Sustainable Farming Projects in Florida to Share the Wealth

Vegetable field irrigation in Florida

As part of St. Johns River Water Management District’s 2017-2018 Agricultural Cost Share program, Long & Scott Farms will be benefiting and participating by converting its seepage irrigation to drip and microjet systems.
Photo by Paul Rusnak

In an effort to improve water conservation and reduce nutrient loading impacts on Central Florida waterways, the St. Johns River Water Management District recently approved a dozen new local farm projects aimed to do just that through via equipment upgrades and modern technology. Each project will get a piece of $1.5 million in funding allocated for the District’s Ag Cost-share Program. Collectively, the projects are anticipated to conserve an estimated 519 million gallons of water each year and reduce total nitrogen by an estimated 52,945 pounds per year and total phosphorus by 8,149 pounds per year.

Fiscal Year 2017-2018 farm projects receiving funds are:

Advertisement
  • Long & Scott Farms ( Lake County) to convert seepage to drip and microjet and for injection pumps for fertigation;
  • Boggy Marsh Citrus (Lake County) for irrigation system retrofits;
  • Cherrylake Inc. (Lake County) for a pump station to convert from groundwater to surface water;
  • Lake Jem Farms Inc. (Lake County) for variable rate fertilizer application equipment with GPS and weather stations with telemetry;
  • Blue Goose Growers LLC (Indian River County) for pump stations with automation, fertigation, and soil moisture sensors;
  • Golden River Fruit Co. (Indian River County) for irrigation system retrofits, pump automation, soil moisture sensors;
  • Eljim Dairy (western Putnam County) to pass dairy effluent through parabolic rundown screens to remove suspended solids and reuse of treated water;
  • Estes Citrus Inc. (Indian River County) for pump automation and retrofit;
  • Island Grove LLC (Marion County) for full irrigation automation;
  • Triple J Farms (Brevard County) for variable rate fertilizer technology with GPS and air spreader;
  • Raiford G.Hagstrom Ferneries (Volusia County) for irrigation system retrofits;
  • A. Duda & Sons Inc./Cocoa Ranch (Brevard County) for conversion from seepage to irrigation drain tile.

The District received 30 applications seeking funds through the Fiscal Year 2017-2018 Districtwide Ag Cost-share Program for projects in the 15 counties outside the Tri-County Agricultural Area (portions of Flagler, Putnam and St. Johns counties), which has its own separate funding program for row crop projects.

The Districtwide Agricultural Cost Share program began in 2015 to assist farmers and growers with implementing projects that conserve water and result in nutrient loading reductions. To date, 51 projects have been approved for funding since the program’s inception.

Top Articles
Healthy Soils at Center of New $5 Million Initiative for California Citrus Growers

0