Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2010MS112B

Water-Conserving Irrigation Systems for Furrow and Flood Irrigated Crops in the Mississippi Delta

Institute: Mississippi
Year Established: 2010 Start Date: 2010-03-01 End Date: 2011-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $15,012 Total Non-Federal Funds: $42,455

Principal Investigators: Joseph Massey

Project Summary: Over the past twenty years, significant declines in the Mississippi River Valley Alluvial aquifer have occurred. Overdraft of the aquifer in Mississippi is estimated to be ~300,000 Ac-ft/yr and is attributed to the irrigation of ~1.8 million acres of row crops located in the Mississippi delta. As a result, reduction of this overdraft through improved crop irrigation practices is important. This project’s goal is to improve water use efficiency for one of the most economically important cropping rotations practiced in the delta, the soybean-rice rotation. These crops are typically grown where two years of soybean are followed by one year of rice. Together, these crops are grown about one million acres and represented approximately $500 million (soybean) and $100 million (rice) in economic activity for the Mississippi Delta in 2007. Based on recent MS delta crop production acreages and historical water use patterns, irrigated soybeans are the single largest user of irrigation water (~1.25 million Ac-ft/season) while rice uses the largest amount of water on a per acre basis (~3 Ac-ft/Ac) totaling ~750,000 Ac-ft/season. Thus, a relatively modest 15% reduction in the amount of irrigation water used in the soybean-rice rotation could essentially eliminate the current overdraft of the alluvial aquifer. This is an on-farm project that will couple readily-adoptable irrigation practices and technologies that have the potential to reduce water use in furrow-irrigated soybean by ≥ 25% and up to 50% in rice as compared to conventional irrigation practices. By reducing irrigation inputs in soybean and rice production, reductions in energy use (and related C emissions) and non-point source runoff of agrochemicals are also to be expected. This project has the potential to improve water use efficiency on over one million irrigated acres in the Mississippi Delta, and will also lay the groundwork for the development of whole-farm water management programs. By working with growers on their farms, the systems developed in this project will be suited to conditions found in the Mississippi Delta.