Grant: Applied Research Tools and Instruments Grants

Lethbridge College proposes to purchase and build an outdoor WiFi network on its Research Farm (RF) to support the transformation of the RF into a Smart Irrigation Farm. Irrigation is critical to agriculture in southern Alberta, where rainfall is less than crop water demand. In this region, farmers on more than 700,000 ha of cropland receive water delivered by irrigation districts which allows them to cultivate a larger variety of crops and to generate larger yields than their dryland neighbors. However, irrigation water in these parts is a finite resource, fed by snowpacks on the eastern slopes of the Rockies. The area is closed to new irrigation water licenses and further irrigation expansion depends on reduction of losses. This, in tandem with climate change impacts, make the limited amount of available water ever more valuable. Consequently, farmers are required to innovate continuously in terms of agronomic practices, technology adoption, and management strategies to use water as efficiently as possible. The Mueller Irrigation Research Group at Lethbridge College supports this innovation by performing applied research projects that focus on precision irrigation: applying the right amount of water, with the right equipment, to the right place, at the right time. Research projects at the Smart Irrigation Farm aim to minimize water use in agricultural systems to optimize crop productivity in the face of future droughts and water shortages. The outdoor WiFi network proposed here will amplify a recent equipment grant which has enabled the Mueller Irrigation Research Group to increase its capacity by purchasing equipment to monitor crop water requirements, soil moisture dynamics, irrigation water use in high spatial and temporal resolution at the various fields of the RF. With the new WiFi network, the Mueller Irrigation Research Group will be able to collect, visualize, interpret, and share the data collected with these instruments in (near) real-time. This will significantly boost irrigation research projects, e.g. by facilitating the development of decision support tools that rely on real-time observations. In addition, it will help researchers to communicate and mobilize knowledge created in research projects to partners in industry and in the community. We aim to create a platform where farmers can familiarize themselves with various types of sensors and observations that might be beneficial to their own irrigation water management practices.