The Future of Farming: Smart Community Irrigation Solutions

 The world has been living in the ignorant belief for centuries that “We’ll always have enough water for ourselves” Water is essential for life.  However, the unthinkable has unfortunately happened, and right now 43 countries, which comprise about 700 million people across the globe, are facing worrying levels of water crisis. The United Nations further estimates that as early as 2025, two-thirds of the population of the world will be suffering in water-stressed regions.

Another issue that’s hitting the world at an alarming rate is the world population growth. Increasing population is directly proportional to surging food demand, traditional agricultural itself consumes nearly 70% of the water available globally. Studies show that 2050 will witness a 50% increase in the demand of water for agriculture. The global water scene looks quite appalling.

Are the depleting natural resources the only problem?

No, not really. While resources are indeed a limitation, it’s usage patterns also play a major role. Traditional agricultural practices have been responsible for inefficient water usage for decades. Smallholders and rural communities who function under many disadvantages like lack of access to capital and markets, are forced to adopt unsustainable agricultural practices for their own survival. The absence of knowledge and sustainable practices further causes land degradation, which leads to the decrease in the per capita availability of arable land.  

To break this vicious cycle, and most importantly, to ensure that the smallholder communities can thrive, decision-makers need to take urgent steps for creating conducive agricultural ecosystems.

What is Community Irrigation?

The idea of community irrigation rose from the simple underlying principle of bringing the entire agricultural community together, along with the government and the private sector, to establish a systematic and sustainable irrigation practice. It is a holistic approach to sustainably manage all the natural resources and provide the small stakeholders with the necessary infrastructure for sustainable farming practices. The collaboration of the government and the private sector further ensures that the quality of life of these rural communities is improved, they are encouraged to adopt advanced technologies, and institutional policies are implemented for sustainable usage of natural resources.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Digital Farming – A Smarter Way of Irrigation

Image
  Probably a decade or two ago, digital farming in India might have seemed a tall tale to everyone. But the seemingly impossible dream of a farmer operating their irrigation systems from home has now been made possible via digital farming.  The Indian agricultural landscape has been a slow adopter of these technological changes. Of course, you cannot blame the farmers’ attitude alone. Commercial viability has been a challenge throughout for most. But things are gradually changing. With digital farming, many Indian farmers have adopted smarter irrigation. Let’s see how digital farming proves to be a more intelligent way of irrigation. What is Digital Farming? Digital agriculture involves using advanced digital technologies integrated into a unified system to enable farmers to help improve food production.  For instance, in India, many farmers decide the amount of fertilizer to be used based on rough measurements, experience, or instincts. They don’t realize the profits or damage until t
Read more

How precision irrigation helps sugarcane cultivation?

Sugarcane is one of the extensively cultivated crops in India. Sugarcane farmers are always in the pursuit of higher crop yields, increased profitability, higher sucrose content, and an extended ratoon life, and reduced operational costs. Drip irrigation works as a solution here, which is why sugarcane farmers have been upgrading their farms to drip irrigation. Sugarcane cultivation yield has a strong reaction towards temperature, solar radiation and soil conditions. However, in an open farm field, temperature and radiation are beyond human control. Here, drip irrigation plays an instrumental role as it controls every drop of water and nutrient going to the crop, and that too at the right time, to result in a higher amount and quality of yield, along with higher sucrose content and extended plant life. Netafim’s Subsurface Drip Irrigation helps grow sugarcane yield through the supply of nutrients and water directly to the crop root, and in the required quantities and when required. S
Read more

7 Advantages Of Drip Irrigation And How You Can Make Full Use Of It

Drip irrigation is considered one of the most efficient and sustainable irrigation techniques across the global agricultural spectrum. It helps farmers achieve more in less, which is why many farmers worldwide are increasingly adopting drip irrigation. If you are new to drip irrigation and want to know its benefits, you’ve come to the right place. This blog talks about seven drip irrigation advantages and also gives some tips to optimize it. 7 Advantages of Drip Irrigation Drip irrigation refers to setting up an irrigation system that involves supplying water through drip emitters that provide water and nutrients to the crop root zone in quantity required by the crop across all its growth stages. Since it is based on the principle of precision irrigation, drip irrigation offers several benefits in the long run. Drip certainly demands some initial investments, but the benefits make it a worthwhile investment. 1.       Water-Savings Water is priceless. But it is one of the scarc
Read more