IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agiwat/v213y2019icp24-35.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Urban agriculture and small farm water use: Case studies and trends from Cache Valley, Utah

Author

Listed:
  • Pratt, Tyler
  • Allen, L. Niel
  • Rosenberg, David E.
  • Keller, Andrew A.
  • Kopp, Kelly

Abstract

The landscape of water in Utah is changing due to population growth, conversion of agricultural land to urban development, and increasing awareness of water scarcity. At the same time, Utah is experiencing a growing number of urban and small farms, but knowledge of water use in this sector is limited. Better understanding of what occurs at the field level on urban and small farms can aid state water use estimates and conservation efforts, and assist farmers in moving towards wiser water management. For the 2015 growing season, we performed irrigation evaluations for 24 urban and small farms in Cache Valley, Utah and we explore the results through case studies and identify trends among gross irrigation depth and field variables including field size, irrigation method, application uniformity, and scheduling practices. Results show a great degree of heterogeneity in irrigation methods, equipment used, and management practices. The beneficial consumed fraction of irrigation water ranged from 0.06 to 1.0. Small fields had lower application uniformities and greater irrigation depths than large fields. Surface irrigated fields had higher irrigation depths than sprinkle and drip irrigated fields. Additionally, fields using a fixed irrigation schedule had higher depths than fields that were irrigated inconsistently due to other factors. The results show that urban and small farm irrigators need improved knowledge of proper irrigation management. Irrigators, university extension services, and state water authorities working in this sector need to recognize the link between proper management and total water use, and focus more efforts on improving management, specifically how to use 1) low-cost methods to measure flow rates, 2) simple irrigation scheduling tools, and 3) improve application uniformity.

Suggested Citation

  • Pratt, Tyler & Allen, L. Niel & Rosenberg, David E. & Keller, Andrew A. & Kopp, Kelly, 2019. "Urban agriculture and small farm water use: Case studies and trends from Cache Valley, Utah," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 24-35.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:213:y:2019:i:c:p:24-35
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2018.09.034
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377418314719
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agwat.2018.09.034?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Keller, A. A., 1995. "Effective efficiency: a water use efficiency concept for allocating freshwater resources," IWMI Working Papers H043180, International Water Management Institute.
    2. Perry, Chris, 2011. "Accounting for water use: Terminology and implications for saving water and increasing production," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(12), pages 1840-1846, October.
    3. Speelman, Stijn & D'Haese, Marijke & Buysse, Jeroen & D'Haese, Luc, 2008. "A measure for the efficiency of water use and its determinants, a case study of small-scale irrigation schemes in North-West Province, South Africa," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 98(1), pages 31-39, July.
    4. Knox, J.W. & Kay, M.G. & Weatherhead, E.K., 2012. "Water regulation, crop production, and agricultural water management—Understanding farmer perspectives on irrigation efficiency," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 3-8.
    5. Levidow, Les & Zaccaria, Daniele & Maia, Rodrigo & Vivas, Eduardo & Todorovic, Mladen & Scardigno, Alessandra, 2014. "Improving water-efficient irrigation: Prospects and difficulties of innovative practices," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 84-94.
    6. Dimitri, Carolyn & Oberholtzer, Lydia & Pressman, Andy, 2015. "Urban agriculture in the United States: reconnecting consumers and producers," 143rd Joint EAAE/AAEA Seminar, March 25-27, 2015, Naples, Italy 202699, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    7. Keller, A. A., 1995. "Effective efficiency: a water use efficiency concept for allocating freshwater resources," IWMI Working Papers H044344, International Water Management Institute.
    8. Curtis, Kynda & Ward, Ruby & Allen, Karin & Slocum, Susan, 2013. "Impacts of Community Supported Agriculture Program Participation on Consumer Food Purchases and Dietary Choice," Journal of Food Distribution Research, Food Distribution Research Society, vol. 44(1), pages 1-10, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fernández, J.E. & Alcon, F. & Diaz-Espejo, A. & Hernandez-Santana, V. & Cuevas, M.V., 2020. "Water use indicators and economic analysis for on-farm irrigation decision: A case study of a super high density olive tree orchard," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 237(C).
    2. Lankford, Bruce A., 2023. "Resolving the paradoxes of irrigation efficiency: Irrigated systems accounting analyses depletion-based water conservation for reallocation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 287(C).
    3. Scheierling, Susanne M. & Treguer, David O. & Booker, James F. & Decker, Elisabeth, 2014. "How to assess agricultural water productivity ? looking for water in the agricultural productivity and efficiency literature," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6982, The World Bank.
    4. Ghahroodi, E. Mokari & Noory, H. & Liaghat, A.M., 2015. "Performance evaluation study and hydrologic and productive analysis of irrigation systems at the Qazvin irrigation network (Iran)," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 189-195.
    5. Barker, Randolph & Dawe, D. & Inocencio, A., 2003. "Economics of water productivity in managing water for agriculture," Book Chapters,, International Water Management Institute.
    6. Jeanne PERRIER, 2019. "Les lois palestiniennes de l’eau : entre centralisation, décentralisation et mise en invisibilité," Working Paper f2757814-3bd9-4fc1-970d-2, Agence française de développement.
    7. Molden, David & Oweis, T. Y. & Pasquale, S. & Kijne, Jacob W. & Hanjra, M. A. & Bindraban, P. S. & Bouman, Bas A. M. & Cook, S. & Erenstein, O. & Farahani, H. & Hachum, A. & Hoogeveen, J. & Mahoo, Hen, 2007. "Pathways for increasing agricultural water productivity," Book Chapters,, International Water Management Institute.
    8. Muhammad Usman & Talha Mahmood & Christopher Conrad & Habib Ullah Bodla, 2020. "Remote Sensing and Modelling Based Framework for Valuing Irrigation System Efficiency and Steering Indicators of Consumptive Water Use in an Irrigated Region," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-33, November.
    9. Barros, R. & Isidoro, D. & Aragüés, R., 2011. "Long-term water balances in La Violada Irrigation District (Spain): II. Analysis of irrigation performance," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(10), pages 1569-1576, August.
    10. de Fraiture, Charlotte, 2005. "Assessment of potential of food supply and demand using the Watersim model," IWMI Research Reports H044635, International Water Management Institute.
    11. repec:ags:ubzefd:148054 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Pereira, Helga & Marques, Rui Cunha, 2017. "An analytical review of irrigation efficiency measured using deterministic and stochastic models," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 28-35.
    13. Molle, François & Tanouti, Oumaima, 2017. "Squaring the circle: Agricultural intensification vs. water conservation in Morocco," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 170-179.
    14. Osman, Rehab & Ferrari, Emanuele & McDonald, Scott, 2015. "Water Quality Assessment SAM/CGE and Satellite Accounts Integrated Framework," 89th Annual Conference, April 13-15, 2015, Warwick University, Coventry, UK 204291, Agricultural Economics Society.
    15. Riaz, K. & Wahaj, R., 1996. "Tertiary sub-system management: proceedings of one-day workshop held on June 18, 1995 in Lahore, Pakistan," IWMI Research Reports H019405, International Water Management Institute.
    16. Chant, Lindsay & McDonald, Scott & Verschoor, Arjan, 2004. "The Role of the 1994-95 Coffee Boom in Uganda's Recovery," Conference papers 331235, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    17. Uygan, Demet & Cetin, Oner & Alveroglu, Volkan & Sofuoglu, Aytug, 2021. "Improvement of water saving and economic productivity based on quotation with sugar content of sugar beet using linear move sprinkler irrigation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    18. Alauddin, Mohammad & Rashid Sarker, Md. Abdur & Islam, Zeenatul & Tisdell, Clement, 2020. "Adoption of alternate wetting and drying (AWD) irrigation as a water-saving technology in Bangladesh: Economic and environmental considerations," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    19. Wu, Di & Cui, Yuanlai & Wang, Yitong & Chen, Manyu & Luo, Yufeng & Zhang, Lei, 2019. "Reuse of return flows and its scale effect in irrigation systems based on modified SWAT model," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 280-288.
    20. Seckler, D. & Molden, D. & Sakthivadivel, R., 2003. "The concept of efficiency in water resources management and policy," IWMI Books, Reports H032634, International Water Management Institute.
    21. Kijne, J. W., 2003. "Water productivity under saline conditions," IWMI Books, Reports H032637, International Water Management Institute.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:213:y:2019:i:c:p:24-35. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agwat .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.