Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1159340
11 strictly monitor their orchards' water to gain a better understanding of irrigation management, crop stress and even labor management. These many benefits to monitoring prove that insights from sensors and monitoring systems take the mystery out of how to improve on-farm irrigation. In the last few years, state and federal agencies have provided several opportunities for full-value or cost-sharing grants to offset the cost of field monitoring systems through efficiency programs, such as California Department of Food and Agriculture's State Water Efficiency & Enhancement Program and Natural Resources Conservation Service's Environmental Quality Incentives Program. These programs have provided many growers with new tools to help improve how they manage water and nutrients while improving yields with the primary goal, in most cases, to reduce the amount of water applied. What should you consider before a purchase? Growers should think through some simple questions to determine how they can get the greatest benefit from a prospective piece of technology: What problems am I trying to solve? Or, what optimization am I trying to make? Which individuals on my team are going to use this technology? Most growers are looking to increase yields and reduce water use. Secondary solutions include meeting the requirements of third parties' efficiency programs and reporting water use. On top of these grower-driven motivators lies the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), which growers must consider when looking to determine whether to implement new orchard monitoring technology. As SGMA deadlines loom, it's vital to strive to figure out how to best manage water. Being as efficient as possible is a constant need, so growers' ability to record and create water use reports is currently driving a lot of interest in monitoring technology. How can growers validate the success of orchard monitoring technology? Growers should review what they learned and the success of their changes to pinpoint positive changes that should be made in other orchards, as well as failed changes that should not be replicated. As growers look to determine how their technology performed and how their orchard reacted, they should consider these questions: Did I start irrigating earlier in the season or later than normal? Did I experience infiltration issues? Did I change my irrigation intervals? Did I shorten or increase my runtimes? Did I record and report my irrigation amounts? Growers should also look at the impact their changes had on yields and costs. This methodical process allows industry members to make better choices about what technologies to use and how crop yields can be maximized with as few inputs as possible. Continued on Page 12 Tools like this pressure chamber help growers accurately measure their irrigation needs and apply water with precision.