Progress 04/01/12 to 03/31/16
Outputs
Target Audience:In this project we targeted different audiences including: 1. Fellow researchers in the area of agricultural water management, irrigation, and drainage. We presented our research in theASABE (American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers)AnnualInternationalMeetings. 2. State and Federal Agencies. A major product of this research was the development of a new generation of drainage water control structures for open ditch systems. We havereached out to the North Carolina Division of Soil and Water for consideringthe newly developeddrainage water control structure as part of theAgriculture Cost Share Program. Currently, the new water control structure is included in the North Carolina Cost Share Program. We have also arranged for a field visit by several Engineers from the Natural Resources Conservation Service to observe the new structure. We have communicated with the NRCS personnel regarding the possibility of having the new drainage water control structure added to the EQIP program. 3. Commodity groups and individual growers. The project did not have an explicit extension component. However, we have reached out to the Corn Growers Association of NC and the NC Soybean Producers Association which provided us with small additional funding to demonstrate thetechnologies developed during the AFRI projectto farmers in North Carolina? Changes/Problems:As indicated earlier in the report, the rainfall pattern (amounts and distribution) in eastern North Carolina during the 2014 and 2015 growing seasons was adequate and almost no irrigation was required. This did not allow us to experimentally demonstrate and documents the yield and water conservation benefits of the smart water management technology. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?There was no explicit component of the project that focused on training and professional development. However, the project provided a great opportunity for four PhD students and two post-doctoral fellows for gaining research experience and honing their skells. We have been successful in leveraging funding from other sources to provide support for this relatively large number of junior researchers and give them the opportunityto be closely involved in the research activities of theproject. Two of the sutdends successfully completed their PhD study before the end of the project and the other two are expected to finish in 2017. One of the two students who finished thePhD degree has been awarded a two-year post-doctoral AFRI-NIFA fellowship grant starting January 2016. In addition to the research experience, I have consistently given teaching responsbilities tothe graduate students and the post-doctoral fellows. These responspolities were not limited to grading assignment as they were given the change to teach the lab session of the course I am teaching. This give them a valuable training on teaching, which is expected of anyone who seeks career in academia. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have been very successful in disseminating the results to the communities of interest. We have communicated with the research community through presenting our work in scientific conferences, publishing our work in peer-reviewed scientific journals, and sharing the results of our work with colleagues participating in the NCERA217,a Multistate Research Coordinating Committee and Information Exchange Group that focuses on drainage design and management practices to improve water quality. Our active involvement in this regional activity gave us the opportunity to effectively sharethe results of our research that was conducted in North Carolina with colleagues from scientific institutions across the Midwest where these results can be beneficial tocrop production on drained land in the Midwest. We have also been very successful in disseminating the results of our research to the state and federal agency personnel. Our research has gained significant interest among NC State and NRCS personnel who are managing state and federal cost share programs. In 2016, one of our products that was developed as part of this grant has beenincluded in the cost-share program by the state of North Carolina. The NRCS personnel who are managing the EQIP program have also shown interest in including the automated drainage system as one of the EQIP-funded practices. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
We conducted innovative research that has a significant impact on increasing crop production resilience to climate change and variability and reducing the transport of nutrients and sediment from agricultural lands to receiving surface waters. Our transformative research led to the development ofsmart, sensor-based irrigation and drainage systems for optimizing crop production with the goal of increasing crop yields while minimizing water use and protecting water quality. These smart water management systems have been developed to remove (drain) excess water and apply irrigation water based on near-term weather forecast, soil water status in the root zone, and crop growth stage. These promising irrigation and drainage systems are expected to play a key role in adapting rain-fed agriculture to climate change and variability and avoiding yield losses caused by excess or deficit water conditions. Our simulation results using the DSSAT crop model showed that the use of the smart irrigation technology could increase cornyield by as much as 80%, compared to non-irrigated corn in Eastern North Carolina. The simulations showed another great benefit as it significantly reduced the seasonal and location variability in yields and increased responsiveness of irrigation amounts to variations in seasonal rainfall. This transformative research clearly has addressed the grand challenge of producing more food despite the continuous decline in agricultural land and water resources. We have designed and implemented an automated drainage water control structure with a newly designed gate assembly. The purpose of this new generation of drainage water control structure is to provide better control with less time and effort for drainage water management with the goal of increasing crop yield, conserving water, and protecting water quality. The new structure has been well received by growers, NRCS-EQIP program personnel, and North Carolina cost-share program personnel. Currently, the new structure is cost-shared by the state of North Carolina. A smart irrigation and drainage control system (SIDCS) has been developed. This sensor-based system is programmed to automatically switch the drainage system between drainage (remove water from the field) and subirrigation (add water to the field) modes based on feedback from the field on the position of the water table and the susceptibility of the crop to water related stresses. This hardware and software providefull automation of agricultural water management for artificially drained cropland. A web-based irrigation decision support system (IDSS) was developed to assist growers with irrigation scheduling in a region such as the Southeastern United States, where growing season rainfall is characterized by variability and high intensity, short duration events. The IDSS uses crop growth stage (estimated based on cumulative growing degree days), soil water status of the root zone (estimated via soil moisture sensors or a soil water balance), and short-term weather forecast (specifically predicted daily reference evapotranspiration, probability of precipitation, and quantity of precipitation)to calculate irrigation recommendation for the grower. We were not able to document the benefits of these systems using field experimentsdue to the rainfall pattern in the cropgrowingseasons of 2014 and 2015 in Eastern North Carolina. The rainfall amounts and distributionduring the months of June, July, and August wereadequate for meeting the evapotranspiration demands of the crops. As a results, the smart irrigation systems have not been tested and there impact on yield and water conservation have not been documented. Testing these systems would require relatively dry growing seasons with needs for supplemental irrigation. Since were not able to document the benefits of the developed technology usingshort term field experiments, we have conducted a six-year simulation study using the DSSAT model to assess the effect of smart irrigation on crop yield and water conservation at fivedifferent locations across Eastern North Carolina. As mentioned in the first paragraph, simulation results showed that the smart irrigation would increase crop yield by as much as 80% compared to non-irrigated corn and also reduce the year-to-year variability and spatial variabilityin the yield, which has significant economic benefits for farmers.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
Vick, R., M.A. Youssef, G. Grabow, G. Wilkerson. 2014. Development and Evaluation of a Smart Irrigation System to Increase Crop yield, Improve Environmental Quality, and Conserve Water in the Southeastern Coastal Plain. Presentation presented at The ASABE and CSBE | SCGAB Annual International Meeting, Montreal, Canada, Jul 13-16, 2014.
- Type:
Theses/Dissertations
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Vick, R.L.2016. Smart irrigation systems for crop production in the humid climate of the Southeastern United States. Ph.D. diss. North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Fang, S., Youssef, M.A., Chescheir, G.M., Appelboom, T. 2016. Water table optimization to improve crop yields for Eastern North Carolina. The ASABE's 10th International Drainage Symposium, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 6-9, 2016
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Liu, W., Birgand, F., Youssef, M.A., Chescheir, G.M. 2016. A novel method to reveal the nitrate transport and fate in drained agricultural fields. The ASABE's 10th International Drainage Symposium, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 6-9, 2016
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Negm, L.M., Youssef, M.A., Poole, C., Chescheir, G.M., Skaggs, R.W. 2016. Evaluation of DRAINMOD-DSSAT for predicting controlled drainage effects on crop yield and nitrogen loss for North Carolina Coastal Plain. The ASABE's 10th International Drainage Symposium, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 6-9, 2016
- Type:
Theses/Dissertations
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Poole, C.A.2015. The effect of controlled drainage on crop yields and nitrate-N losses on drained lands in Eastern North Carolina. Ph.D. diss. North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2013
Citation:
Poole, C.A., R.W. Skaggs, G.M. Chescheir, M.A. Youssef, C.R. Crozier. 2013. Effects of drainage water management on crop yields in North Carolina. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 68(6):429-437
|
Progress 04/01/12 to 03/31/13
Outputs
Target Audience: 1.Growers, 2. Commodity groups including NC Soybean Producers Association, 3. Federal and NC State Agencies personnel including the Natural Resources Conservation Service and NC Dvision of Soil and Water Conservation and its districts. Changes/Problems: Because of the timing of the start of the project and the crop rotation of one of the research sites, the instrumentation of this site has been delayed by about 8 months period. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? 1. Complete the development of the smart water management system. 2. Finish Instrumening the second research site. 3. Full implemention of the smart water managment system on both of the research sites. 4. Collect water, nutrient, and crop growth and yield data from the two research site.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Objective 1: The smart system is currently being developed. Objectives 2 through 5: One research site has been insutrmented to collect water, nutrient, and crop yield data which will be used for achieving objectives 2 -5. The second research site will be installed in the fall of 2013. Site One Insturmentation: Site one has been converted to accommodate the “Smart” subirrigation/Drainage System. Three different management systems are going to be compared at this site: free drainage (FD), controlled drainage (CD), and the “Smart” subirrigation/drainage System. The FD system is the original system for agricultural drainage where water is allowed to drain unregulated from the field until the water table is at the bottom of the drain (usually at a depth of 1 to 1.5 meters). The CD is a drainage system that allows excess water (that which would cause wet stress on the crop) to drain from the field while limiting drainage during other times by use of a water control structure with a weir plate. This system is manually operated. The “Smart” Irrigation/Drainage System is a fully automated irrigation and drainage that reads sensors in the field and drainage network to determine the water table depth and soil moisture content in the field. Based on these sensor readings, the system will: remove water to reduce wet stress on the crop, add water to reduce dry stress on the crop, or do nothing as the water table and soil moisture levels are within the requirement range for the crop. Site one has had all drain lines installed as well as soil moisture probes and water table monitoring systems installed in all the treatment fields. The FD and CD plots are fully installed. Hobo (13 foot) pressure transducers were installed in monitoring wells at the midpoint between drain lines and over the center drain line to continuously monitor water table depths. Two water quality sampling wells were also installed in each field. Decagon 5TM soil moisture probes connected to Campbell Scientific CR200 dataloggers were placed near each water table monitoring well to continuously record soil moisture at 3 depths (15 cm, 30 cm and 45 cm)throughout the study. For the “Smart” Irrigation/Drainage System, Campbell Scientific self compensating pressure transducers were installed in monitoring wells at the midpoint between drain lines and over the center drain line to continuously monitor water table depths. The different pressure transducers were used because the Campbell Scientific pressure transducers can communicate with other instrumentation. These pressure transducers, along with the soil moisture sensors in the “Smart” Irrigation/Drainage System plots were trenched underground back to the water control structure where a controller will monitor the soil moisture and water table as inputs to the decision making process. The site's existing irrigation well was plumbed to the “Smart” Irrigation/Drainage System control structures, and is functional. All fields have been planted to cron.
Publications
|