Irrigation Performance Assessment, Opportunities with Wireless Sensors and Satellites

Abstract

Irrigation is an essential component of our food production system and a large user of freshwater. Pressure on irrigated agriculture is likely to increase with growing populations and climate uncertainty. Efforts to ensure sustainable water use in this sector have had mixed results. Some of these efforts have been used in the interest of political or financial gain. The situation is complicated by the vulnerability of irrigating farmers, locally within irrigation schemes and in the global agricultural supply chain. An opportunity exists in the form of increasing the accessibility of open-source remote sensing products and wireless sensor networks. Irrigating farmers can define and assess their irrigation performance at different spatial and temporal scales. A review of irrigation performance assessment approaches and the available products and sensors is presented. Potential implementations for sensing and monitoring, as well as irrigation performance, are presented. The possibilities at different time scales and the influence on performance of different groups within the irrigation scheme are discussed. The particular circumstances of specific irrigation schemes need to be assessed with a cost–benefit analysis. The implementation of irrigation performance analysis tools should be led by irrigating farmers, as it directly impacts this group.