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| Photo by MSU Ag Communications |
Posted September 23, 2013
The Mississippi Soybean Promotion Board (MSPB) has announced
an initiative to reduce the amount of water withdrawn from the Delta alluvial
aquifer for irrigation, according to a Delta Farm Press article, available here.
The Sustainable Irrigation Project (SIP 2014) will
“highlight and promote the use of practices and management tools that will
result in a reduction in the amount of irrigation water that is applied to the
state’s irrigated crop acres.”
The project is already underway in three phases. The first phase is to gain the commitment of
members of the MSPB and Mississippi corn and rice producers to use water
conservation tools including a pipe hole and universal crown evaluation tool (PHAUCET)
and “surge valves on furrow-irrigated corn and soybeans; multiple/side inlet
water application to rice; zero grade for flood irrigated rice and soybeans;
tail-water recovery from surface irrigated crops; and center pivot
irrigation.” The second phase is to
solicit participation from Mississippi water management district, other farm
groups, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). The third phase, already underway, is for the
MSPB to support programs to train producers on conservation tools.
The total acres committed to the conservation tools is
102,310.
Jan de Regt, MSPB chairman, said Mississippi checkoff
dollars have been heavily invested in irrigation research over the last five
years “resulting in water saving tools such as PHAUCET” which is being applied
to a significant portion of the nearly 1 million acres of irrigated soybeans in
the state.” De Regt said PHAUCET and
other water conservation practices are “an integral part of the MSPB’s recent
efforts to take the lead in improving irrigation efficiency and reducing
irrigation water use by as much as 25 percent.”
