U of I developing tools to help irrigators plan, manage for drought

MOSCOW, Idaho — University of Idaho researchers received a federal grant to develop free online tools that will help irrigators make planting and crop management decisions when water supplies are limited.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture funded the work with a rapid response grant, which provides expedited support for urgent needs and crises. Meetpal Kukal, the project’s director and an assistant professor of hydrologic science and water management, has developed a beta version of an interactive online dashboard that houses the tools. The dashboard will be linked to the Extension website and should be finalized before farmers plant their crops next spring.

Water shortfalls this season have forced farmers throughout southern and eastern Idaho to make tough decisions, including leaving fields fallow, adjusting planting plans and cutting cereal crops early as forage.

The tools will help irrigators answer questions such as:

• Will I have enough water to finish growing my crops?
• How much deficit should I anticipate when my water supply is reduced or shut off?
• How might water reductions affect yields?
• How might crop choices, planting dates and soil type also affect results when water supplies are limited?
• Which combinations of crops could minimize my financial risk?
• How can I ensure I have a full soil-moisture profile when my water supply becomes limited?

Users will enter their location, crop choice, planting date, irrigation type, irrigation system design capacity, anticipated date of a water-supply reduction and the expected percentage of the reduction. The tools will automatically retrieve long-term weather data and USDA soil-map data for the calculations.

The dashboard will generate field-specific charts comparing water demand with the available supply throughout the growing season for most crops grown in Idaho.

Extension educator Joseph Sagers, Jefferson County, and Emily Bedwell, an assistant professor and Extension specialist in irrigation technology, are co-principal investigators on the grant. Sagers will aid in outreach efforts and help farmers learn about the tools. Bedwell will help gather farmer input to improve the tools and develop educational materials explaining how to use them. Bedwell will also work to ensure the tools’ guidance reflects actual conditions on farms.

“The tools could say, ‘Maybe it’s not worth it to plant potatoes at all,’” Bedwell said. “Maybe you should consider something that has lower water needs, particularly during that later part of the season when you are more likely to have a curtailment or reduction.”

The tools will draw from existing datasets, including U.S. Bureau of Reclamation records on evapotranspiration, which measures water vapor leaving soils and leaves, and established crop coefficients, which estimate a specific crop’s water use compared with a reference evapotranspiration value.

A Spanish-language version of the tools is also planned. U of I’s Research Computing and Data Services team will refine the tools and adapt them for use on a public-facing website.

The researchers anticipate hosting a water irrigation management field day in Kimberly this fall, where they will gather input from growers about the tools’ performance and potential improvements. They also plan to host several workshops to share the tools with growers.

“We want growers to feel confident using these tools as they weigh the many factors that affect their decisions,” Kukal said. “They may ultimately need to decide whether planting a crop is worthwhile.”

Idaho irrigators may continue to face continued headwinds regarding their irrigation supplies. As of Aug. 3, the Idaho Department of Water Resources estimated that the eight major reservoirs in eastern Idaho’s Upper Snake River system held a million fewer acre-feet of water compared with the prior year. Long-term weather forecasts also predict a strong El Niño pattern, which typically brings warmer, drier winters to southern Idaho.

“Everyone who got any kind of water curtailment in eastern Idaho is going to show interest in this project,” Sagers said. “I think there are a lot of people who are trying to figure out how they’re going to make the acre-feet they’re going to get this next year work for them.”

Media contact

Meetpal Kukal
Assistant professor of hydrologic science and water management
402-219-3969
mkukal@uidaho.edu 

Emily Bedwell
Assistant professor and Extension specialist in irrigation technology
208-423-6620
ebedwell@uidaho.edu