Smart Irrigation Rules Cut Water Use, Boost Farm Profits
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- University of Nebraska–Lincoln researchers published a paper in Manufacturing and Service Operations Management proposing smart irrigation rules that increase farmers' profits while reducing water use compared with traditional practices.
- Erkut Sönmez, associate professor of supply chain management and analytics at Nebraska, said the system works 'much like a thermostat' — farmers monitor soil moisture and irrigate only when it drops below a certain level, applying an optimum depth of water.
- The research team adapted inventory management policies — typically used to manage products in a warehouse — to manage water in the soil, an approach Sönmez said 'has never been done before.'
- Co-author Derek Heeren, an irrigation engineer at Nebraska, said the benefits of the rules grow stronger as water becomes scarcer, making them especially valuable in drought-prone regions.
- The researchers validated the approach through extensive computer simulations using historical farm conditions, soil characteristics, weather patterns, and economic factors; field trials on actual corn and soybean fields are planned for upcoming growing seasons.
- The team plans to apply similar data-driven approaches to other farm management challenges, including nitrogen fertilizer.
- Sönmez noted that agriculture uses about 70% of the world's freshwater, and nearly 40% of food production depends on irrigated land — figures he cited to frame the urgency of more efficient irrigation.
Why it matters: For farmers in drought-prone regions, the rules' value increases as water grows scarcer, per the researchers. With agriculture consuming 70% of the world's freshwater, the team's next step — field trials on corn and soybean — will determine whether simulation gains translate to real-farm profits and actual water savings.
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