Drainage Water Retention and Recycling to Increase Resiliency and Decrease Nutrient Losses.

Because drained lands can experience both water excess and water deficit within a year, retaining drained water within the landscape could increase the sustainability of water for agriculture.  Crop loss due to increased seasonality of precipitation, and water quality degradation from drained land are two challenges expected to be exacerbated as future climate changes result in more intense rainfall and prolonged summer drought. A new USDA NIFA-funded project focuses on understanding and advancing three practices that address these challenges by retaining drainage water in various parts of the landscape. Drainage water management stores water in the soil above the drain during periods when drainage is not needed; saturated buffers retain water in the soil of the field buffers resulting in  treatment of the nitrate in tile water and delaying streamflow peaks; and drainage water recycling captures drained water into on-farm reservoirs until it is irrigated onto the crop later in the season. Researchers from nine states will determine economic and environmental benefits and costs of retaining drainage water at field sites across the region, extend estimates of benefits and costs temporally and spatially through modeling, and develop strategies and tools to apply the research findings in decision-making on the farm, in watersheds, and in state and national policy.