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ARS Home » Plains Area » Bushland, Texas » Conservation and Production Research Laboratory » Soil and Water Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #294561
Title: US forest service technical cooperation visit Badia Rangeland and irrigation analysis

Author
item FORSMAN, RICK - Us Forest Service (FS)
item Evett, Steven - Steve
item MARWAH, NATASHA - Us Forest Service (FS)

Submitted to: Technical Report
Publication Type: Other
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/7/2013
Publication Date: 7/26/2013
Citation: Forsman, R., Evett, S.R., Marwah, N. 2013. US forest service technical cooperation visit Badia Rangeland and irrigation analysis. Technical Report. US forest service technical cooperation visit Badia Rangeland and irrigation analysis. March 24-29, 2013. Available at http://www.cprl.ars.usda.gov/swmru-publications.php

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: A US Forest Service (USFS) team comprised of a rangeland management advisor, a dryland water resource, and irrigation specialist, and a Middle East program specialist visited Jordan to provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Agriculture-Water Harvesting Directorate (MoA) and the Hashemite Fund for the Development of the Jordan Badia (HF). The team engaged in field visits to water harvesting projects in northern Jordan and in the eastern Badia to provide a technical assessment of a series of new water harvesting ponds and to provide recommendations on Badia restoration strategies. The team also visited two fodder project sites in the southern and northern Badia to assess the irrigation systems (21 center pivots) and provide strategies to increase efficiency and reduce costs associated with pumping water, and to improve crop production and water use efficiency. The water resource and irrigation specialist, a reseach soil scientist with the USDA-ARS Conservation and Production Research Laboratory, Bushland, Texas, analyzed problems and suggested solutions associated with the water quality from deep wells, corrosion of pumps, pipelines and filtration systems, pump motor failure due to brown outs, lack of pressure gages and flow meters where needed for system management, uneven water distribution due to improper nozzle sizing and lack of pressure regulators on the center pivots, and agronomic failures due to soil crusting, salinity and poor crop choice. The ARS scientist also recommended installing variable frequency pump motor drives to correct the low voltage electrical grid power in order to avoid pump and pump control panel failures; and he did preliminary calculations on the cost of a solar electric installation to offset the electrical consumption of the deep well pumps. The installation cost, which was estimated at $10 to $12 million, could be amortized well within the project life time since the cost of grid power is high (about $700 thousand annually).