Extension Education Opportunities for Irrigation With Small and Beginning Farmers

There has been an increase in the number of new and beggining farmers in the US and significant interest in urban agriculture and the production of horticultural food crops.  Irrigation is a key component for production on these farms.  In many areas of developing countries, irrigation is limited to hand watering and adoption of trickle irrigation can improve production considerably.  In this session, extension outreach for irrigation, water management, and fertigation with new and beginning farmers will be discussed.  Needs assessments have indicated that these growers want information on choosing irrigation equipment and supplies; irrigation design and layout; water sources, pumping, and water conveyance; irrigation timing and crop needs; soil water and irrigation monitoring; and irrigation scheduling.  While excellent extension materials on irrigation for small farms are available in many states and irrigation supply companies in many areas serve as the primary expertise, extension on-farm demonstrations with irrigation have shown to be the most effective way to reach small growers and examples of successful demonstrations will be given.  Appropriate technologies for irrigation on small farms will be discussed and demonstrated. Programs introducing gravity feed trickle irrigation systems in developing countries will be presented.