Irrigation Management Project Is More Than Just Irrigation

Irrigation management is only a part of a larger USDA-Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI) project that also includes canopy management in almonds and walnuts (see “Proper Walnut Spacing”). Upadhyaya notes that there are five objectives to the project. “Canopy management; plant water status determination; a computer system to collect and manage the data; a decision support system and variable rate water applications; and precision water applications,” he said.

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There are five universities working on the project: The University of Arizona, Washington State University, Oregon State University, New Mexico State University, and UC-Davis. UC-Davis is the lead university on the research project. The project has contributions from Varies Technology, Trimble Navigation, Ltd., and Agricultural Informatics, LLC.

“We selected the canopy and water management as the two important issues,” said Upadhyaya. “Dr. Bruce Lampinen had done work on canopy management. Both almond and walnut growers wanted to know how best to manage the canopy. What is the best pruning regime to implement to get the most out of the crop,” said Upadhyaya.

This canopy management research is being used to determine the potential yield of a crop and using the light absorption to help determine the effect of pruning, variety, and fumigant treatment on light inception.

“My hope is that we can predict the potential yield and use it for nutrient management and water management,” said Upadhyaya.

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He said Lampinen is also using the canopy management strategies on peaches and other fruit crops.

Upadhyaya said the project also seeks to assess the economic and social impact of the research.

“We look at the social impact that’s basically are the farmers ready for this kind of technology? Is it too intimidating to them? Or, do they want such things? Is it too complicated?” said Upadhyaya. “We have Ag Informatics company as our collaboratior and they do the survey for us so that we have that information. And then we also try to see if this is economical? Is it beneficial to the farmer? Does it pay?”

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