each plant row installed at 0.25 m deep. During the 1st cane ratoon cycle the parameters were analysed on the 33rd, 123rd, 185th and 277th day. The analysed parameters were: plant yield (m), leaf area index (LAI) and yield (tons per hectare). According to the results from the second sampling (123rd day) the varieties IACSP95-5000 and IACSP94-2101 showed higher plant height when compared to the other varieties. However, from the third sampling (185th day) on the IACSP95-5000 variety grew considerably taller than the other varieties. The varieties SP79-1011and IACSP94-2101 presented lower values of LAI throughout the crop cycle when compared to other varieties. But on the

Soil properties and enzyme activities as affected by biogas slurry irrigation in the Three Gorges Reservoir areas of China.

PubMed

Chen, Shiling; Yu, Weiwei; Zhang, Zhi; Luo, Surong

2015-03-01

Biogas slurry, as a quality organic fertilizer, is widely used on large scale livestock farmland in Southwest China. In the present study, slurry collected from anaerobic tank of dairy farm was used to irrigate farmland having typical purple soil in Chongquing, China. The study revealed that irrigation with biogasslurry increased soil ammonium nitrogen and soil nitrate by 47.8 and 19% respectively as compared to control check. The average soil available phosphorus and soil phosphorus absorption co-efficient changed slightly. Relative enzyme activities of N and P transformation were indicated by catalase, urease, invertase and phosphatase activity. Irrigation period and irrigation quantity were selected as variable factor Catalase, invertase and urease activity was highest when irrigation period and irrigation quantitiy was 4 days and 500 ml; whereas highest phosphatase activity increased significantly in purple irrigated by biogas slurry. The result of the present study is helpful in finding optimum irrigation conditions required for enzyme activity within defined range. It further reveals that biogas slurry enriches soil with various nutrients by enhancing N, P content and enzyme activities as well as it also deals with large number of biogas slurry for protecting the environment.

Pricing irrigation water for drought adaptation in Iran

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nikouei, Alireza; Ward, Frank A.

2013-10-01

This paper examines alternative water pricing arrangements that better manage and more accurately reflect conditions of increased water scarcity experienced during drought in Iran. A comprehensive water balance and crop use model compares the existing below cost water pricing model with an alternative two-tiered pricing approach. The tiers reflect two uses of irrigation water. The uses are (1) subsistence level crop production from farm household production of crops for food security and (2) discretionary cropping. Results of the study offer evidence for a reform of Iranian water pricing principles, subject to caveats described by the authors.

Colostomy irrigation: are we offering it enough?

PubMed

Woodhouse, Fran

This article discusses the use of irrigation for suitable colostomists and reasons why it can have a very positive effect on lifestyle. While it is evidence-based it also includes anecdotal tips from patients who irrigate. The suitability of patients to irrigate and ways to 'get started' with irrigation are discussed.

Water resources transfers through Chinese interprovincial and foreign food trade.

PubMed

Dalin, Carole; Hanasaki, Naota; Qiu, Huanguang; Mauzerall, Denise L; Rodriguez-Iturbe, Ignacio

2014-07-08

China's water resources are under increasing pressure from socioeconomic development, diet shifts, and climate change. Agriculture still concentrates most of the national water withdrawal. Moreover, a spatial mismatch in water and arable land availability--with abundant agricultural land and little water resources in the north--increases water scarcity and results in virtual water transfers from drier to wetter regions through agricultural trade. We use a general equilibrium welfare model and linear programming optimization to model interprovincial food trade in China. We combine these trade flows with province-level estimates of commodities' virtual water content to build China's domestic and foreign virtual water trade network. We observe large variations in agricultural water-use efficiency among provinces. In addition, some provinces particularly rely on irrigation vs. rainwater. We analyze the virtual water flow patterns and the corresponding water savings. We find that this interprovincial network is highly connected and the flow distribution is relatively homogeneous. A significant share of water flows is from international imports (20%), which are dominated by soy (93%). We find that China's domestic food trade is efficient in terms of rainwater but inefficient regarding irrigation, meaning that dry, irrigation-intensive provinces tend to export to wetter, less irrigation-intensive ones. Importantly, when incorporating foreign imports, China's soy trade switches from an inefficient system to a particularly efficient one for saving water resources (20 km(3)/y irrigation water savings, 41 km(3)/y total). Finally, we identify specific provinces (e.g., Inner Mongolia) and products (e.g., corn) that show high potential for irrigation productivity improvements.

River eutrophication: irrigated vs. non-irrigated agriculture through different spatial scales.

PubMed

Monteagudo, Laura; Moreno, José Luis; Picazo, Félix

2012-05-15

The main objective of this study was to determine how spatial scale may affect the results when relating land use to nutrient enrichment of rivers and, secondly, to investigate which agricultural practices are more responsible for river eutrophication in the study area. Agriculture was split into three subclasses (irrigated, non-irrigated and low-impact agriculture) which were correlated to stream nutrient concentration on four spatial scales: large scale (drainage area of total subcatchment and 100 m wide subcatchment corridors) and local scale (5 and 1 km radius buffers). Nitrate, ammonium and orthophosphate concentrations and land use composition (agriculture, urban and forest) were measured at 130 river reaches in south-central Spain during the 2001-2009 period. Results suggested that different spatial scales may lead to different conclusions. Spatial autocorrelation and the inadequate representation of some land uses produced unreal results on large scales. Conversely, local scales did not show data autocorrelation and agriculture subclasses were well represented. The local scale of 1 km buffer was the most appropriate to detect river eutrophication in central Spanish rivers, with irrigated cropland as the main cause of river pollution by nitrate. As regards river management, a threshold of 50% irrigated cropland within a 1 km radius buffer has been obtained using breakpoint regression analysis. This means that no more than 50% of irrigation croplands should be allowed near river banks in order to avoid river eutrophication. Finally, a methodological approach is proposed to choose the appropriate spatial scale when studying river eutrophication caused by diffuse pollution like agriculture. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Glyphosate transport through weathered granite soils under irrigated and non-irrigated conditions--Barcelona, Spain.

PubMed

Candela, Lucila; Caballero, Juan; Ronen, Daniel

2010-05-15

The transport of Glyphosate ([N-phosphonomethyl] glycine), AMPA (aminomethylphosphonic acid, CH(6)NO(3)P), and Bromide (Br(-)) has been studied, in the Mediterranean Maresme area of Spain, north of Barcelona, where groundwater is located at a depth of 5.5m. The unsaturated zone of weathered - granite soils was characterized in adjacent irrigated and non-irrigated experimental plots where 11 and 10 boreholes were drilled, respectively. At the non irrigated plot, the first half of the period was affected by a persistent and intense rainfall. After 69 days of application residues of Glyphosate up to 73.6 microgg(-1) were detected till a depth of 0.5m under irrigated conditions, AMPA, analyzed only in the irrigated plot was detected till a depth of 0.5m. According to the retardation coefficient of Glyphosate as compared to that of Br(-) for the topsoil and subsoil (80 and 83, respectively) and the maximum observed migration depth of Br(-) (2.9 m) Glyphosate and AMPA should have been detected till a depth of 0.05 m only. Such migration could be related to the low content of organic matter and clays in the soils; recharge generated by irrigation and heavy rain, and possible preferential solute transport and/or colloidal mediated transport. Copyright 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Optimized solar-wind-powered drip irrigation for farming in developing countries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barreto, Carolina M.

The two billion people produce 80% of all food consumed in the developing world and 1.3 billion lack access to electricity. Agricultural production will have to increase by about 70% worldwide by 2050 and to achieve this about 50% more primary energy has to be made available by 2035. Energy-smart agri-food systems can improve productivity in the food sector, reduce energy poverty in rural areas and contribute to achieving food security and sustainable development. Agriculture can help reduce poverty for 75% of the world's poor, who live in rural areas and work mainly in farming. The costs associated with irrigation pumping are directly affected by energy prices and have a strong impact on farmer income. Solar-wind (SW) drip irrigation (DI) is a sustainable method to meet these challenges. This dissertation shows with onsite data the low cost of SW pumping technologies correlating the water consumption (evapotranspiration) and the water production (SW pumping). The author designed, installed, and collected operating data from the six SWDI systems in Peru and in the Tohono O'odham Nation in AZ. The author developed, tested, and a simplified model for solar engineers to size SWDI systems. The author developed a business concept to scale up the SWDI technology. The outcome was a simplified design approach for a DI system powered by low cost SW pumping systems optimized based on the logged on site data. The optimization showed that the SWDI system is an income generating technology and that by increasing the crop production per unit area, it allowed small farmers to pay for the system. The efficient system resulted in increased yields, sometimes three to four fold. The system is a model for smallholder agriculture in developing countries and can increase nutrition and greater incomes for the world's poor.

Impact of long-term wastewater irrigation on sorption and transport of atrazine in Mexican agricultural soils.

PubMed

Müller, K; Duwig, C; Prado, B; Siebe, C; Hidalgo, C; Etchevers, J

2012-01-01

In the Mezquital Valley, Mexico, crops have been irrigated with untreated municipal wastewater for more than a century. Atrazine has been applied to maize and alfalfa grown in the area for weed control for 15 years. Our objectives were to analyse (i) how wastewater irrigation affects the filtering of atrazine, and (ii) if the length of irrigation has a significant impact. We compared atrazine sorption to Phaeozems that have been irrigated with raw wastewater for 35 (P35) and 85 (P85) years with sorption to a non-irrigated (P0) Phaeozem soil under rainfed agriculture. The use of bromide as an inert water tracer in column experiments and the subsequent analysis of the tracers' breakthrough curves allowed the calibration of the hydrodynamic parameters of a two-site non equilibrium convection-dispersion model. The quality of the irrigation water significantly altered the soils' hydrodynamic properties (hydraulic conductivity, dispersivity and the size of pores that are hydraulically active). The impacts on soil chemical properties (total organic carbon content and pH) were not significant, while the sodium adsorption ratio was significantly increased. Sorption and desorption isotherms, determined in batch and column experiments, showed enhanced atrazine sorption and reduced and slower desorption in wastewater-irrigated soils. These effects increased with the length of irrigation. The intensified sorption-desorption hysteresis in wastewater-irrigated soils indicated that the soil organic matter developed in these soils had fewer high-energy, easily accessible sorption sites available, leading to lower and slower atrazine desorption rates. This study leads to the conclusion that wastewater irrigation decreases atrazine mobility in the Mezquital valley Phaeozems by decreasing the hydraulic conductivity and increasing the soil's sorption capacity.

Constraints and potentials of future irrigation water availability on agricultural production under climate change

PubMed Central

Elliott, Joshua; Deryng, Delphine; Müller, Christoph; Frieler, Katja; Konzmann, Markus; Gerten, Dieter; Glotter, Michael; Flörke, Martina; Wada, Yoshihide; Best, Neil; Eisner, Stephanie; Fekete, Balázs M.; Folberth, Christian; Foster, Ian; Gosling, Simon N.; Haddeland, Ingjerd; Khabarov, Nikolay; Ludwig, Fulco; Masaki, Yoshimitsu; Olin, Stefan; Rosenzweig, Cynthia; Ruane, Alex C.; Satoh, Yusuke; Schmid, Erwin; Stacke, Tobias; Tang, Qiuhong; Wisser, Dominik

2014-01-01

We compare ensembles of water supply and demand projections from 10 global hydrological models and six global gridded crop models. These are produced as part of the Inter-Sectoral Impacts Model Intercomparison Project, with coordination from the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project, and driven by outputs of general circulation models run under representative concentration pathway 8.5 as part of the Fifth Coupled Model Intercomparison Project. Models project that direct climate impacts to maize, soybean, wheat, and rice involve losses of 400–1,400 Pcal (8–24% of present-day total) when CO2 fertilization effects are accounted for or 1,400–2,600 Pcal (24–43%) otherwise. Freshwater limitations in some irrigated regions (western United States; China; and West, South, and Central Asia) could necessitate the reversion of 20–60 Mha of cropland from irrigated to rainfed management by end-of-century, and a further loss of 600–2,900 Pcal of food production. In other regions (northern/eastern United States, parts of South America, much of Europe, and South East Asia) surplus water supply could in principle support a net increase in irrigation, although substantial investments in irrigation infrastructure would be required. PMID:24344283

Adaptation of irrigation infrastructure on irrigation demands under future drought in the USA

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

More severe droughts in the United States will bring great challenges to irrigation water supply. Here, the authors assessed the potential adaptive effects of irrigation infrastructure under present and more extensive droughts. Based on data over 1985–2005, this study established a statistical model...

How to expand irrigated land in a sustainable way ?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pastor, Amandine V.; Ludwig, Fulco; Palazzo, Amanda; Havlik, Petr; Kabat, Pavel

2015-04-01

climate change mitigation/adaptation when exposure and sensitivity to climate change is high and/or on adaptation measures to face increasing water demand. For example, some countries are likely to adopt measures to increase their water use efficiencies (irrigation system, soil and water conservation practices) to face water shortages, while others might consider improving their trade policy to avoid food shortage.

Classification of irrigated land using satellite imagery, the High Plains aquifer, nominal date 1992

USGS Publications Warehouse

Qi, Sharon L.; Konduris, Alexandria; Litke, David W.; Dupree, Jean

2002-01-01

Satellite imagery from the Landsat Thematic Mapper (nominal date 1992) was used to classify and map the location of irrigated land across the High Plains aquifer. The High Plains aquifer underlies 174,000 square miles in parts of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. The U.S. Geological Survey is conducting a waterquality study of the High Plains aquifer as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment Program. To help interpret data and select sites for the study, it is helpful to know the location of irrigated land within the study area. To date, the only information available for the entire area is 20 years old. To update the data on irrigated land, 40 summer and 40 spring images (nominal date 1992) were acquired from the National Land Cover Data set and processed using a band-ratio method (Landsat Thematic Mapper band 4 divided by band 3) to enhance the vegetation signatures. The study area was divided into nine subregions with similar environmental characteristics, and a band-ratio threshold was selected from imagery in each subregion that differentiated the cutoff between irrigated and nonirrigated land. The classified images for each subregion were mosaicked to produce an irrigated land map for the study area. The total amount of irrigated land classified from the 1992 imagery was 13.1 million acres, or about 12 percent of the total land in the High Plains. This estimate is approximately 1.5 percent greater than the amount of irrigated land reported in the 1992 Census of Agriculture (12.8 millions acres). This information was also compared to a similar data set based on 1980 imagery. The 1980 data classified 13.7 million acres as irrigated. Although the change in the amount of irrigated land between the two times was not substantial, the location of the irrigated land did shift from areas where there were large ground-water-level declines to other areas where ground-water levels were static or rising.

Diverse Land Use and the Impact on (Irrigation) Water Quality and Need for Measures — A Case Study of a Norwegian River

PubMed Central

Johannessen, Gro S.; Wennberg, Aina C.; Nesheim, Ingrid; Tryland, Ingun

2015-01-01

Surface water is used for irrigation of food plants all over the World. Such water can be of variable hygienic quality, and can be contaminated from many different sources. The association of contaminated irrigation water with contamination of fresh produce is well established, and many outbreaks of foodborne disease associated with fresh produce consumption have been reported. The objective of the present study was to summarize the data on fecal indicators and selected bacterial pathogens to assess the level of fecal contamination of a Norwegian river used for irrigation in an area which has a high production level of various types of food commodities. Sources for fecal pollution of the river were identified. Measures implemented to reduce discharges from the wastewater sector and agriculture, and potential measures identified for future implementation are presented and discussed in relation to potential benefits and costs. It is important that the users of the water, independent of intended use, are aware of the hygienic quality and the potential interventions that may be applied. Our results suggest that contamination of surface water is a complex web of many factors and that several measures and interventions on different levels are needed to achieve a sound river and safe irrigation. PMID:26090611

Ghrelin enhances cue-induced bar pressing for high fat food.

PubMed

St-Onge, Veronique; Watts, Alexander; Abizaid, Alfonso

2016-02-01

Ghrelin is an orexigenic hormone produced by the stomach that acts on growth hormone secretagogue receptors (GHSRs) both peripherally and centrally. The presence of GHSRs in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) suggests that ghrelin signaling at this level may increase the incentive value of palatable foods as well as other natural and artificial rewards. The present investigation sought to determine if ghrelin plays a role in relapse to such foods following a period of abstinence. To achieve this, thirty-six male Long Evans rats were trained to press a lever to obtain a high fat chocolate food reward on a fixed ratio schedule of 1. Following an extinction period during which lever presses were not reinforced, rats were implanted with a cannula connected to a minipump that continuously delivered ghrelin, a GHSR antagonist ([d-Lys-3]-GHRP-6), or saline in the VTA for 14days. One week later, food reward-associated cues, food reward priming, and an overnight fast were used to induce reinstatement of the lever pressing response. Our results indicate that intra-VTA ghrelin enhances cue-induced reinstatement of responses for palatable food pellets. To the extent that the reinstatement paradigm is considered a valid model of relapse in humans, this suggests that ghrelin signaling facilitates relapse to preferred foods in response to food cues through GHSR signaling in the VTA. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Online decision support system for surface irrigation management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Wenchao; Cui, Yuanlai

2017-04-01

Irrigation has played an important role in agricultural production. Irrigation decision support system is developed for irrigation water management, which can raise irrigation efficiency with few added engineering services. An online irrigation decision support system (OIDSS), in consist of in-field sensors and central computer system, is designed for surface irrigation management in large irrigation district. Many functions have acquired in OIDSS, such as data acquisition and detection, real-time irrigation forecast, water allocation decision and irrigation information management. The OIDSS contains four parts: Data acquisition terminals, Web server, Client browser and Communication system. Data acquisition terminals are designed to measure paddy water level, soil water content in dry land, ponds water level, underground water level, and canals water level. A web server is responsible for collecting meteorological data, weather forecast data, the real-time field data, and manager's feedback data. Water allocation decisions are made in the web server. Client browser is responsible for friendly displaying, interacting with managers, and collecting managers' irrigation intention. Communication system includes internet and the GPRS network used by monitoring stations. The OIDSS's model is based on water balance approach for both lowland paddy and upland crops. Considering basic database of different crops water demands in the whole growth stages and irrigation system engineering information, the OIDSS can make efficient decision of water allocation with the help of real-time field water detection and weather forecast. This system uses technical methods to reduce requirements of user's specialized knowledge and can also take user's managerial experience into account. As the system is developed by the Browser/Server model, it is possible to make full use of the internet resources, to facilitate users at any place where internet exists. The OIDSS has been applied in

Colonic irrigation for defecation disorders after dynamic graciloplasty.

PubMed

Koch, Sacha M; Uludağ, Ozenç; El Naggar, Kadri; van Gemert, Wim G; Baeten, Cor G

2008-02-01

Dynamic graciloplasty (DGP) improves anal continence and quality of life for most patients. However, in some patients, DGP fails and fecal incontinence is unsolved or only partially improved. Constipation is also a significant problem after DGP, occurring in 13-90%. Colonic irrigation can be considered as an additional or salvage treatment for defecation disorders after unsuccessful or partially successful DGP. In this study, the effectiveness of colonic irrigation for the treatment of persistent fecal incontinence and/or constipation after DGP is investigated. Patients with defecation disorders after DGP visiting the outpatient clinic of the University Hospital Maastricht were selected for colonic irrigation as additional therapy or salvage therapy in the period between January 1999 and June 2003. The Biotrol(R) Irrimatic pump or the irrigation bag was used for colonic irrigation. Relevant physical and medical history was collected. The patients were asked to fill out a detailed questionnaire about colonic irrigation. Forty-six patients were included in the study with a mean age of 59.3 +/- 12.4 years (80% female). On average, the patients started the irrigation 21.39 +/- 38.77 months after the DGP. Eight patients started irrigation before the DGP. Fifty-two percent of the patients used the irrigation as additional therapy for fecal incontinence, 24% for constipation, and 24% for both. Irrigation was usually performed in the morning. The mean frequency of irrigation was 0.90 +/- 0.40 times per day. The mean amount of water used for the irrigation was 2.27 +/- 1.75 l with a mean duration of 39 +/- 23 min. Four patients performed antegrade irrigation through a colostomy or appendicostomy, with good results. Overall, 81% of the patients were satisfied with the irrigation. Thirty-seven percent of the patients with fecal incontinence reached (pseudo-)continence, and in 30% of the patients, the constipation completely resolved. Side effects of the irrigation were

Location of irrigated land classified from satellite imagery - High Plains Area, nominal date 1992

USGS Publications Warehouse

Qi, Sharon L.; Konduris, Alexandria; Litke, David W.; Dupree, Jean

2002-01-01

Satellite imagery from the Landsat Thematic Mapper (nominal date 1992) was used to classify and map the location of irrigated land overlying the High Plains aquifer. The High Plains aquifer underlies 174,000 square miles in parts of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. The U.S. Geological Survey is conducting a water-quality study of the High Plains aquifer as part of the National Water-Quality Assessment Program. To help interpret data and select sites for the study, it is helpful to know the location of irrigated land within the study area. To date, the only information available for the entire area is 20 years old. To update the data on irrigated land, 40 summer and 40 spring images (nominal date 1992) were acquired from the National Land Cover Data set and processed using a band-ratio method (Landsat Thematic Mapper band 4 divided by band 3) to enhance the vegetation signatures. The study area was divided into nine subregions with similar environmental characteristics, and a band-ratio threshold was selected from imagery in each subregion that differentiated the cutoff between irrigated and nonirrigated land. The classified images for each subregion were mosaicked to produce an irrigated-land map for the study area. The total amount of irrigated land classified from the 1992 imagery was 13.1 million acres, or about 12 percent of the total land in the High Plains. This estimate is approximately 1.5 percent greater than the amount of irrigated land reported in the 1992 Census of Agriculture (12.8 millions acres).

Hydrological problems of water resources in irrigated agriculture: A management perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Singh, Ajay

2016-10-01

The development of irrigated agriculture is necessary for fulfilling the rising food requirements of the burgeoning global population. However, the intensification of irrigated agriculture causes the twin menace of waterlogging and soil salinization in arid and semiarid regions where more than 75% of the world's population lives. These problems can be managed by either adopting preventive measures which decrease the inflow of water and salt or by employing remedial measures which increase the outflow. This paper presents an overview of various measures used for the management of waterlogging and salinity problems. The background, processes involved, and severity of waterlogging and salinity problems are provided. The role of drainage systems, conjunctive use of different water sources, use of computer-based mathematical models, and the use of remote sensing and GIS techniques in managing the problems are discussed. Conclusions are provided which could be useful for all the stakeholders.

Audio-Enhanced Tablet Computers to Assess Children's Food Frequency From Migrant Farmworker Mothers.

PubMed

Kilanowski, Jill F; Trapl, Erika S; Kofron, Ryan M

2013-06-01

This study sought to improve data collection in children's food frequency surveys for non-English speaking immigrant/migrant farmworker mothers using audio-enhanced tablet computers (ATCs). We hypothesized that by using technological adaptations, we would be able to improve data capture and therefore reduce lost surveys. This Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ), a paper-based dietary assessment tool, was adapted for ATCs and assessed consumption of 66 food items asking 3 questions for each food item: frequency, quantity of consumption, and serving size. The tablet-based survey was audio enhanced with each question "read" to participants, accompanied by food item images, together with an embedded short instructional video. Results indicated that respondents were able to complete the 198 questions from the 66 food item FFQ on ATCs in approximately 23 minutes. Compared with paper-based FFQs, ATC-based FFQs had less missing data. Despite overall reductions in missing data by use of ATCs, respondents still appeared to have difficulty with question 2 of the FFQ. Ability to score the FFQ was dependent on what sections missing data were located. Unlike the paper-based FFQs, no ATC-based FFQs were unscored due to amount or location of missing data. An ATC-based FFQ was feasible and increased ability to score this survey on children's food patterns from migrant farmworker mothers. This adapted technology may serve as an exemplar for other non-English speaking immigrant populations.

Dietary Fiber and Bacterial SCFA Enhance Oral Tolerance and Protect against Food Allergy through Diverse Cellular Pathways.

PubMed

Tan, Jian; McKenzie, Craig; Vuillermin, Peter J; Goverse, Gera; Vinuesa, Carola G; Mebius, Reina E; Macia, Laurence; Mackay, Charles R

2016-06-21

The incidence of food allergies in western countries has increased dramatically in recent decades. Tolerance to food antigens relies on mucosal CD103(+) dendritic cells (DCs), which promote differentiation of regulatory T (Treg) cells. We show that high-fiber feeding in mice improved oral tolerance and protected from food allergy. High-fiber feeding reshaped gut microbial ecology and increased the release of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), particularly acetate and butyrate. High-fiber feeding enhanced oral tolerance and protected against food allergy by enhancing retinal dehydrogenase activity in CD103(+) DC. This protection depended on vitamin A in the diet. This feeding regimen also boosted IgA production and enhanced T follicular helper and mucosal germinal center responses. Mice lacking GPR43 or GPR109A, receptors for SCFAs, showed exacerbated food allergy and fewer CD103(+) DCs. Dietary elements, including fiber and vitamin A, therefore regulate numerous protective pathways in the gastrointestinal tract, necessary for immune non-responsiveness to food antigens. Copyright © 2016 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Food-Grade Synthesis of Maillard-Type Taste Enhancers Using Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents (NADES).

PubMed

Kranz, Maximilian; Hofmann, Thomas

2018-01-28

The increasing demand for healthier food products, with reduced levels of table salt, sugar, and mono sodium glutamate, reinforce the need for novel taste enhancers prepared by means of food-grade kitchen-type chemistry. Although several taste modulating compounds have been discovered in processed foods, their Maillard-type ex food production is usually not exploited by industrial process reactions as the yields of target compounds typically do not exceed 1-2%. Natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES) are reported for the first time to significantly increase the yields of the taste enhancers 1-deoxy-ᴅ-fructosyl-N-β-alanyl-ʟ-histidine (49% yield), N-(1-methyl-4-oxoimidazolidin-2-ylidene) aminopropionic acid (54% yield) and N²-(1-carboxyethyl) guanosine 5'-monophosphate (22% yield) at low temperature (80-100 °C) within a maximum reaction time of 2 h. Therefore, NADES open new avenues to a "next-generation culinary chemistry" overcoming the yield limitations of traditional Maillard chemistry approaches and enable a food-grade Maillard-type generation of flavor modulators.

Risk assessment of heavy metals in air, water, vegetables, grains, and related soils irrigated with biogas slurry in Taihu Basin, China.

PubMed

Bian, Bo; Zhou, Ling Jun; Li, Lei; Lv, Lin; Fan, Ya Min

2015-05-01

Metal contamination in farmlands irrigated with biogas slurry is of great concern because of its potential health risks to local inhabitants. Health risks that depend heavily on multi-pathway exposure to heavy metals (e.g., Pb, Cd, Cr, Zn, Cu, and As) in water, soil, air, and local food were studied through field sampling in Taihu Basin, China. Results show that Zn, Pb, and Cd in soils irrigated with biogas slurry exceed the soil quality standard values, and grown vegetables and grains contaminated with Pb and Cd exceed the permissible limits. Food ingestion plays an important role in the total average daily dose of metals, especially for Cu and Zn, which account for 94 and 91%, respectively. Non-carcinogenic risks posed to adults mainly result from Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd, and As through food ingestion and from Cr through soil ingestion. The highest non-carcinogenic risk was determined from food ingestion, followed by soil ingestion, air inhalation, air ingestion, and dermal contact with air. Carcinogenic risks to adults are 6.68 to 7.00 times higher than the safe level and can be attributed to Cr, As, and Cd pollution. The estimated risks mainly result from As and Cd through food ingestion and from Cr through soil ingestion. Both cancer and non-cancer risks through dermal contact can be ignored. Therefore, attention should be paid to health risks imposed by adults' multi-pathway exposure to heavy metals in vegetables, grains, and related soils irrigated with biogas slurry in Taihu Basin. Effective measures should be implemented to control heavy metal pollution and protect potentially exposed adults.

Mapping irrigated areas of Ghana using fusion of 30 m and 250 m resolution remote-sensing data

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gumma, M.K.; Thenkabail, P.S.; Hideto, F.; Nelson, A.; Dheeravath, V.; Busia, D.; Rala, A.

2011-01-01

Maps of irrigated areas are essential for Ghana's agricultural development. The goal of this research was to map irrigated agricultural areas and explain methods and protocols using remote sensing. Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) data and time-series Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data were used to map irrigated agricultural areas as well as other land use/land cover (LULC) classes, for Ghana. Temporal variations in the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) pattern obtained in the LULC class were used to identify irrigated and non-irrigated areas. First, the temporal variations in NDVI pattern were found to be more consistent in long-duration irrigated crops than with short-duration rainfed crops due to more assured water supply for irrigated areas. Second, surface water availability for irrigated areas is dependent on shallow dug-wells (on river banks) and dug-outs (in river bottoms) that affect the timing of crop sowing and growth stages, which was in turn reflected in the seasonal NDVI pattern. A decision tree approach using Landsat 30 m one time data fusion with MODIS 250 m time-series data was adopted to classify, group, and label classes. Finally, classes were tested and verified using ground truth data and national statistics. Fuzzy classification accuracy assessment for the irrigated classes varied between 67 and 93%. An irrigated area derived from remote sensing (32,421 ha) was 20-57% higher than irrigated areas reported by Ghana's Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA). This was because of the uncertainties involved in factors such as: (a) absence of shallow irrigated area statistics in GIDA statistics, (b) non-clarity in the irrigated areas in its use, under-development, and potential for development in GIDA statistics, (c) errors of omissions and commissions in the remote sensing approach, and (d) comparison involving widely varying data types, methods, and approaches used in determining irrigated area statistics

Effects of different on-farm management on yield and water use efficiency of Potato crop cultivated in semiarid environments under subsurface drip irrigation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ghazouani, Hiba; Provenzano, Giuseppe; Rallo, Giovanni; Mguidiche, Amel; Douh, Boutheina; Boujelben, Abdelhamid

2016-04-01

In Tunisia the amount of water for irrigated agriculture is higher than about 80% of the total resource.The increasing population and the rising food demand, associated to the negative effects of climate change,make it crucial to adopt strategies aiming to improve water use efficiency (WUE). Moreover, the absence of an effective public policy for water management amplifies the imbalance between water supply and its demand. Despite improved irrigation technologies can enhance the efficiency of water distribution systems, to achieve environmental goals it is also necessaryto identify on-farm management strategies accounting for actual crop water requirement. The main objective of the paper was to assess the effects of different on-farm managementstrategies (irrigation scheduling and planting date) on yield and water use efficiency of Potato crop (Solanumtuberosum L.) irrigated with a subsurface drip system, under the semi-arid climate of central Tunisia. Experiments were carried out during three growing seasons (2012, 2014 and 2015) at the High Agronomic Institute of ChottMariem in Sousse, by considering different planting dates and irrigation depths, the latter scheduled according to the climate observed during the season. All the considered treatments received the same pesticide and fertilizer management. Experiments evidenced that the climatic variability characterizing the examined seasons (photoperiod, solar radiation and average temperature) affects considerably the crop phenological stages, and the late sowing shortens the crop cycle.It has also been demonstrated that Leaf Area Index (LAI) and crop yield resulted relatively higher for those treatments receiving larger amounts of seasonal water. Crop yield varied between 16.3 t/ha and 39.1 t/ha, with a trend linearly related to the ratio between the seasonal amount of water supplied (Irrigation, I and Precipitation, P) and the maximum crop evapotranspiration (ETm). The maximum crop yield was in particular

Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) revisited. Suggestions for the development of an enhanced general food motivation model.

PubMed

Fotopoulos, Christos; Krystallis, Athanasios; Vassallo, Marco; Pagiaslis, Anastasios

2009-02-01

Recognising the need for a more statistically robust instrument to investigate general food selection determinants, the research validates and confirms Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ's) factorial design, develops ad hoc a more robust FCQ version and tests its ability to discriminate between consumer segments in terms of the importance they assign to the FCQ motivational factors. The original FCQ appears to represent a comprehensive and reliable research instrument. However, the empirical data do not support the robustness of its 9-factorial design. On the other hand, segmentation results at the subpopulation level based on the enhanced FCQ version bring about an optimistic message for the FCQ's ability to predict food selection behaviour. The paper concludes that some of the basic components of the original FCQ can be used as a basis for a new general food motivation typology. The development of such a new instrument, with fewer, of higher abstraction FCQ-based dimensions and fewer items per dimension, is a right step forward; yet such a step should be theory-driven, while a rigorous statistical testing across and within population would be necessary.

Irrigation management with remote sensing. [Navajo Indian Irrigation Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Harlan, C.; Heilman, J. L.; Moore, D.; Myers, V. (Principal Investigator)

1982-01-01

Two visible/near IR hand held radiometers and a hand held thermoradiometer were used along with soil moisture and lysimetric measurements in a study of soil moisture distribution in afalfa fields on the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project near farmington, New Mexico. Radiances from irrigated plots were measured and converted to reflectances. Surface soil water contents (o cm to 4 cm) were determined gravimetrically on samples collected at the same time as the spectral measurements. The relationship between the spectral measurements and the crop coefficient were evaluated to demonstrate potential for using spectral measurement to estimate crop coefficient.

Cavity-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy for Food Chain Management

PubMed Central

Sandfort, Vincenz; Goldschmidt, Jens; Wöllenstein, Jürgen

2018-01-01

Comprehensive food chain management requires the monitoring of many parameters including temperature, humidity, and multiple gases. The latter is highly challenging because no low-cost technology for the simultaneous chemical analysis of multiple gaseous components currently exists. This contribution proposes the use of cavity enhanced Raman spectroscopy to enable online monitoring of all relevant components using a single laser source. A laboratory scale setup is presented and characterized in detail. Power enhancement of the pump light is achieved in an optical resonator with a Finesse exceeding 2500. A simulation for the light scattering behavior shows the influence of polarization on the spatial distribution of the Raman scattered light. The setup is also used to measure three relevant showcase gases to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach, including carbon dioxide, oxygen and ethene. PMID:29495501

Biodegradability of pharmaceutical compounds in agricultural soils irrigated with treated wastewater.

PubMed

Grossberger, Amnon; Hadar, Yitzhak; Borch, Thomas; Chefetz, Benny

2014-02-01

Pharmaceutical compounds (PCs) are introduced into agricultural soils via irrigation with treated wastewater (TWW). Our data show that carbamazepine, lamotrigine, caffeine, metoprolol, sulfamethoxazole and sildenafil are persistent in soils when introduced via TWW. However, other PCs, namely diclofenac, ibuprofen, bezafibrate, gemfibrozil and naproxen were not detected in soils when introduced via TWW. This is likely due to rapid degradation as confirmed in our microcosm studies where they exhibited half-lives (t1/2) between 0.2-9.5 days when soils were spiked at 50 ng/g soil and between 3 and 68 days when soils were spiked at 5000 ng/g soil. The degradation rate and extent of PCs observed in microcosm studies were similar in soils that had been previously irrigated with TWW or fresh water. This suggests that pre-exposure of the soils to PCs via irrigation with TWW does not enhance their biodegradation. This suggests that PCs are probably degraded in soils via co-metabolism. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Decision Support System for an efficient irrigation water management in semi arid environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khan, M. A.; Islam, M.; Hafeez, M. M.; Flugel, W. A.

2009-12-01

A significant increase in agricultural productivity over the last few decades has protected the world from episodes of hunger and food shortages. Water management in irrigated agriculture was instrumental in achieving those gains. Water resources are under high pressure due to rapid population growth and increased competition among various sectors. Access to reliable data on water availability, quantity and quality can provide the necessary foundation for sound management of water resources. There are many traditional methods for matching water demand and supply, however imbalances between demand and supply remain inevitable. It is possible to reduce the imbalances considerably through development of appropriate irrigation water management tool that take into account various factors such as soil type, irrigation water supply, and crop water demand. All components of water balance need to be understood and quantified for efficient and sustainable management of water resources. Application of an intelligent Decision Support System (DSS) is becoming significant. A DSS incorporates knowledge and expertise within the decision support framework. It is an integrated set of data, functions, models and other relevant information that efficiently processes input data, simulates models and displays the results in a user friendly format. It helps in decision-making process, to analyse the problem and explore various scenarios to make the most appropriate decision for water management. This paper deals with the Coleambally Irrigation Area (CIA) located in Murrumbidgee catchment, NSW, Australia. An Integrated River Information System called Coleambally IRIS has been developed to improve the irrigation water management ranging from farm to sub-system and system level. It is a web-based information management system with a focus on time series and geospatial hydrological, climatic and remote sensing data including land cover class, surface temperature, soil moisture, Normalized

Apical Extrusion of Irrigants in Immature Permanent Teeth by Using EndoVac and Needle Irrigation: An In Vitro Study

PubMed Central

Velmurugan, N; Sooriaprakas, C; Jain, Preetham

2014-01-01

Objective: Immature teeth have a large apical opening and thin divergent or parallel dentinal walls; hence, with conventional needle irrigation there is a very high possibility of extrusion. This study was done to compare the apical extrusion of NaOCl in an immature root delivered using EndoVac and needle irrigation. Materials and Methods: Eighty freshly extracted maxillary central incisors were decoronated followed by access cavity preparation. Modified organotypic protocol was performed to create an open apex; then, the samples were divided into four groups (n=20): EndoVac Microcannula (group I), EndoVac Macrocannula (group II), NaviTip irrigation needle (group III) and Max-i-Probe Irrigating needle (group IV); 9.0 ml of 3% sodium hypochlorite was delivered slowly over a period of 60 seconds. Extruded irrigants were collected in a vial and analysed statistically. Results: Group I, group III and group IV showed 100% extrusion (20/20) but group II showed only 40% extrusion (8/20). The difference in this respect between group II and other groups was statistically significant (P<0.001). With regards to the volume of extrusion, group II had only 0.23 ml of extruded irrigant. Group I extruded 7.53ml of the irrigant. Group III and group IV extruded the entire volume of irrigant delivered. Conclusion: EndoVac Macrocannula resulted in the least extrusion of irrigant in immature teeth when compared to EndoVac Microcannula and conventional needle irrigation. PMID:25584055

Colonic irrigation for defecation disorders after dynamic graciloplasty

PubMed Central

Koch, Sacha M.; Uludağ, Özenç; El Naggar, Kadri; van Gemert, Wim G.

2007-01-01

Background and aims Dynamic graciloplasty (DGP) improves anal continence and quality of life for most patients. However, in some patients, DGP fails and fecal incontinence is unsolved or only partially improved. Constipation is also a significant problem after DGP, occurring in 13–90%. Colonic irrigation can be considered as an additional or salvage treatment for defecation disorders after unsuccessful or partially successful DGP. In this study, the effectiveness of colonic irrigation for the treatment of persistent fecal incontinence and/or constipation after DGP is investigated. Materials and methods Patients with defecation disorders after DGP visiting the outpatient clinic of the University Hospital Maastricht were selected for colonic irrigation as additional therapy or salvage therapy in the period between January 1999 and June 2003. The Biotrol® Irrimatic pump or the irrigation bag was used for colonic irrigation. Relevant physical and medical history was collected. The patients were asked to fill out a detailed questionnaire about colonic irrigation. Results Forty-six patients were included in the study with a mean age of 59.3 ± 12.4 years (80% female). On average, the patients started the irrigation 21.39 ± 38.77 months after the DGP. Eight patients started irrigation before the DGP. Fifty-two percent of the patients used the irrigation as additional therapy for fecal incontinence, 24% for constipation, and 24% for both. Irrigation was usually performed in the morning. The mean frequency of irrigation was 0.90 ± 0.40 times per day. The mean amount of water used for the irrigation was 2.27 ± 1.75 l with a mean duration of 39 ± 23 min. Four patients performed antegrade irrigation through a colostomy or appendicostomy, with good results. Overall, 81% of the patients were satisfied with the irrigation. Thirty-seven percent of the patients with fecal incontinence reached (pseudo-)continence, and in 30% of the patients, the

[Effects of irrigation amount on morphological characteristics and water use of Jatropha curcas].

PubMed

Yang, Qi-Liang; Zhang, Jing; Liu, Xiao-Gang; Liu, Yan-Wei; Yang, Ju-Rui

2014-05-01

Jatropha curcas is the most promising energy tree, and soil moisture is the key factor which affects the seedling quality and water use efficiency of J. curcas. With aims to evaluate the effect of different irrigation amount on growth, morphological characteristics and water use of J. curcas, a pot experiment was conducted with four irrigation amounts, i. e., W1:472.49 mm, W2: 228.79 mm, W3:154.18 mm and W4:106.93 mm, respectively. Compared with W1 treatment, the leaf area and stem cross-section area of base significantly decreased in W2, W3 and W4 treatments, but Huber value significantly increased, which could improve the efficiency of water transfer from root to shoot, thus enhance the capability of resistance to drought stress. Compared with W, treatment, the healthy index of J. curcas seedlings decreased slightly in W2 treatment but significantly decreased in W3 and W4 treatments. Hence, the irrigation amount from 228.79 to 472.49 mm was beneficial to increase the healthy index of J. curcas seedlings. Compared with W1 treatment, irrigation water was saved by 67.4% in W3 treatment, and the total dry mass and evapotranspiration significantly decreased by 17.4% and 68.6%, and the irrigation water use efficiency and total water use efficiency increased by 153.2% and 163.2%, respectively. In the condition of this study, the irrigation amount of 154.18 mm was beneficial to increase water use efficiency.

Irrigation Requirement Estimation using MODIS Vegetation Indices and Inverse Biophysical Modeling; A Case Study for Oran, Algeria

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bounoua, L.; Imhoff, M.L.; Franks, S.

2008-01-01

Human demand for food influences the water cycle through diversion and extraction of fresh water needed to support agriculture. Future population growth and economic development alone will substantially increase water demand and much of it for agricultural uses. For many semi-arid lands, socio-economic shifts are likely to exacerbate changes in climate as a driver of future water supply and demand. For these areas in particular, where the balance between water supply and demand is fragile, variations in regional climate can have potentially predictable effect on agricultural production. Satellite data and biophysically-based models provide a powerful method to quantify the interactions between local climate, plant growth and water resource requirements. In irrigated agricultural lands, satellite observations indicate high vegetation density while the precipitation amount indicates otherwise. This inconsistency between the observed precipitation and the observed canopy leaf density triggers the possibility that the observed high leaf density is due to an alternate source of water, irrigation. We explore an inverse process approach using observations from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), climatological data, and the NASA's Simple Biosphere model, SiB2, to quantitatively assess water demand in a semi-arid agricultural land by constraining the carbon and water cycles modeled under both equilibrium (balance between vegetation and prevailing local climate) and nonequilibrium (water added through irrigation) conditions. We postulate that the degree to which irrigated lands vary from equilibrium conditions is related to the amount of irrigation water used. We added water using two distribution methods: The first method adds water on top of the canopy and is a proxy for the traditional spray irrigation. The second method allows water to be applied directly into the soil layer and serves as proxy for drip irrigation. Our approach indicates that over

Water-food-energy nexus with changing agricultural scenarios in India during recent decades

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barik, Beas; Ghosh, Subimal; Saheer Sahana, A.; Pathak, Amey; Sekhar, Muddu

2017-06-01

Meeting the growing water and food demands in a densely populated country like India is a major challenge. It requires an extensive investigation into the changing patterns of the checks and balances behind the maintenance of food security at the expense of depleting groundwater, along with high energy consumption. Here we present a comprehensive set of analyses which assess the present status of the water-food-energy nexus in India, along with its changing pattern, in the last few decades. We find that with the growth of population and consequent increase in the food demands, the food production has also increased, and this has been made possible with the intensification of irrigation. However, during the recent decade (after 1996), the increase in food production has not been sufficient to meet its growing demands, precipitating a decline in the per-capita food availability. We also find a statistically significant declining trend of groundwater storage in India during the last decade, as derived from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite datasets. Regional studies reveal contrasting trends between northern and western-central India. North-western India and the middle Ganga basin show a decrease in the groundwater storage as opposed to an increasing storage over western-central India. Comparison with well data reveals that the highest consistency of GRACE-derived storage data with available well measurements is in the middle Ganga basin. After analysing the data for the last 2 decades, we further showcase that, after a drought, the groundwater storage drops but is unable to recover to its original condition even after good monsoon years. The groundwater storage reveals a very strong negative correlation with the electricity consumption for agricultural usage, which may also be considered as a proxy for groundwater pumped for irrigation in a region. The electricity usage for agricultural purposes has an increasing trend and, interestingly

Irrigation Systems. Instructor's Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Amarillo Coll., TX.

This guide is intended for use by licensed irrigators who wish to teach others how to design and install residential and commercial irrigation systems. The materials included in the guide have been developed under the assumption that the instructors who use it have little or no formal training as teachers. The first section presents detailed…

Water resources transfers through Chinese interprovincial and foreign food trade

PubMed Central

Dalin, Carole; Hanasaki, Naota; Qiu, Huanguang; Mauzerall, Denise L.; Rodriguez-Iturbe, Ignacio

2014-01-01

China’s water resources are under increasing pressure from socioeconomic development, diet shifts, and climate change. Agriculture still concentrates most of the national water withdrawal. Moreover, a spatial mismatch in water and arable land availability—with abundant agricultural land and little water resources in the north—increases water scarcity and results in virtual water transfers from drier to wetter regions through agricultural trade. We use a general equilibrium welfare model and linear programming optimization to model interprovincial food trade in China. We combine these trade flows with province-level estimates of commodities’ virtual water content to build China’s domestic and foreign virtual water trade network. We observe large variations in agricultural water-use efficiency among provinces. In addition, some provinces particularly rely on irrigation vs. rainwater. We analyze the virtual water flow patterns and the corresponding water savings. We find that this interprovincial network is highly connected and the flow distribution is relatively homogeneous. A significant share of water flows is from international imports (20%), which are dominated by soy (93%). We find that China’s domestic food trade is efficient in terms of rainwater but inefficient regarding irrigation, meaning that dry, irrigation-intensive provinces tend to export to wetter, less irrigation-intensive ones. Importantly, when incorporating foreign imports, China’s soy trade switches from an inefficient system to a particularly efficient one for saving water resources (20 km3/y irrigation water savings, 41 km3/y total). Finally, we identify specific provinces (e.g., Inner Mongolia) and products (e.g., corn) that show high potential for irrigation productivity improvements. PMID:24958864

Validation and application of a two-dimensional model to simulate soil salt transport under mulched drip irrigation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiao, Huiqing; Zhao, Chengyi; Sheng, Yu; Chen, Yan; Shi, Jianchu; Li, Baoguo

2017-04-01

drip irrigation water hardly reached, and thus providing suitable root zone environment for cotton. Nevertheless, flooding irrigation should be further optimized to enhance water use efficiency.

Irrigation Systems. Student's Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Amarillo Coll., TX.

This guide is intended for use by individuals preparing for a career in commercial and residential irrigation. The materials included are geared toward students who have had some experience in the irrigation business; they are intended to be presented in 10 six-hour sessions. The first two sections deal with using this guide and preparing for the…

Closing the irrigation deficit in Cambodia: Implications for transboundary impacts on groundwater and Mekong River flow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Erban, Laura E.; Gorelick, Steven M.

2016-04-01

Rice production in Cambodia, essential to food security and exports, is largely limited to the wet season. The vast majority (96%) of land planted with rice during the wet season remains fallow during the dry season. This is in large part due to lack of irrigation capacity, increases in which would entail significant consequences for Cambodia and Vietnam, located downstream on the Mekong River. Here we quantify the extent of the dry season ;deficit; area in the Cambodian Mekong River catchment, using a recent agricultural survey and our analysis of MODIS satellite data. Irrigation of this land for rice production would require a volume of water up to 31% of dry season Mekong River flow to Vietnam. However, the two countries share an aquifer system in the Mekong Delta, where irrigation demand is increasingly met by groundwater. We estimate expansion rates of groundwater-irrigated land to be >10% per year in the Cambodian Delta using LANDSAT satellite data and simulate the effects of future expansion on groundwater levels over a 25-year period. If groundwater irrigation continues to expand at current rates, the water table will drop below the lift limit of suction pump wells, used for domestic supply by >1.5 million people, throughout much of the area within 15 years. Extensive groundwater irrigation jeopardizes access for shallow domestic water supply wells, raises the costs of pumping for all groundwater users, and may exacerbate arsenic contamination and land subsidence that are already widespread hazards in the region.

How do current irrigation practices perform? Evaluation of different irrigation scheduling approaches based on experiements and crop model simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seidel, Sabine J.; Werisch, Stefan; Barfus, Klemens; Wagner, Michael; Schütze, Niels; Laber, Hermann

2014-05-01

The increasing worldwide water scarcity, costs and negative off-site effects of irrigation are leading to the necessity of developing methods of irrigation that increase water productivity. Various approaches are available for irrigation scheduling. Traditionally schedules are calculated based on soil water balance (SWB) calculations using some measure of reference evaporation and empirical crop coeffcients. These crop-specific coefficients are provided by the FAO but are also available for different regions (e.g. Germany). The approach is simple but there are several inaccuracies due to simplifications and limitations such as poor transferability. Crop growth models - which simulate the main physiological plant processes through a set of assumptions and calibration parameter - are widely used to support decision making, but also for yield gap or scenario analyses. One major advantage of mechanistic models compared to empirical approaches is their spatial and temporal transferability. Irrigation scheduling can also be based on measurements of soil water tension which is closely related to plant stress. Advantages of precise and easy measurements are able to be automated but face difficulties of finding the place where to probe especially in heterogenous soils. In this study, a two-year field experiment was used to extensively evaluate the three mentioned irrigation scheduling approaches regarding their efficiency on irrigation water application with the aim to promote better agronomic practices in irrigated horticulture. To evaluate the tested irrigation scheduling approaches, an extensive plant and soil water data collection was used to precisely calibrate the mechanistic crop model Daisy. The experiment was conducted with white cabbage (Brassica oleracea L.) on a sandy loamy field in 2012/13 near Dresden, Germany. Hereby, three irrigation scheduling approaches were tested: (i) two schedules were estimated based on SWB calculations using different crop

Cleaning of Root Canal System by Different Irrigation Methods.

PubMed

Tanomaru-Filho, Mário; Miano, Lucas Martinati; Chávez-Andrade, Gisselle Moraima; Torres, Fernanda Ferrari Esteves; Leonardo, Renato de Toledo; Guerreiro-Tanomaru, Juliane Maria

2015-11-01

The aim of this study was to compare the cleaning of main and lateral canals using the irrigation methods: negative pressure irrigation (EndoVac system), passive ultrasonic irrigation (PUI) and manual irrigation (MI). Resin teeth were used. After root canal preparation, four lateral canals were made at 2 and 7 mm from the apex. Root canals were filled with contrast solution and radiographed pre- and post-irrigation using digital radiographic system [radiovisiography (RVG)]. The irrigation protocols were: MI1-manual irrigation [22 G needle at 5 mm short of working length-WL]; MI2-manual irrigation (30G needle at 2 mm short of WL); PUI; EV1-EndoVac (microcannula at 1 mm short of WL); EV2-Endovac (microcannula at 3 mm short of WL). The obtained images, initial (filled with contrast solution) and final (after irrigation) were analyzed by using image tool 3.0 software. Statistical analysis was performed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey tests (5% significance level). EV1 and EV2, followed by PUI showed better cleaning capacity than manual irrigation (MI1 and MI2) (p < 0.05). Negative pressure irrigation and PUI promoted better cleaning of main and simulated lateral canals. Conventional manual irrigation technique may promote less root canal cleaning in the apical third. For this reason, the search for other irrigation protocols is important, and EndoVac and PUI are alternatives to contribute to irrigation effectiveness.

Advanced tools for irrigation scheduling

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Irrigated agriculture is needed to meet demands for agricultural products, but farmers are challenged with limited quality water supplies, environmental and regulatory policies climate variability, and competition for water from other sectors. Scientific irrigation scheduling could help allay these ...

Food safety security: a new concept for enhancing food safety measures.

PubMed

Iyengar, Venkatesh; Elmadfa, Ibrahim

2012-06-01

The food safety security (FSS) concept is perceived as an early warning system for minimizing food safety (FS) breaches, and it functions in conjunction with existing FS measures. Essentially, the function of FS and FSS measures can be visualized in two parts: (i) the FS preventive measures as actions taken at the stem level, and (ii) the FSS interventions as actions taken at the root level, to enhance the impact of the implemented safety steps. In practice, along with FS, FSS also draws its support from (i) legislative directives and regulatory measures for enforcing verifiable, timely, and effective compliance; (ii) measurement systems in place for sustained quality assurance; and (iii) shared responsibility to ensure cohesion among all the stakeholders namely, policy makers, regulators, food producers, processors and distributors, and consumers. However, the functional framework of FSS differs from that of FS by way of: (i) retooling the vulnerable segments of the preventive features of existing FS measures; (ii) fine-tuning response systems to efficiently preempt the FS breaches; (iii) building a long-term nutrient and toxicant surveillance network based on validated measurement systems functioning in real time; (iv) focusing on crisp, clear, and correct communication that resonates among all the stakeholders; and (v) developing inter-disciplinary human resources to meet ever-increasing FS challenges. Important determinants of FSS include: (i) strengthening international dialogue for refining regulatory reforms and addressing emerging risks; (ii) developing innovative and strategic action points for intervention {in addition to Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) procedures]; and (iii) introducing additional science-based tools such as metrology-based measurement systems.

Smart Irrigation From Soil Moisture Forecast Using Satellite And Hydro -Meteorological Modelling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Corbari, Chiara; Mancini, Marco; Ravazzani, Giovanni; Ceppi, Alessandro; Salerno, Raffaele; Sobrino, Josè

2017-04-01

Increased water demand and climate change impacts have recently enhanced the need to improve water resources management, even in those areas which traditionally have an abundant supply of water. The highest consumption of water is devoted to irrigation for agricultural production, and so it is in this area that efforts have to be focused to study possible interventions. The SIM project funded by EU in the framework of the WaterWorks2014 - Water Joint Programming Initiative aims at developing an operational tool for real-time forecast of crops irrigation water requirements to support parsimonious water management and to optimize irrigation scheduling providing real-time and forecasted soil moisture behavior at high spatial and temporal resolutions with forecast horizons from few up to thirty days. This study discusses advances in coupling satellite driven soil water balance model and meteorological forecast as support for precision irrigation use comparing different case studies in Italy, in the Netherlands, in China and Spain, characterized by different climatic conditions, water availability, crop types and irrigation techniques and water distribution rules. Herein, the applications in two operative farms in vegetables production in the South of Italy where semi-arid climatic conditions holds, two maize fields in Northern Italy in a more water reach environment with flood irrigation will be presented. This system combines state of the art mathematical models and new technologies for environmental monitoring, merging ground observed data with Earth observations. Discussion on the methodology approach is presented, comparing for a reanalysis periods the forecast system outputs with observed soil moisture and crop water needs proving the reliability of the forecasting system and its benefits. The real-time visualization of the implemented system is also presented through web-dashboards.

Ancestral irrigation method by kanis in Bolivia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roldán-Cañas, José; Chipana, René; Fátima Moreno-Pérez, María

2015-04-01

Irrigation in the Andean region is an ancient practice. For centuries, farmers were able to use the waters of rivers, lakes and springs to complement or supplement the scarce rainfall regime. The inter-Andean valleys of the Department of La Paz are the best areas for the study of traditional irrigation systems. This work has been carried out in the community of Jatichulaya located in te town of Charazani, 300 km from the city of La Paz, which lies 3250 meters above sea level. The annual rainfall ranges around 450 mm distributed mainly between the months of December to March. Therefore, water is needed to achieve adequate crop yields. The traditional irrigation system is done by the method of Kanis, consisting of a surface irrigation already developed by traditional Andean cultures of the country, in harmony with the ecological and productive characteristics of the area. Water enters the irrigation plot through a main channel (mama kani) from which the secondary channels (juchuy kanis) are derived. The fundamental characteristic of this irrigation is that these channels are open at the same time the water enters into the plot. The system works properly, adapting to the topography of the area. The irrigation method practiced in this community does not cause water erosion of soils because water management within the plot is based on the ancient knowledge of farmers following the contour lines. This practice allows good irrigation development and soil protection without causing any problems. However, it was evident a high use of labor in irrigation practice. Irrigation scheduling is done according to requests made by the irrigators in a given period. Delivering of water to the farmers is made by the so-called Water Agent (Agente de Aguas) or person in charge of the distribution of water. The Water Agent is elected annually and its functions include the maintenance and care of all system waterworks. The period between August and January is the highest water demand and

Relationship between food waste, diet quality, and environmental sustainability

PubMed Central

Niles, Meredith T.; Neher, Deborah A.; Roy, Eric D.; Tichenor, Nicole E.; Jahns, Lisa

2018-01-01

Improving diet quality while simultaneously reducing environmental impact is a critical focus globally. Metrics linking diet quality and sustainability have typically focused on a limited suite of indicators, and have not included food waste. To address this important research gap, we examine the relationship between food waste, diet quality, nutrient waste, and multiple measures of sustainability: use of cropland, irrigation water, pesticides, and fertilizers. Data on food intake, food waste, and application rates of agricultural amendments were collected from diverse US government sources. Diet quality was assessed using the Healthy Eating Index-2015. A biophysical simulation model was used to estimate the amount of cropland associated with wasted food. This analysis finds that US consumers wasted 422g of food per person daily, with 30 million acres of cropland used to produce this food every year. This accounts for 30% of daily calories available for consumption, one-quarter of daily food (by weight) available for consumption, and 7% of annual cropland acreage. Higher quality diets were associated with greater amounts of food waste and greater amounts of wasted irrigation water and pesticides, but less cropland waste. This is largely due to fruits and vegetables, which are health-promoting and require small amounts of cropland, but require substantial amounts of agricultural inputs. These results suggest that simultaneous efforts to improve diet quality and reduce food waste are necessary. Increasing consumers’ knowledge about how to prepare and store fruits and vegetables will be one of the practical solutions to reducing food waste. PMID:29668732

Impact of Long-Term Irrigation with Treated Sewage on Soil Magnetic Susceptibility and Organic Matter Content in North China.

PubMed

Yang, P G; Yang, M; Mao, R Z; Byrne, J M

2015-07-01

This study assessed the effect on magnetic susceptibility and organic matter content of arable soil by irrigation with either treated sewage or groundwater. Results indicated that organic matter and magnetic susceptibility values in the soil irrigated with sewage were increased by 7.1 % and 13.5 %, respectively, compared to agricultural soil that irrigated with groundwater. Both the sewage and groundwater irrigated soils contained a significant fraction of ultrafine superpara magnetic grains, as indicated by high frequency dependent susceptibility (χfd > 6 %). The enhancement of soil magnetic properties was determined to be caused by anthropogenic sewage irrigation and agrochemical use by investigation of vertical soil profiles. Magnetic susceptibility parameters were shown to be significantly correlated with organic matter content (y = 0.0057x + 1.3439, R(2) = 0.09, p < 0.05). This work indicates that measurements of magnetic susceptibility may offer a rapid first step for identifying the potential pollution in arable soils.

Comparative anti-microbial efficacy of Azadirachta indica irrigant with standard endodontic irrigants: A preliminary study

PubMed Central

Dutta, Arindam; Kundabala, Mala

2014-01-01

Objective: The anti-microbial efficacy of 2.5% sodium hypochlorite (SHC) and 0.2% chlorhexidine gluconate were compared with an experimental irrigant formulated from the Neem tree, Azadirachta indica A. Juss. Materials and Methods: A sample of 36 single rooted anterior teeth with periapical radiolucency and absence of response to vitality tests that required root canal treatment were selected for this study. The test irrigants and their combinations were assigned to five different groups and saline served as the control. Access cavities were prepared using an aseptic technique and samples collected for both anaerobic culture and Gram stained smears, followed by irrigation and sample collection again. The number of organisms were expressed in colony forming units/ml after 72 h of incubation; the smears were analyzed for their microbial loads and tissue clearance and assessed as per defined criteria. Results: Our results found the maximum reduction in microbial loads, when analyzed by culture method, with a combination of SHC and the experimental neem irrigant. Maximum tissue clearance on the Gram Stained smears was also found with the same combination. Conclusion: Neem irrigant has anti-microbial efficacy and can be considered for endodontic use. PMID:24778508

The potential implications of reclaimed wastewater reuse for irrigation on the agricultural environment: The knowns and unknowns of the fate of antibiotics and antibiotic resistant bacteria and resistance genes - A review.

PubMed

Christou, Anastasis; Agüera, Ana; Bayona, Josep Maria; Cytryn, Eddie; Fotopoulos, Vasileios; Lambropoulou, Dimitra; Manaia, Célia M; Michael, Costas; Revitt, Mike; Schröder, Peter; Fatta-Kassinos, Despo

2017-10-15

The use of reclaimed wastewater (RWW) for the irrigation of crops may result in the continuous exposure of the agricultural environment to antibiotics, antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). In recent years, certain evidence indicate that antibiotics and resistance genes may become disseminated in agricultural soils as a result of the amendment with manure and biosolids and irrigation with RWW. Antibiotic residues and other contaminants may undergo sorption/desorption and transformation processes (both biotic and abiotic), and have the potential to affect the soil microbiota. Antibiotics found in the soil pore water (bioavailable fraction) as a result of RWW irrigation may be taken up by crop plants, bioaccumulate within plant tissues and subsequently enter the food webs; potentially resulting in detrimental public health implications. It can be also hypothesized that ARGs can spread among soil and plant-associated bacteria, a fact that may have serious human health implications. The majority of studies dealing with these environmental and social challenges related with the use of RWW for irrigation were conducted under laboratory or using, somehow, controlled conditions. This critical review discusses the state of the art on the fate of antibiotics, ARB and ARGs in agricultural environment where RWW is applied for irrigation. The implications associated with the uptake of antibiotics by plants (uptake mechanisms) and the potential risks to public health are highlighted. Additionally, knowledge gaps as well as challenges and opportunities are addressed, with the aim of boosting future research towards an enhanced understanding of the fate and implications of these contaminants of emerging concern in the agricultural environment. These are key issues in a world where the increasing water scarcity and the continuous appeal of circular economy demand answers for a long-term safe use of RWW for irrigation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier

A global, spatially-explicit assessment of irrigated croplands influenced by urban wastewater flows

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thebo, A. L.; Drechsel, P.; Lambin, E. F.; Nelson, K. L.

2017-07-01

When urban areas expand without concomitant increases in wastewater treatment capacity, vast quantities of wastewater are released to surface waters with little or no treatment. Downstream of many urban areas are large areas of irrigated croplands reliant on these same surface water sources. Case studies document the widespread use of untreated wastewater in irrigated agriculture, but due to the practical and political challenges of conducting a true census of this practice, its global extent is not well known except where reuse has been planned. This study used GIS-based modeling methods to develop the first spatially-explicit estimate of the global extent of irrigated croplands influenced by urban wastewater flows, including indirect wastewater use. These croplands were further classified by their likelihood of using poor quality water based on the spatial proximity of croplands to urban areas, urban wastewater return flow ratios, and proportion of wastewater treated. This study found that 65% (35.9 Mha) of downstream irrigated croplands were located in catchments with high levels of dependence on urban wastewater flows. These same catchments were home to 1.37 billion urban residents. Of these croplands, 29.3 Mha were located in countries with low levels of wastewater treatment and home to 885 million urban residents. These figures provide insight into the key role that water reuse plays in meeting the water and food needs of people around the world, and the need to invest in wastewater treatment to protect public health.

Introducing Urban Food Forestry: A Multifunctional Strategy for Enhancing Urban Sustainability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nicholas, K. A.; Clark, K.

2012-12-01

We propose combining elements of urban agriculture and urban forestry into what we call "urban food forestry" (UFF), the practice of growing perennial woody food-producing species ("food trees") in cities. We used four approaches at different scales to gauge the potential of UFF to enhance urban sustainability, in the context of trends including increasing urbanization, resource demands, and climate change. First, we analyzed 37 current international initiatives based around urban food trees, finding that core activities included planting, mapping, and harvesting food trees, but that only about a quarter of initiatives engaged in more than one of these activities necessary to fully utilize the food potential of urban trees. Second, we analyzed 30 urban forestry master plans, finding that only 13% included human food security among their objectives. Third, we used Burlington, Vermont as a case study to quantify the potential caloric output of publicly accessible open space if planted with Malus domestica (the common apple) under 9 different scenarios. We found that the entire caloric deficit of the very low food security population could be met on as few as 29 hectares (representing 16% of total open space), and that 98% of the daily recommended minimum intake of fruit for the entire city's population could be met under the most ambitious planting scenario. Finally, we developed a decision-making tool for selecting potential food trees appropriate for temperate urban environments, the Climate-Food-Species Matrix. We identified a total of 70 species, 30 of which we deemed "highly suitable" for urban food forestry based on their cold hardiness, drought tolerance, and edibility. We conclude that urban food forestry provides multiple pathways for building urban sustainability through local food production, and that our framework can be used to increase the coordination between and effectiveness of a growing number of related initiatives.

Sediment transport by irrigation return flows on the Yakima Indian Reservation, Washington 1975 and 1976 irrigation seasons

USGS Publications Warehouse

Nelson, Leonard M.

1978-01-01

As determined from data collected at 10 sites on the Yakima Indian Reservation, Wash., during the 1975 and 1976 irrigation seasons (April-September), seasonal sediment discharges in irrigation return flows ranged from 11,000 tons from Marion Drain and Satus Drain 302 to 400 tons from Coulee Drain. There was little variation between the sediment discharges of the 1975 and 1976 irrigation seasons except those from Satus Drain 302. Due to the lack of natural runoff during those seasons, no distinction could be made between sediment discharges from irrigated and nonirrigated areas. No significant or usable relationships were found between suspend-sediment concentration and concurrent water turbidity or discharges. (Woodard-USGS)

Laser assisted irrigation and hand irrigation for root canal decontamination: a comparison

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Olivi, M.; Stefanucci, M.; Todea, C.

2014-01-01

Aim: to compare the bactericidal efficiency of conventional method and LAI for root canal decontamination. Material and method: 22 human single root teeth, extracted for periodontal problems, mechanically prepared up to ISO 25 at the working lenght were divided in 2 groups: after sterilization, the teeth were infected with enterococcus faecalis and incubated for 4 weeks. Group A: 10 teeth were irrigated with conventional hand technique (CI): 3ml of 5% NaClO were used for two times of 30s each and after washing with sterile bi-distilled water for 20s, a final irrigation was performed with 3ml of 17% EDTA. Group B: 10 teeth were irrigated with 3ml of NaClO and activated by erbium laser, two cycles of 30s; also the final irrigation with 3ml of 17% EDTA was activated by erbium laser. In both the groups a resting time of 30s was used between the two sessions to allow the reaction rate of NaClO. The Erbium laser 2940 nm (LightWalker AT, Fotona; Lublijana, Slovenia) was used with 50microsecond pulse duration, at 15Hz, 20mJ, with a 600micron PIPS tip. Two samples were used as positive and negative control.

Unsaturated flow dynamics during irrigation with wastewater: field and modelling study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martinez-Hernandez, V.; de Miguel, A.; Meffe, R.; Leal, M.; González-Naranjo, V.; de Bustamante, I.

2012-04-01

To deal with water scarcity combined with a growing water demand, the reuse of wastewater effluents of wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) for industrial and agricultural purposes is considered as a technically and economically feasible solution. In agriculture, irrigation with wastewater emerges as a sustainable practice that should be considered in such scenarios. Water infiltration, soil moisture storage and evapotranspiration occurring in the unsaturated zone are fundamental processes that play an important role in soil water balance. An accurate estimation of unsaturated flow dynamics (during and after irrigation) is essential to improve wastewater management (i.e. estimating groundwater recharge or maximizing irrigation efficiency) and to avoid possible soil and groundwater affections (i.e. predicting contaminant transport). The study site is located in the Experimental Plant of Carrión de los Céspedes (Seville, Spain). Here, treated wastewater is irrigated over the soil to enhance plants growth. To obtain physical characteristics of the soil (granulometry, bulk density and water retention curve), soil samples were collected at different depths. A drain gauge passive capillary lysimeter was installed to determine the volume of water draining from the vadose zone. Volumetric water content of the soil was monitored by measuring the dielectric constant using capacitance/frequency domain technology. Three soil moisture probes were located at different depths (20, 50 and 70 cm below the ground surface) to control the variation of the volumetric water content during infiltration. The main aim of this study is to understand water flow dynamics through the unsaturated zone during irrigation by using the finite element model Hydrus-1D. The experimental conditions were simulated by a 90 cm long, one dimensional solution domain. Specific climatic conditions, wastewater irrigation rates and physical properties of the soil were introduced in the model as input parameters

Audio-Enhanced Tablet Computers to Assess Children’s Food Frequency From Migrant Farmworker Mothers

PubMed Central

Kilanowski, Jill F.; Trapl, Erika S.; Kofron, Ryan M.

2014-01-01

This study sought to improve data collection in children’s food frequency surveys for non-English speaking immigrant/migrant farmworker mothers using audio-enhanced tablet computers (ATCs). We hypothesized that by using technological adaptations, we would be able to improve data capture and therefore reduce lost surveys. This Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ), a paper-based dietary assessment tool, was adapted for ATCs and assessed consumption of 66 food items asking 3 questions for each food item: frequency, quantity of consumption, and serving size. The tablet-based survey was audio enhanced with each question “read” to participants, accompanied by food item images, together with an embedded short instructional video. Results indicated that respondents were able to complete the 198 questions from the 66 food item FFQ on ATCs in approximately 23 minutes. Compared with paper-based FFQs, ATC-based FFQs had less missing data. Despite overall reductions in missing data by use of ATCs, respondents still appeared to have difficulty with question 2 of the FFQ. Ability to score the FFQ was dependent on what sections missing data were located. Unlike the paper-based FFQs, no ATC-based FFQs were unscored due to amount or location of missing data. An ATC-based FFQ was feasible and increased ability to score this survey on children’s food patterns from migrant farmworker mothers. This adapted technology may serve as an exemplar for other non-English speaking immigrant populations. PMID:25343004

Scenario Studies on Effects of Soil Infiltration Rates, Land Slope, and Furrow Irrigation Characteristics on Furrow Irrigation-Induced Erosion.

PubMed

Dibal, Jibrin M; Ramalan, A A; Mudiare, O J; Igbadun, H E

2014-01-01

Furrow irrigation proceeds under several soil-water-furrow hydraulics interaction dynamics. The soil erosion consequences from such interactions in furrow irrigation in Samaru had remained uncertain. A furrow irrigation-induced erosion (FIIE) model was used to simulate the potential severity of soil erosion in irrigated furrows due to interactive effects of infiltration rates, land slope, and some furrow irrigation characteristics under different scenarios. The furrow irrigation characteristics considered were furrow lengths, widths, and stream sizes. The model itself was developed using the dimensional analysis approach. The scenarios studied were the interactive effects of furrow lengths, furrow widths, and slopes steepness; infiltration rates and furrow lengths; and stream sizes, furrow lengths, and slopes steepness on potential furrow irrigation-induced erosion, respectively. The severity of FIIE was found to relate somewhat linearly with slope and stream size, and inversely with furrow lengths and furrow width. The worst soil erosion (378.05 t/ha/yr) was found as a result of the interactive effects of 0.65 m furrow width, 50 m furrow length, and 0.25% slope steepness; and the least soil erosion (0.013 t/ha/yr) was induced by the combined effects of 0.5 l/s, 200 m furrow length, and 0.05% slope steepness. Evidently considering longer furrows in furrow irrigation designs would be a better alternative of averting excessive FIIE.

Improving irrigation management in L'Horta Nord (Valencia, Spain)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pascual-Seva, Nuria; San Bautista, Alberto; López-Galarza, Salvador; Maroto, Jose Vicente; Pascual, Bernardo

2014-05-01

L'Horta Nord is an important irrigation district in Valencia (Spain), especially for vegetable crops. The traditional cropping pattern in the region consists of a rotation of chufa with crops such as potato, onion, lettuce, escarole and red cabbage, being all these crops furrow irrigated. Currently, the quality of the water used is acceptable, water is not expensive and there are no limitations on supply. Consequently, growers are not aware of the volumes of water used, application efficiencies, nor water productivity for any of the crops cited. The European Framework Directive 2000/60, based on the precautionary principle, considers preventive action for measures to be taken; moreover, drought periods are becoming more frequent and extended, and water is being diverted to other uses. Thus, water use is an issue to improve. In this sense, the current situation of the irrigation in the area is analysed using chufa (Cyperus esculentus L. var. sativus Boeck.) as representative of the crops, since most of the crops in the area have shallow root systems, as chufa, which are irrigated in similar patterns. In order to analyse the irrigation performance of the traditional chufa crop as well as to achieve more sustainable results, different studies have been carried out, during the last decade. Efforts have been directed to increase water productivity, increasing yield and minimising the volumes of water applied. Different planting configurations and different irrigation thresholds, not only in furrow irrigation but also in drip irrigation, are examples of how the irrigation performance could be improved. Herein is presented a two-year study, comparing, in both furrow and drip irrigation, two irrigation schedules based on the volumetric soil water content, which was continuously monitored using capacitance sensors. Yield was significantly affected by the growing season, the irrigation system and by the irrigation schedule, and by the second order interactions of the

Trash-polluted irrigation: characteristics and impact on agriculture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sulaeman, D.; Arif, SS; Sudarmadji

2018-04-01

Trash pollution has been a problem in sustainable water resources management. Trash pollutes not only rivers, lakes and seas, but also irrigation canals and rice fields. This study aimed to identify the characteristics of solid waste (type, time of occurrence and sources of trash) and its impact on agriculture. The study was conducted in four irrigation areas, namely Gamping, Merdiko, Nglaren and Karangploso in Bantul District, Yogyakarta Special Region. We applied the Irrigation Rapid Trash Assessment (IRTA) as our field survey instrument. The results showed that trash was found throughout irrigation canals and rice fields, and the occurrence was influenced by water flow, time and farmer activities. The irrigation was dominantly polluted by plastic trash (52.2%), biodegradable waste (17.91%) and miscellaneous trash (12.3%). The IRTA score showed that Gamping Irrigation Area was at marginal condition, bearing a high risk of disturbing the operation and maintenance of the irrigation canals as well as farmers’ health. Trash in irrigation also generated technical impact of the irrigation operation and maintenance, environmental quality, and social life. This research also offered environmental policy integration approach and water-garbage governance approach as an alternative solution to manage water resources and agriculture in a sustainable manner, under the pressure of increasing amount of trash.

[Optimal irrigation index for cotton drip irrigation under film mulching based on the evaporation from pan with constant water level].

PubMed

Shen, Xiao-Jun; Zhang, Ji-Yang; Sun, Jing-Sheng; Gao, Yang; Li, Ming-Si; Liu, Hao; Yang, Gui-Sen

2013-11-01

A field experiment with two irrigation cycles and two irrigating water quotas at squaring stage and blossoming-boll forming stage was conducted in Urumqi of Xinjiang Autonomous Region, Northwest China in 2008-2009, aimed to explore the high-efficient irrigation index of cotton drip irrigation under film mulching. The effects of different water treatments on the seed yield, water consumption, and water use efficiency (WUE) of cotton were analyzed. In all treatments, there was a high correlation between the cotton water use and the evaporation from pan installed above the plant canopy. In high-yield cotton field (including the treatment T4 which had 10 days and 7 days of irrigation cycle with 30.0 mm and 37.5 mm of irrigating water quota at squaring stage and blossoming-boll forming stage, respectively in 2008, and the treatment T1 having 7 days of irrigation cycle with 22.5 mm and 37.5 mm of irrigating water quota at squaring stage and blossoming-boll forming stage, respectively in 2009), the pan-crop coefficient (Kp) at seedling stage, squaring stage, blossoming-boll forming stage, and boll opening stage was 0.29-0.30, 0.52-0.53, 0.74-0.88, and 0.19-0.20, respectively. As compared with the other treatments, T4 had the highest seed cotton yield (5060 kg x hm(-2)) and the highest WUE (1.00 kg x m(-3)) in 2008, whereas T1 had the highest seed cotton yield (4467 kg x hm(-2)) and the highest WUE (0.99 kg x m(-3)) in 2009. The averaged cumulative pan evaporation in 7 days and 10 days at squaring stage was 40-50 mm and 60-70 mm, respectively, and that in 7 days at blossoming-boll forming stage was 40-50 mm. It was suggested that in Xinjiang cotton area, irrigating 45 mm water for seedling emergence, no irrigation both at seedling stage and at boll opening stage, and irrigation was started when the pan evaporation reached 45-65 mm and 45 mm at squaring stage and blossoming-boll stage, respectively, the irrigating water quota could be determined by multiplying cumulative

Rewiring food systems to enhance human health and biosphere stewardship

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gordon, Line J.; Bignet, Victoria; Crona, Beatrice; Henriksson, Patrik J. G.; Van Holt, Tracy; Jonell, Malin; Lindahl, Therese; Troell, Max; Barthel, Stephan; Deutsch, Lisa; Folke, Carl; Jamila Haider, L.; Rockström, Johan; Queiroz, Cibele

2017-10-01

Food lies at the heart of both health and sustainability challenges. We use a social-ecological framework to illustrate how major changes to the volume, nutrition and safety of food systems between 1961 and today impact health and sustainability. These changes have almost halved undernutrition while doubling the proportion who are overweight. They have also resulted in reduced resilience of the biosphere, pushing four out of six analysed planetary boundaries across the safe operating space of the biosphere. Our analysis further illustrates that consumers and producers have become more distant from one another, with substantial power consolidated within a small group of key actors. Solutions include a shift from a volume-focused production system to focus on quality, nutrition, resource use efficiency, and reduced antimicrobial use. To achieve this, we need to rewire food systems in ways that enhance transparency between producers and consumers, mobilize key actors to become biosphere stewards, and re-connect people to the biosphere.

Increased food production and reduced water use through optimized crop distribution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Davis, Kyle Frankel; Rulli, Maria Cristina; Seveso, Antonio; D'Odorico, Paolo

2017-12-01

Growing demand for agricultural commodities for food, fuel and other uses is expected to be met through an intensification of production on lands that are currently under cultivation. Intensification typically entails investments in modern technology — such as irrigation or fertilizers — and increases in cropping frequency in regions suitable for multiple growing seasons. Here we combine a process-based crop water model with maps of spatially interpolated yields for 14 major food crops to identify potential differences in food production and water use between current and optimized crop distributions. We find that the current distribution of crops around the world neither attains maximum production nor minimum water use. We identify possible alternative configurations of the agricultural landscape that, by reshaping the global distribution of crops within current rainfed and irrigated croplands based on total water consumption, would feed an additional 825 million people while reducing the consumptive use of rainwater and irrigation water by 14% and 12%, respectively. Such an optimization process does not entail a loss of crop diversity, cropland expansion or impacts on nutrient and feed availability. It also does not necessarily invoke massive investments in modern technology that in many regions would require a switch from smallholder farming to large-scale commercial agriculture with important impacts on rural livelihoods.

Expanding the Annual Irrigation Maps (AIM) Product to the entire High Plains Aquifer (HPA): Addressing the Challenges of Cotton and Deficit-Irrigated Fields

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rapp, J. R.; Deines, J. M.; Kendall, A. D.; Hyndman, D. W.

2017-12-01

The High Plains Aquifer (HPA) is the most extensively irrigated aquifer in the continental United States and is the largest major aquifer in North America with an area of 500,000 km2. Increased demand for agricultural products has led to expanded irrigation extent, but brought with it declining groundwater levels that have made irrigation unsustainable in some locations. Understanding these irrigation dynamics and mapping irrigated areas through time are essential for future sustainable agricultural practices and hydrological modeling. Map products using remote sensing have only recently been able to track annual dynamics at relatively high spatial resolution (30 m) for a large portion of the northern HPA. However follow-on efforts to expand these maps to the entire HPA have met with difficulty due to the challenge of distinguishing irrigation in crop types that are commonly deficit- or partially-irrigated. Expanding these maps to the full HPA requires addressing unique features of partially irrigated fields and irrigated cotton, a major water user in the southern HPA. Working in Google Earth Engine, we used all available Landsat imagery to generate annual time series of vegetation indices. We combined this information with climate covariables, planting dates, and crop specific training data to algorithmically separate fully irrigated, partially irrigated, and non-irrigated field locations. The classification scheme was then applied to produce annual maps of irrigation across the entire HPA. The extensive use of ancillary data and the "greenness" time series for the algorithmic classification generally increased accuracy relative to previous efforts. High-accuracy, representative map products of irrigation extent capable of detecting crop type and irrigation intensity within aquifers will be an essential tool to monitor the sustainability of global aquifers and to provide a scientific bases for political and economic decisions affecting those aquifers.

Fertilizer efficiency and environmental risk of irrigating Impatiens with composting leachate in decentralized solid waste management.

PubMed

Zhou, Chuanbin; Wang, Rusong; Zhang, Yishan

2010-06-01

The reduction and reuse of composting leachate is an issue of importance in the field of decentralized solid waste management. In this study, composting leachate from source-separated food waste was treated and subsequently used as liquid fertilizer to irrigate Impatiens (Impatiens balsamina). The leachate was altered by adjusting storage time and dilution, and through addition of microbial inocula. For each test case, the effects of irrigation were monitored by analyzing the Impatiens extension degree, numbers of leaves and flowers, dry weight, and photosynthetic pigment content to assess fertilizer efficiency. The main results obtained revealed that the addition of microbial inocula and lengthening of storage times may lower COD concentrations, adjust pH value and maintain a comparatively high level of nutrient contents. By adding microbial inocula, a COD concentration of 9.6% and BOD(5) concentration of 6.7% were obtained for non-treated leachate with the same storage time. COD concentrations in leachate decreased to 69.4% after 36weeks storage. Moreover, composting leachate promoted growth of Impatiens. The dry weight biomass of Impatiens irrigated using treated diluted leachate was 1.15-2.94 times that obtained for Impatiens irrigated using tap water. Lastly, following the irrigation of Impatiens over a short period, soil did not accumulate VOCs and heavy metals to levels exceeding relative standards. Further research on heavy metal and salinity accumulation in plants should be undertaken to meet the needs of large-scale applications. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Geospatial distribution modeling and determining suitability of groundwater quality for irrigation purpose using geospatial methods and water quality index (WQI) in Northern Ethiopia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gidey, Amanuel

2018-06-01

Determining suitability and vulnerability of groundwater quality for irrigation use is a key alarm and first aid for careful management of groundwater resources to diminish the impacts on irrigation. This study was conducted to determine the overall suitability of groundwater quality for irrigation use and to generate their spatial distribution maps in Elala catchment, Northern Ethiopia. Thirty-nine groundwater samples were collected to analyze and map the water quality variables. Atomic absorption spectrophotometer, ultraviolet spectrophotometer, titration and calculation methods were used for laboratory groundwater quality analysis. Arc GIS, geospatial analysis tools, semivariogram model types and interpolation methods were used to generate geospatial distribution maps. Twelve and eight water quality variables were used to produce weighted overlay and irrigation water quality index models, respectively. Root-mean-square error, mean square error, absolute square error, mean error, root-mean-square standardized error, measured values versus predicted values were used for cross-validation. The overall weighted overlay model result showed that 146 km2 areas are highly suitable, 135 km2 moderately suitable and 60 km2 area unsuitable for irrigation use. The result of irrigation water quality index confirms 10.26% with no restriction, 23.08% with low restriction, 20.51% with moderate restriction, 15.38% with high restriction and 30.76% with the severe restriction for irrigation use. GIS and irrigation water quality index are better methods for irrigation water resources management to achieve a full yield irrigation production to improve food security and to sustain it for a long period, to avoid the possibility of increasing environmental problems for the future generation.

Spray Irrigation Effects on Surface-Layer Stability in an Experimental Citrus Orchard during Winter Freezes.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cooper, Harry J.; Smith, Eric A.; Martsolf, J. David

1997-02-01

Observations taken by two surface radiation and energy budget stations deployed in the University of Florida/Institute for Food and Agricultural Service experimental citrus orchard in Gainesville, Florida, have been analyzed to identify the effects of sprayer irrigation on thermal stability and circulation processes within the orchard during three 1992 winter freeze episodes. Lapse rates of temperature observed from a micrometeorological tower near the center of the orchard were also recorded during periods of irrigation for incorporation into the analysis. Comparisons of the near-surface temperature lapse rates observed with the two energy budget stations show consistency between the two sites and with the tower-based lapse rates taken over a vertical layer from 1.5 to 15 m above ground level. A theoretical framework was developed that demonstrates that turbulent-scale processes originating within the canopy, driven by latent heat release associated with condensation and freezing processes from water vapor and liquid water released from sprayer nozzles, can destabilize lapse rates and promote warm air mixing above the orchard canopy. The orchard data were then analyzed in the context of the theory for evidence of local overturning and displacement of surface-layer air, with warmer air from aloft driven by locally buoyant plumes generated by water vapor injected into the orchard during the irrigation periods. It was found that surface-layer lapse rates were lower during irrigation periods than under similar conditions when irrigation was not occurring, indicating a greater degree of vertical mixing of surface-layer air with air from above treetops, as a result of local convective overturning induced by the condensation heating of water vapor released at the nozzles of the sprinklers. This provides an additional explanation to the well-accepted heat of fusion release effect, of how undertree irrigation of a citrus orchard during a freeze period helps protect crops

An improved delivery system for bladder irrigation

PubMed Central

Moslemi, Mohammad K; Rajaei, Mojtaba

2010-01-01

Introduction Occasionally, urologists may see patients requiring temporary bladder irrigation at hospitals without stocks of specialist irrigation apparatus. One option is to transfer the patient to a urology ward, but often there are outstanding medical issues that require continued specialist input. Here, we describe an improved system for delivering temporary bladder irrigation by utilizing readily available components and the novel modification of a sphygmomanometer blub. This option is good for bladder irrigation in patients with moderate or severe gross hematuria due to various causes. Materials and methods In this prospective study from March 2007 to April 2009, we used our new system in eligible cases. In this system, an irrigant bag with 1 L of normal saline was suspended 80 cm above the indwelled 3-way Foley catheter, and its drainage tube was inserted into the irrigant port of the catheter. To increase the flow rate of the irrigant system, we inserted a traditional sphygmomanometer bulb at the top of the irrigant bag. This closed system was used for continuous bladder irrigation (CBI) in patients who underwent open prostatectomy, transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP), or transurethral resection of the bladder (TURB). This high-pressure system is also used for irrigation during cystourethroscopy, internal urethrotomy, and transurethral lithotripsy. Our 831 eligible cases were divided into two groups: group 1 were endourologic cases and group 2 were open prostatectomy, TURP, and TURB cases. The maximum and average flow rates were evaluated. The efficacy of our new system was compared prospectively with the previous traditional system used in 545 cases. Results In group 1, we had clear vision at the time of endourologic procedures. The success rate of this system was 99.5%. In group 2, the incidence of clot retention decreased two fold in comparison to traditional gravity-dependent bladder flow system. These changes were statistically significant

An improved delivery system for bladder irrigation.

PubMed

Moslemi, Mohammad K; Rajaei, Mojtaba

2010-10-05

Occasionally, urologists may see patients requiring temporary bladder irrigation at hospitals without stocks of specialist irrigation apparatus. One option is to transfer the patient to a urology ward, but often there are outstanding medical issues that require continued specialist input. Here, we describe an improved system for delivering temporary bladder irrigation by utilizing readily available components and the novel modification of a sphygmomanometer blub. This option is good for bladder irrigation in patients with moderate or severe gross hematuria due to various causes. In this prospective study from March 2007 to April 2009, we used our new system in eligible cases. In this system, an irrigant bag with 1 L of normal saline was suspended 80 cm above the indwelled 3-way Foley catheter, and its drainage tube was inserted into the irrigant port of the catheter. To increase the flow rate of the irrigant system, we inserted a traditional sphygmomanometer bulb at the top of the irrigant bag. This closed system was used for continuous bladder irrigation (CBI) in patients who underwent open prostatectomy, transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP), or transurethral resection of the bladder (TURB). This high-pressure system is also used for irrigation during cystourethroscopy, internal urethrotomy, and transurethral lithotripsy. Our 831 eligible cases were divided into two groups: group 1 were endourologic cases and group 2 were open prostatectomy, TURP, and TURB cases. The maximum and average flow rates were evaluated. The efficacy of our new system was compared prospectively with the previous traditional system used in 545 cases. In group 1, we had clear vision at the time of endourologic procedures. The success rate of this system was 99.5%. In group 2, the incidence of clot retention decreased two fold in comparison to traditional gravity-dependent bladder flow system. These changes were statistically significant (P = 0.001). We did not observe any adverse

Bladder irrigation in patients with indwelling catheters.

PubMed

Bruun, J N; Digranes, A

1978-01-01

The effect of intermittent bladder irrigation on the bacterial counts in urine samples was studied in patients with indwelling catheter and pre-existing urinary tract infection. Four different irrigating solutions were used. Irrigation with saline or 0.25% acetic acid had no effect on the urinary bacterial count. The bacterial counts were effectively reduced during intermittent irrigation both with 0.02% chlorhexidine and with 0.25% silver nitrate. Silver nitrate gave the greatest reduction of bacterial counts but chlorhexidine is preferable due to fewer side effects and greater convenience.

Biomass Accumulation, Photosynthetic Traits and Root Development of Cotton as Affected by Irrigation and Nitrogen-Fertilization

PubMed Central

Chen, Zongkui; Tao, Xianping; Khan, Aziz; Tan, Daniel K. Y.; Luo, Honghai

2018-01-01

Limitations of soil water and nitrogen (N) are factors which cause a substantial reduction in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) yield, especially in an arid environment. Suitable management decisions like irrigation method and nitrogen fertilization are the key yield improvement technologies in cotton production systems. Therefore, we hypothesized that optimal water-N supply can increase cotton plant biomass accumulation by maintaining leaf photosynthetic capacity and improving root growth. An outdoor polyvinyl chloride (PVC) tube study was conducted to investigate the effects of two water-N application depths, i.e., 20 cm (H20) or 40 cm (H40) from soil surface and four water-N combinations [deficit irrigation (W55) and no N (N0) (W55N0), W55 and moderate N (N1) (W55N1), moderate irrigation (W75) and N0 (W75N0), W75N1] on the roots growth, leaf photosynthetic traits and dry mass accumulation of cotton crops. H20W55N1 combination increased total dry mass production by 29–82% and reproductive organs biomass by 47–101% compared with other counterparts. Root protective enzyme and nitrate reductase (NR) activity, potential quantum yield of photosystem (PS) II (Fv/Fm), PSII quantum yield in the light [Y(II)] and electron transport rate of PSII were significantly higher in H20W55N1 prior to 82 days after emergence. Root NR activity and protective enzyme were significantly correlated with chlorophyll, Fv/Fm, Y(II) and stomatal conductance. Hence, shallow irrigation (20 cm) with moderate irrigation and N-fertilization application could increase cotton root NR activity and protective enzyme leading to enhance light capture and photochemical energy conversion of PSII before the full flowering stage. This enhanced photoassimilate to reproductive organs. PMID:29497435

Effects of climate change on water abstraction restrictions for irrigation during droughts - The UK case

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rey Vicario, D.; Holman, I.

2016-12-01

more water abstraction restrictions, increasing the need for irrigators to adapt their businesses to increase drought resilience and hence food security.

Size and stochasticity in irrigated social-ecological systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Puy, Arnald; Muneepeerakul, Rachata; Balbo, Andrea L.

2017-03-01

This paper presents a systematic study of the relation between the size of irrigation systems and the management of uncertainty. We specifically focus on studying, through a stylized theoretical model, how stochasticity in water availability and taxation interacts with the stochastic behavior of the population within irrigation systems. Our results indicate the existence of two key population thresholds for the sustainability of any irrigation system: or the critical population size required to keep the irrigation system operative, and N* or the population threshold at which the incentive to work inside the irrigation system equals the incentives to work elsewhere. Crossing irretrievably leads to system collapse. N* is the population level with a sub-optimal per capita payoff towards which irrigation systems tend to gravitate. When subjected to strong stochasticity in water availability or taxation, irrigation systems might suffer sharp population drops and irreversibly disintegrate into a system collapse, via a mechanism we dub ‘collapse trap’. Our conceptual study establishes the basis for further work aiming at appraising the dynamics between size and stochasticity in irrigation systems, whose understanding is key for devising mitigation and adaptation measures to ensure their sustainability in the face of increasing and inevitable uncertainty.

The Value of Weather Forecast in Irrigation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cai, X.; Wang, D.

2007-12-01

This paper studies irrigation scheduling (when and how much water to apply during the crop growth season) in the Havana Lowlands region, Illinois, using meteorological, agronomic and agricultural production data from 2002. Irrigation scheduling determines the timing and amount of water applied to an irrigated cropland during the crop growing season. In this study a hydrologic-agronomic simulation is coupled with an optimization algorithm to search for the optimal irrigation schedule under various weather forecast horizons. The economic profit of irrigated corn from an optimized scheduling is compared to that from and the actual schedule, which is adopted from a pervious study. Extended and reliable climate prediction and weather forecast are found to be significantly valuable. If a weather forecast horizon is long enough to include the critical crop growth stage, in which crop yield bears the maximum loss over all stages, much economic loss can be avoided. Climate predictions of one to two months, which can cover the critical period, might be even more beneficial during a dry year. The other purpose of this paper is to analyze farmers' behavior in irrigation scheduling by comparing the "actual" schedule to the "optimized" ones. The ultimate goal of irrigation schedule optimization is to provide information to farmers so that they may modify their behavior. In practice, farmers' decision may not follow an optimal irrigation schedule due to the impact of various factors such as natural conditions, policies, farmers' habits and empirical knowledge, and the uncertain or inexact information that they receive. In this study farmers' behavior in irrigation decision making is analyzed by comparing the "actual" schedule to the "optimized" ones. This study finds that the identification of the crop growth stage with the most severe water stress is critical for irrigation scheduling. For the case study site in the year of 2002, framers' response to water stress was found to be

The Regularity of Optimal Irrigation Patterns

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morel, Jean-Michel; Santambrogio, Filippo

2010-02-01

A branched structure is observable in draining and irrigation systems, in electric power supply systems, and in natural objects like blood vessels, the river basins or the trees. Recent approaches of these networks derive their branched structure from an energy functional whose essential feature is to favor wide routes. Given a flow s in a river, a road, a tube or a wire, the transportation cost per unit length is supposed in these models to be proportional to s α with 0 < α < 1. The aim of this paper is to prove the regularity of paths (rivers, branches,...) when the irrigated measure is the Lebesgue density on a smooth open set and the irrigating measure is a single source. In that case we prove that all branches of optimal irrigation trees satisfy an elliptic equation and that their curvature is a bounded measure. In consequence all branching points in the network have a tangent cone made of a finite number of segments, and all other points have a tangent. An explicit counterexample disproves these regularity properties for non-Lebesgue irrigated measures.

Rainfall and irrigation controls on groundwater rise and salinity risk in the Ord River Irrigation Area, northern Australia