1. NRCS Agricultural Water Management Activities in the Southeast US
Hamid Farahani
USDA-NRCS ENTSC, Greensboro, NC
Groundwater Management Districts Association
Annual Summer Conference
Savannah, GA; May 30 – June 1, 2018

2. US Irrigation Facts
Irrigated agriculture produces 49% of crop market value on 18% of cropped lands.
Irrigated acreage is increasing in the Southeast, and in the Mississippi Delta regions of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Missouri.
Competition for water has caused conflicts in areas where water was typically abundant.

3. NRCS Provides Technical and Financial Assistance to Producers with Planning and Implementation of Water Conservation Practices & Technology
NRCS provides financial and technical support for many on-farm water conservation practices in the Southeast.
Examples of these practices are summarized in the next few slides. These on-farm practices are intended to promote water conservation and surface and groundwater sustainability.
NRCS also provides various water conservation practices at the watershed scale. Those are not discussed in this presentation.

4. NRCS provides assistance to upgrade irrigation systems through:
Use of more advanced equipment, and
Use of more efficient irrigation methods
Surface Irrigation
Sprinkler Irrigation
Micro Irrigation

5. Sensor-based Irrigation Management
NRCS provides assistance to implement advanced On-Farm Irrigation Water Management
Sensor-based Irrigation Management
NASS (National Agricultural Statistics Services) data shows that only about 10% of all national irrigated land uses any sort of advanced methods of scheduling (like soil moisture sensors).
NASS data also shows that less than 1% of national irrigated land uses computerized irrigation scheduling methods.
Irrigation water management is a major assistance provided by NRCS to irrigated land producers.

6. NRCS also provides assistance to implement other on-farm water management practices and technologies
On-farm pond
Tailwater recovery and reuse
Precision irrigation
Flow measurement
Pumping plant evaluation/upgrade
Irrigation water conveyance
Other examples of on-farm water conservation practices that are supported by NRCS in the Southeast are summarized on this slide. These include:
1. Onfarm pond and reservoir design and construction
2. Design and construction of Tailwater recovery systems (i.e., capture and reuse of storm runoff as well as irrigation runoff)
3. Precision irrigation or variable rate irrigation
4. Irrigation water conveyance via pipes and conversion of earthen canals to lined canals
5. Use of flow monitoring devices to measure flow and improve management
6. Pumping plant evaluation and upgrade (i.e., bowl replacement, upgrade of pump motors from fissile fuel (like diesel) to electric, etc..)

7. NRCS Programs Benefiting On-farm Water Conservation
(other programs engaging watershed scale activities are also available)
Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)
Provides financial & technical assistance to producers to implement practices that improve natural resources and help producers meet environmental regulations.
Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP)
Assists producers to implement advanced management activities that go beyond the basic conservation practices available under EQIP.
Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP)
Entities partner with producers to address soil, water, wildlife and related natural resource concerns on regional or watershed scales.
Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG)
Funds development of the tools, technologies, and strategies to support next-generation conservation efforts.
NRCS financial and technical support are provided through various programs. Most relevant programs (as authorized in the Farm Bill) are list above:
EQIP
CSP
NRCS also offers a program called Conservation Innovation Grants that is competitive for the field testing of promising conservation technologies to the producers. A few examples in the Southeast are shown on the next slide.

8. A Few NRCS-CIG Success Stories in the Southeast
Alabama
Tuskegee University: Small-scale solar pump irrigation project
Florida
University of Florida: Development of agronomic and irrigation strategies to manage drought
Georgia
Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District and University of GA: Integrating Precision Irrigation Technologies and Sensor-based Water Management
South Carolina
Clemson University: Innovative Water Conservation Technologies to Enhance Resilience to Drought While Optimizing Farm Profits
Tennessee
University of Tennessee: Deficit Irrigation of Row Crops in Humid Regions
Other States not listed herein.
● UDA’s water conservation policy perspective has been and is primarily oriented
towards the fairly narrow focus of adopting improved physical irrigation systems:
-- i.e., it is a “give me money for an onfarm irrigation application system”.
(This perspective has served its historical purpose.)
● With expected climate change impacts on both water supply and demand, the economic
sustainability of irrigated agriculture will rely increasingly on expanded adoption of more
efficient “irrigation production systems”, as well as more effective integration of onfarm
water conservation efforts with watershed-scale water management policies.
● An irrigation production systems perspective emphasizes:
-- continued adoption of efficient onfarm irrigation application systems, but also
-- but with an increased reliance on water-management enhancements through innovative
technologies (including genetics) and complementary investments in human capital that
enables the optimal timing and rate of irrigation by crop growth stage.
● Integrating agricultural water conservation programs with watershed-scale water
management institutions (e.g., conserved water rights, drought water banks and option
water markets) allows for basin-level accounting of farm-level water savings and losses to
meet basin goals.
-- Integrating irrigation efficiency improvements with other practices, such as deficit
irrigation, acreage idling, and off-farm water transfers that compensate producers for
water conservation gains, allows producers to balance yield declines with improvements in
profitability through reduced costs of applying water and related inputs.
-- Integrating onfarm conservation and federal/state institutional water-management mechanisms will
likely also encourage producers and other stakeholders to interact jointly in determining market-
based water reallocations.