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Submitted to: Sustainable Agriculture International Conference Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings Publication Acceptance Date: 4/10/1997 Publication Date: N/A Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: Irrigated agriculture presently accounts for 15 percent of the world's cultivated land but produces about 36 percent of the food. Present trends in population growth will require an increase in agricultural production of about 40-50 percent over the next 30-40 years. Most of this increase must come from existing cropland, mostly irrigated land. However, soil salinity is already a serious, general problem in the irrigated lands of the world and its very sustainability is being questioned in some places. Much of the problem is caused by inadequate and inappropriate irrigation and drainage management. Control of salinity and waterlogging in irrigated lands requires a practical technology for assessing the salinity conditions, the adequacy/appropriateness of management practices and the sources/causes of salinization in the fields and projects. This paper describes new/advanced, practical methodology and equipment for such assessments, along with examples of its utility. Technical Abstract: Equipment and methodology for assessing the adequacy and appropriateness of irrigation, drainage and salinity-control management are described and reviewed. The methodology is based upon the use of instrumental systems for intensively measuring bulk soil electrical conductivity and associated spatial coordinates, algorithms for multi-linear regression data analysis and site selection, and methods for obtaining salinity ground-truth. The technology package described is unique and represents a breakthrough in our ability to rapidly and accurately assess soil salinity in irrigated lands. Results are presented to demonstrate the utility of the technology along with data that indicate that much of the variation and apparent complexity in the spatial pattern of soil salinity in irrigated fields is man-induced and can be explained in terms of deterministic processes related to such management practices as irrigation, drainage, cultivation and tillage. |
