Deborah Hamlin, CEO of the Irrigation Association (IA) for the past 15 years, announced her retirement, effective Dec. 31, 2021. Hamlin led the association through numerous milestones, including establishing a new brand and mission, consolidating industry training and developing a profitable online learning centre. During her tenure, she also bolstered the certification program to third-party accreditation, created a standards and codes arm and expanded into the publishing arena with two industry magazines. Mostly recently she led the association through its toughest year, pivoting to an all-virtual Education Week and a series of online conferences, while leading a capital campaign in the wake of a canceled Irrigation Show in 2020.
Hamlin spoke with NAI editor Janet Kanters on her past years and accomplishments with the IA.
Q: Prior to the IA, you were involved in the plastics industry, the nursing industry, and other management/business type roles. How has your 15 years with the IA changed the way you think about irrigation and, in turn, the agriculture industry? A: Raised in Upstate New York, I was admittedly unaware of irrigation in general. We got a lot of rain. But I lived in the Midwest from 1994 to 2006, and it was there where I was introduced to irrigation. I quickly recognized the importance of residential and commercial irrigation systems, and I learned the name “centre pivot” for all of those systems we would see along the highways watering crops. During my time in the association, I have learned so much more. I was able to understand the real economic drivers of proper irrigation and that irrigation helps to feed the world. Water isn’t always where we need it when we need it. I learned about how the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation built a canal system in the 17 western states so we could grow more food in places that didn’t always have water. We wouldn’t be able to grow the amount of food necessary to sustain our country nor the world without irrigation. And, if a country can’t get water to the right places and can’t supply its own food, it has to rely on other countries for its food supply. Add to that, that irrigated landscapes provide spaces for our kids to play. Healthy living spaces clean the air we breathe and improve the communities in which we live in so many ways. Irrigation is fundamental for our society, and it provides an overall quality of life we could not have without it.
Q: Are there any common threads that you’ve seen across those industries? Plastics are a key part of irrigation, so have there been some commonalities?
A: Certainly, a lot of irrigation systems have plastic components. Understanding the manufacturing and distribution process and the channel to market was helpful for this job. And understanding the characteristics of different plastics was also helpful. The more you know about someone’s business, the better you can help them solve problems. Another thing in common with all of the industries is the deep desire for continuing education and recognition through certification programs.
Q: Your years with the IA were busy ones – you established a new brand and mission, consolidated industry training, and developed a profitable online learning centre. Other milestones included bolstering the certification program to third-party accreditation, creating a standards and codes arm, and expanding into the publishing arena with two industry magazines. You obviously had a plan. Are you happy with the way it has gone?
A: The association was in a growth mode when I arrived, and I was able to ride that wave for a long time. It gave us resources to try new things. I also had smart, forwarding-thinking boards that embraced new ideas and were willing to take some calculated risks. Looking back, I am very happy with our accomplishments. Sometimes when you are in the midst of the job, you just think of all of the things that you didn’t accomplish! But when you stop to reflect, you realize it’s been a good run.
Q: Among all those initiatives, what are you most proud of during your tenure?
A: I think changing the mission in 2007 was a game changer for the association. “To promote efficient irrigation,” with the unifying statement, “to ensure water is available for irrigation for future generations.” It seems small, but it has been our driving force in everything we do. And it caught the attention of outside stakeholders that once might have thought us to be a little self-serving. Even our members know the mission. Along with that, overall, I believe the association has matured along with the industry. And the end result is more professionalism in everything we do.
Q: You led the IA through the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite the lack of in-person events and meetings, the IA continues to thrive. How did you and the IA manoeuvre your way through the past 20 months?
A: I can’t say that it was easy, but the IA board and staff were incredibly responsive in anticipating NOT being able to hold our show in 2020 and making the decision to cancel early. That forced us to get creative and offer exhibitors alternate opportunities to meet their marketing needs digitally, whether that be sponsorships of digital events, magazine advertising or email blasts. Exhibitor support, a capital campaign and some quality virtual conferences saved us and allowed us to continue providing value to our member companies throughout this difficult time. We had surprising success, and many of those efforts will be repeated in post-COVID times.
Q: What do you hope to see for the IA going forward, after your departure? A: I had my chance at the helm for 15 years, and I would love to see this next person make huge strides with approaches that I never even thought of. I want the best for this industry, the association and the new staff leader.
Q: And finally, we shouldn’t ask, but we will! What advice would you give to the new incoming CEO? A: My advice for the new CEO would be to honour traditions but don’t let them stifle you. Continue to think of new and different initiatives to keep the association relevant and new and different ways to get things done. The association is full of very smart people who can be your mentors. Listen to what they have to say, and then add your organizational experience to come up with the best possible solutions. This is an essential industry, and you have the opportunity to shepherd it into the future. ●
Deborah Hamlin, CAE, FASAE
On Oct. 21, NASA launched an online platform with information on how much water evaporates into the atmosphere from plants, soils and other surfaces in the U.S. west, data it says could help water managers, farmers and state officials better manage resources in the parched region.
The platform, OpenET, uses satellite imagery from the Landsat program, a decades-long project of NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey that records human and natural impacts on Earth's surface. Specifically, it provides data for 17 western states — down to the quarter-acre — on how much evapotranspiration has taken place.
The U.S. west has been mired in drought for more than two decades. Water levels at key reservoirs on the Colorado River have fallen to historic lows alongside growing demand, prompting the federal government to declare water cuts for some states next year. A blazing summer and years of record-breaking wildfires have also zapped moisture from the ground.
Detailed information on soil moisture could help farmers and water managers better plan during dry conditions and reduce how much water is used for irrigation.
"Farmers and water managers have not had consistent, timely data on one of the most important pieces of information for managing water, which is the amount of water that's consumed by crops and other plants as they grow," said Robyn Grimm, a water specialist with the Environmental Defense Fund, which helped NASA develop the tool alongside other environmental groups and Google. "To date, that data has been expensive and fragmented."
Many large farms in dry areas, such as California's Central Valley, already have years of experience using advanced data systems to measure evapotranspiration and other water metrics that influence their growing and harvesting seasons and watering schedules.
NASA said the platform includes historical data dating back to 1984. In coming months, it will be updated to include information about precipitation rates with the same level of detail. Eventually, the tool will extend to other parts of the U.S., including areas around the Mississippi River and Appalachian region, scientists said. ●
Forrest Melton, NASA project scientist for OpenET, adjusts a scientific instrument in a California vineyard. Photo: NASA/Environmental Defense Fund/Pam Hansen
As water scarcity increases, scientists around the world are looking at growers’ options for irrigation methods. Here are three studies with some interesting results.
How negative pressure irrigation in field production reduces inputs. Researchers set out to discover how a fairly new irrigation method compares with current vegetable industry irrigation methods. Negative pressure irrigation (NPI), a subsurface irrigation technique, promises to reduce inputs, both water and fertigation. A couple of the known advantages of NPI is that it supplies irrigation based on the crop’s consumption of soil water, and it keeps soil water content stable during the crop’s growing period. But how does it impact crop growth and yield? An international team from China, Belgium and the U.S. compared how cucumber (container grown) and field tomatoes fared with different types of irrigation. The cucumber portion of the study resulted in higher yield. For most vegetable growers, however, it’s the results of the tomato study that will hold the most interest. The team compared NPI with furrow and drip irrigation methods. They found NPI reduced fertilizer and irrigation inputs when compared to both furrow and drip irrigation. Although there was no significant increase in yield, neither was there a decrease. Study: Negative pressure irrigation increases vegetable water productivity and nitrogen use efficiency by improving soil water and NO3–-N distributions. Authors: Shengping Li, Deshui Tan, Xueping Wu, Aurore Degré, Huaiyu Long, Shuxiang Zhang, Jinjing Lu, Lili Gao, Fengjun Zheng, Xiaotong Liu, and Guopeng Liang.
How salty is too salty? With water availability at risk, researchers are taking a closer look at what happens to crops with lower quality irrigation water and with a lowered amount of water. Brackish water may have a negative impact on plant growth, but at what point does it become detrimental? And how far can growers push reducing irrigation levels before plants suffer? Brazilian researchers studied how collards were impacted by five different levels of soil conductivity (salinity), each applied at four different levels of irrigation (55 percent, 70 percent, 85 percent and 100 percent). The plant scientists chose collards since it’s made up of 90 percent water and will display adverse irrigation impacts quickly. The research team used several methods for evaluating the results: plant height, stem diameter, the number of leaves, biomass (dry and fresh), and green colour index. With so many parameters, the study has complex results. Overall, irrigation levels had a bigger impact on yield and quality than salinity. Brackish water may be an option if conductivity levels are not too high. Study: Saline irrigation water indices affect morphophysiological characteristics of collard. Authors: Jonathan dos S Viana, Luiz Fabiano Palaretti, Vinicius M. de Sousa, José de A. Barbosa, Antonio Michael P. Bertino, Rogério T. de Faria, and Alexandre B. Dalri.
Mycorrhizae allows for lower inputs A Brazilian/Spanish research team carried out three experiments to determine if mycorrhizae in low irrigation and fertilizer situations impacts vegetable yield. For each experiment, the team grew tomatoes in soil with no temperature controls in a greenhouse in northern Spain. The first study reduced fertilizer doses to tomato plants inoculated with mycorrhizae. Fruit number, total yield and fruit quality increased. The second tested irrigation levels with inoculated tomatoes — normal farm levels, 75 percent of those levels, and an optimized irrigation program based on weather and plant-growth data. Deficit and optimized irrigation increased yield and fruit size but not fruit-soluble solids concentration or colour. There was no effect from mycorrhizae inoculation. For the third experiment, the researchers reduced fertigation by regulating irrigation doses based on soil moisture data. Inoculated plants sustained yield levels with 13 percent lower water and fertilizer rates; that equates to a 1.6 percent cost decrease, which the researchers calculate is six times more than the cost of inoculation.
Study: On-farm reduced irrigation and fertilizer doses, and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal inoculation improve water productivity in tomato production. Authors: Carmen Biel, Amélia Camprubí, Paulo E. Lovato, and Cinta Calvet. ●
Converting seawater into fresh water is important in water-scarce countries. For that process, certain charged particles – known as ions – have to be removed from the water. However, some ions are difficult to remove from water due to their chemical properties.
Recent research by scientists from Israel and the Netherlands is helping to improve this ion-removal process. The researchers were able to predict the behaviour of boron ions during water processing and thus simplify their removal.
Many harmful or valuable ions in seawater, brackish water or freshwater are amphoteric: their properties vary with the pH.
“It is difficult to remove these particles from the water with standard membrane technologies,” said Jouke Dykstra, assistant professor at the department of environmental technology at Wageningen University & Research. “You then have to add certain chemicals to control the pH. But we want to avoid that as much as possible: there is a strong trend to use fewer chemicals.”
As an example of this ion removal process, Dykstra refers to the desalination of seawater. This is happening worldwide at locations with a shortage of fresh water. For example, many countries around the Mediterranean use desalinated seawater for irrigation.
“But seawater also contains boron, which is toxic in high concentrations, and it inhibits plant growth. Obviously, this is a problem for irrigation, and that is why we are looking for new ways to remove boron and other ions from sea water,” noted Dykstra.
Wageningen researchers are working on this challenge together with colleagues from Technion – the Israel Institute of Technology, and from Wetsus – the European Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Water Technology in Leeuwarden. Together they have developed a new theoretical model of the behaviour of boron during a process known as capacitive deionisation. This is an emerging, membraneless technique for water treatment and desalination using microporous, flow-through electrodes When an electric current is applied, ions are adsorbed to the electrodes and hence removed from the water.
The Israeli and Dutch researchers discovered that such systems require a completely new design. For example, they demonstrated both theoretically and experimentally that the water has to flow from the positive to the negative electrode, and not the other way around, as is now customary.
“Our research has shown that a good theoretical model is essential to effectively control such complex chemical processes,” said Dykstra. “This approach offers many interesting possibilities. You could also use this model for other challenges in wastewater treatment, including removing arsenic or small organic molecules, such as drug residues or herbicides.” ●
Certain charged particles – known as ions – have to be removed from the water.
Photo: WUR
Researchers from the University of California, Davis, have been awarded a USD$10 million grant by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to find ways to sustain irrigated agriculture while improving groundwater quantity and quality in the southwest under a changing climate.
Isaya Kisekka, associate professor of agrohydrology and irrigation at UC Davis, is leading a team of more than two dozen climate, plant and soil scientists, hydrologists, engineers, economists, educators and extension specialists from UC Davis and other institutions in California, Arizona and New Mexico. They will develop climate change adaptation management strategies that ensure sustainability of groundwater and irrigated agriculture.
Kisekka says the project team in California will work with groundwater sustainability agencies to develop tools and data to enhance water management at both the farm and groundwater basin scales to improve crop production and achieve sustainability goals under the state’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, which provides a statewide framework to help protect groundwater resources over the long-term. The research team will also work with grower coalitions to achieve the groundwater quality goals of the Central Valley Salt and Nitrate Management Plan.
According to Kisekka, for farmers, the biggest challenge threatening their business is water. “Our project is going to develop climate-smart adaptation management practices to help growers achieve their production goals while addressing the co-benefits for the environment and human health,” said Kisekka. “We are going to develop cutting edge tools to manage groundwater quantity and quality as well as study how policies impact behaviours such as water use in agriculture.”
The practices, models and tools developed will be used by growers or their advisers, policymakers, irrigation districts, coalitions and groundwater sustainability agencies to address climate change extremes such as drought or floods.
Kisekka said they will also come up with management practices to improve soil health, develop alternative water supplies and reduce water demand so the region can continue to produce various agriculture commodities, such as vegetables, grapes and almonds.
Researchers from University of California, Berkeley, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, Stanford University, CSU Fresno, University of Arizona, New Mexico State University, USDA Agricultural Research Service (Sustainable Agricultural Water Systems Research: Davis, CA and Water Management and Conservation Research: Maricopa, AZ) and USDA Climate Hub are also participating in the project. ●
Professor Isaya Kisekka and students measure soil moisture content at the UC Davis Agricultural Research Farm in 2018.
Photo: UC Davis
