Engineering Commons^™

Variable Rate Irrigation Of Maize And Soybean In West-Central Nebraska Under Full And Deficit Irrigation, J Burdette Barker, Sandeep Bhatti, Derek M. Heeren, Christopher M.U. Neale, Daran Rudnick

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

Variable rate irrigation (VRI) may improve center pivot irrigation management, including deficit irrigation. A remote-sensing-based evapotranspiration model was implemented with Landsat imagery to manage irrigations for a VRI equipped center pivot irrigated field located in West-Central Nebraska planted to maize in 2017 and soybean in 2018. In 2017, the study included VRI using the model, and uniform irrigation using neutron attenuation for full irrigation with no intended water stress (VRI-Full and Uniform-Full treatments, respectively). In 2018, two deficit irrigation treatments were added (VRI-Deficit and Uniform-Deficit, respectively) and the model was modified in an attempt to reduce water balance drift; model …

Economic Analysis Of Deficit Irrigation In Sugarcane Farming: Nchalo Estate, Chikwawa District, Malawi, Mavuto M. Banda, Derek M. Heeren, Derrel Martin, Francisco Munoz-Arriola, László G. Hayde

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

Sustenance of the growing world population calls for increased agricultural production. However, this will have to be done while forecasts of water withdrawals on a global scale predict sharp increases in future demand to meet human needs. The inadequacy of irrigation water supplies has led to the need to consider deficit irrigation (DI) as a water saving strategy. DI is a deliberate under-application of water to growing crops.

In this study we carried out an economic analysis of DI in sugarcane farming with an aim of developing an understanding of the economic impact of various irrigation water management strategies. The …