The Importance of Sensor-Based Irrigation Management for Sustainable Crop Production.

Cotton Incorporated conducted a producer survey in 2008 with a response rate of over 1,300 U.S. cotton farmers.  At that time only 10% of respondents indicated they were using any type of irrigation monitoring sensor.  A large adoption barrier was the time required to visit fields and read sensors or download data.  Now affordable wireless data delivery is removing that barrier and grower implementation of sensor-based scheduling is increasing.  In addition to wireless communications, there are multiple factors driving producer use of sensors as a tool for irrigation management: 1) Desire to optimize yield for the water invested; 2) Need to partition limited water resources during the season; 3) Ability to properly account for rainfall received; 4) Increased pumping energy costs; 5) Regulatory requirements (even in humid regions); and 6) Public scrutiny over agricultural water use, particularly when viewed from a "water footprint" perspective.  Ultimately all these factors have led to producers' recognition sensors are an important part of an overall sustainable irrigation production management system.  This presentation will provide more detail on the factors previously listed as well as briefly overview on-farm experiences in using different irrigation monitoring techniques.