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Mobile Drip Irrigation For Water Limited Crop Production: Initial Results, J. Aguilar, T. Oker, I. Kisekka

Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Reports

The farmers within the Ogallala aquifer desire to extend the usable life of this aquifer despite experiencing diminishing well capacities, thus the quest for more efficient irrigation application technologies. Mobile drip irrigation (MDI), which integrates drip lines onto a mechanical irrigation system such as a center pivot, has attracted their attention lately. The concept is that by applying water along crop rows, it was hypothesized that MDI could eliminate water losses due to spray droplet evaporation, wind drift, and reduce soil evaporation due to limited surface wetting especially before canopy closure. A study was conducted with the following objectives: 1) …