Manejo Sostenible del Agua para Riego en Produccionde Vegetales y Hortalizas a Pequena Escala

Jairo Diaz

Mississippi River Research Center

Department of Agriculture

Alcorn State University

Objetivos

• Presentar la historia del desarrollo social, económico, cultural, y agrícola del estado de Misisipi;

• discutir el impacto de las actividades agrícolas sobre los recursos hídricos en la región;

• presentar estudios que se están liderando para la protección y uso racional del agua en producción de vegetales y hortalizas a pequeña escala los cuales están encaminados a un desarrollo sostenible.

Agricultural Water Issues in Mississippi

• Although Mississippi annually receives a high amount of precipitation, the temporal distribution is not uniform and farmers are forced to supplement crop water needs via irrigation.

• Extensive drought seasons have been observed in recent years (1998-2002, 2007, and 2011), increasing the risk associated with water availability to croplands.

Monthly variation of rainfall and potential evapotranspiration. Data from Leflore County, MS (1997-2002)

• Mississippi showed the highest percent change of any state in irrigated area from 1978 (161,000 acres) to 1997 (1,076,000 acres).

• In the Mississippi Delta, the primary source of water for crop irrigation is the alluvial aquifer that has shown the biggest declines nationwide since 1900.

• New Mississippi water regulations (well permits) will require farmers to implement water management practices or lose permitted use of ground water wells.

Cumulative groundwater depletion by years in the Mississippi alluvial valley, 1900 -2008 (Konikow, 2013)

Cumulative groundwater depletion, 1900 -2008

(Konikow, 2013)

Agricultural Water Issues in Mississippi

Agricultural Water Issues in Mississippi

• In Mississippi, small-scale farmers with limited resources produce vegetables to maximize their returns, mostly without irrigation systems.

• About 99% of the irrigated land in Mississippi is operated in large farms (> 500 acres).

Irrigation systems used in Mississippi (SAAESD)

• There are nearly 42,000 farms in Mississippi, of which 92 percent are classified as small.

• Farmers have expressed a need to get more information about easy-to-use and affordable technology to irrigate and scheduling irrigation of fruit/vegetable fields.

Irrigation Scheduling Methods Used by Farmers in Southwestern Idaho (modified from Steiber and Mahler, 2013)

Agricultural Water Issues in Mississippi

Water testing capabilities at Alcorn’s MRRC lab

Testing of Agricultural Water

Microbial: total coliforms and E. Coli

Rainwater harvesting systems for agricultural production

Acknowledgements

• Universidad de Ciencias Aplicadas y Ambientales

• Departamento de Agricultura de los Estados Unidos

• Estado de Misisipi

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