It's Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish! {Irrigation: Urban Agriculture}

This is the third part in Frannie's exploration of irrigation. Check out the previous post here!
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If you have a garden at home, think about what kinds of things you grow. Do you grow pretty bushes and flowers? Maybe some fruits and veggies to eat?

If you don’t have enough space for your garden at home, you might take part in a community garden.  A community garden provides a space for many people to grow fresh produce or raise small livestock like chickens and ducks on shared land. While each person is responsible for their own plot, they may choose to assist their neighbors and split their products or sell surplus at local markets.

Many communities, especially cities, are looking to take community gardening to the next level.  A food desert is a region within a city where it is difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh produce.  Many people who live in cities either choose not to have or can’t afford a car and the only locations to buy food within walking distances are convenience stores, bodegas, or gas stations.  Most of these places carry cheap, processed foods that aren’t healthy compared to fresher fruits, vegetables, and meat.

Urban agriculture is a part of that solution. While community gardens are a part of urban agriculture, the term more broadly includes things like beekeeping, farming, raising animals, aquaculture, and growing orchards all within an urban setting.

Just like in rural agriculture, urban farms need water sources to irrigate the plants. Many of these come from hook-ups to city wells or pumps. Cities can’t usually allow big irrigation systems like center pivot sprinklers for obvious reasons. Can you imagine one of those huge sprinklers rolling through the streets?

In relatively large plots of land, some sprinkler systems can be adapted to move or be moved through the field. Many smaller lots find drip irrigation or use of rain barrels to be a better, less expensive, more efficient solutions.  The labor-intensive irrigation methods that are so impractical on huge tracts of farmland can be more easily applied in urban environments.

Two very different and interesting kinds of urban agriculture are aquaculture and hydroponics.  Join Frannie as she learns more about them in her next blog!  In the meantime, share pictures of your garden or your community’s garden with us or check out previous blogs to learn more about irrigation.

It's Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish! {Irrigation: Agricultural Systems}

This is the second part in Frannie's exploration of irrigation. Check out the first part here!
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Over 40% of the world's food supply is farmed on irrigated cropland. Crops and livestock are how farmers make their living.  While it's important to produce as much as they can to make money, it also costs a lot of money to keep the plants and animals healthy and farmers are always looking for new ways to reduce operating costs.

Management practices can include reducing their irrigation cycle by starting later or ending sooner that is usual as well as restricting irrigation to the cooler hours of the day, either in the morning or at dusk.  But different types of irrigation systems can also offer many kinds of benefits to the farmers and crops. Let's investigate some of the most common systems.

Surface irrigation
Water is distributed over and across land by gravity. It's one of the oldest and most common types of irrigation, very easy and cheap due to the lack of mechanical pump. However, because water is simply flooding over the surface, a large percentage of the water is wasted through runoff and evaporation.

Drip irrigation
A type of localized irrigation in which drops of water are delivered at or near the root of plants. In this type of irrigation, evaporation and runoff are minimized.  It is more expensive to install than most other types of irrigation, however, and if the water is not kept clean, the tubes themselves may clog and be more difficult fix or replace.

Center pivot irrigation
Water is distributed by a system of sprinklers that move on wheeled towers in a circular pattern. This system is common in flat areas of the United States. Current technology allows farmers to control their pivot's operation with a smartphone, tablet, or computer. Soil moisture sensors, GPS, and GIS can help determine how and when to irrigate efficiently and effectively.

Lateral move irrigation
Water is distributed through a series of pipes, each with a wheel and a set of sprinklers, which are rotated either by hand or with a purpose-built mechanism. The sprinklers move a certain distance across the field and then need to have the water hose reconnected for the next distance. This system tends to be less expensive but requires more labor than others.

Sub-irrigation
Water is distributed across land by raising the water table, through a system of pumping stations, canals, gates, and ditches and excess water may be able to be collected for reuse. This type of irrigation is most effective in areas with high water tables.

It's Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish! {Irrigation: What is it and Why is it Important?}

Especially in the hot, dry summer months, plants need water to keep growing and producing food.  At home, we have to remember to water our house and garden plants. Farmers have to remember to water, or irrigate, acres and acres of crops.

Irrigation is a fancy word for watering plants to help them grow.  Of course it’s important to water plants when it’s hot out, but farmers also use irrigation to help increase crop density, or the number of crops that can be grown in an area.

Farmers are in the business of water.  Healthy crops need water and a lot of healthy crops need a lot of water. Farmers practice smart irrigation techniques that help save themselves thousands of dollars each year.

Did you know that 40% of the world's food supply is farmed on irrigated cropland? And almost half of that is land lies within China, India, and the US. In the early days of irrigation, very little water conservation equipment or technology was available and large amounts of water were lost to evaporation or runoff.  

Technology has advanced significantly to maximize water efficiency. Some practices are simple and are things you probably do at home, such as watering during the coolest parts of the day to reduce evaporation. Some tools however, such as center pivot systems, use software on computers and mobile devices to control how much water crops receive, where the water goes, and when the irrigation system is turned on or off.

Visit The Groundwater Foundation's website to learn more about irrigation and check back on Wednesdays as Frannie explores how groundwater and irrigation help grow the food we eat.