Building Tools and Technical Capacity to Improve Irrigation and Nutrient Management on California's Central Coast

Building Tools and Technical Capacity to Improve Irrigation and Nutrient Management on California's Central Coast

Summary

The work on the grant, “Building Tools and Technical Capacity to Improve Irrigation and Nutrient Management (INM) on California’s Central Coast,” is on-track and has achieved the desired objectives and outcomes for Year 1 of the grant. Despite personnel changes with some of our partners, we accomplished all Year 1 objectives, outcomes, and activities. The Expert Advisory Panel was formed and met twice. Tools and resources for irrigation and nutrient management were collected and posted online. A gap analysis was performed, and the technical experts are on-track to lead the two field cross-trainings next year. We anticipate being able to accomplish the Year 2 objectives and to deliver the Final Report on or before August 31, 2015. Although there will be no substantive changes in the scope of work, there will need to be some changes in the organizations assigned to various tasks in Year 2. Further information on staffing changes and budget will be provided with our next invoice.

Objectives/Performance Targets

Three objectives for this grant were included in the original proposal:

By the end of the two-year project we will meet the following short-term objectives:

• Improve access to INM tools by developing an online clearinghouse of INM tools and resources.
• Improve consistency of INM services available to growers across the region by developing a standardized set of metrics, measurement tools and operating procedures.
• Increase INM Professional technical capacity to serve growers through in-field cross-trainings and distribution of materials.

In Year One of the grant, we accomplished the first of these three objectives and made progress in regard to the second objective.   We developed an online clearing house of INM tools on three different topics: irrigation assessment, irrigation scheduling and nutrient management. We compiled guidance documents, brochures, operating procedures, trainings/classes, example reports, tracking & calculation spreadsheets and references for each of these topics.

Webpages were developed for the three topics. They are listed below as organized online with the number of links and documents for each section. The bottom of each webpage credits the Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program.

Because these reference documents are available to INM Professionals in the region and they have been notified of the website links, there has likely been some sharing and perhaps standardization, although this has not been measured or tracked. The Year 2 cross-trainings will increase consistency across the region and will increase professional technical capacity to serve growers.

Irrigation Assessments:

Link: http://www.awqa.org/toolkits/irrigation-assessment/

Irrigation Scheduling:

Link: http://www.awqa.org/toolkits/irrigation-scheduling/
I. Overview of Methods (14 Documents/Links)
II. All-in-One Systems (12 Documents/Links)
III.  Determining the Size of Your Soil Reservoir
         A.  Identify Root Zone Depth (3 Documents/Links)
         B. Avialable Water Holding Capacity (4 Documents/Links)
IV.  Determining Manageable Allowable Depletion (1 Documents/Links)
V.    Soil Moisture Measurement
         A.  Soil Moisture Storage (4 Documents/Links)
         B. Sensors and Instruments (16 Documents/Links)
VI.   Evapotranspiration Based Irrigation Management (6 Documents/Links)
VII.  Salt Leaching Requirement (1 Documents/Links)
VIII. Factoring in Irrigation Efficiency (1 Documents/Links)
IX.    Reference

Nutrient Management:

Link: http://www.awqa.org/toolkits/nutrient-management/
I.  Guides to Resources (10 Documents/Links)
II. On-line Fertilizer Application Calculations & Guidance (3 Documents/Links)
III. Tracking, Budgeting, Calculating (6 Documents/Links)
IV. Procedures
      A. Nutrient Management Procedures (3 Documents/Links)
      B. Plant Tissue Procedures (2 Documents/Links)
      C. Soil Nitrate Testing Procedures (7 Documents/Links)
V.  Information (3 Documents/Links)

Accomplishments/Milestones

1. An Expert Advisory Panel was formed and held two meetings. Participants and meeting minutes from both meetings will be uploaded to the National Online Reporting System.

2.  An online Clearinghouse of INM tools and resources was created. The Expert Advisory Panel provided guidance on the best way to organize the tools on the website so that it followed a rationale and relevant pathway to each section so INM professionals could locate the tools more easily. They also reviewed and recommended which tools to include.

3.  Developed a peer reviewed suite of SOPs for INM services and posted these online in the Clearinghouse. Reviewed and agreed on the following SOPs related to irrigation and nutrient management:

4. Conducted a gap analysis to assess which tools and instructional materials are missing, additional professional training needs and preferred delivery mechanisms. The gap analysis will be uploaded to the National Online Reporting System.

• Expert Advisory Panel Minutes 08.14.14
• Expert Advisory Panel Minutes 01.22.14
• Gap Analysis

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

Central Coast INM Professionals have access to INM tools and standard operating procedures posted on the AWQA website. The format for these pages was carefully designed by Expert Advisory Panelists to help organize and explain the process involved in the use of the tools related to each topic: irrigation evaluation, irrigation scheduling and nutrient management. The Expert Advisory Panel (EAP) reviewed the suite of standard operating procedures (SOP) for irrigation and nutrient management services developed by the UC Cooperative Extension and discussed differences between this SOP approach and the Cal Poly Irrigation and Training Research Center approach.   Each approach was seen as valid under different circumstances.

We have tracked the number of hits to the AWQA website, where the online Clearinghouse is hosted. Website statistics for visits and hits are shown below. Although these do not track each page on the website individually, roughly 20% of these hits were related to the INM Clearinghouse tools and information:

Collaborators: