Improving Orchards Irrigation Management Practices at the On-Farm Level: A 10 Year Case Study of Collaboration between Scientists and Citrus Producers

The Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) of South Texas is the citrus producing region of the state and is known for its high value, deep red colored grapefruit crop varieties. The majority of citrus groves are irrigated using traditional flood irrigation practices stemming from water supplies along the Rio Grande River that border the U.S. and Mexico.  During periods of extensive drought, the reservoirs along the Rio Grande become depleted to the point that water restrictions are placed on all growers.  This is an extreme challenge for citrus producers in general, because deciding not to irrigate citrus trees is not an option to sustain such a perennial crop and keep trees in good health.  Over 90% of citrus in the LRGV is irrigated using large-pan flood (TFd) irrigation practices, with little incentive for growers to change to a more conservative irrigation practices due to low water pricing.  The Texas Water Development Board invested funds for a 10-year (2004-2014) study for the purpose of evaluating on-farm irrigation practices with hopes of finding potential irrigation alternatives that can be employed by growers that are cost effective and allow citrus producers to be prepared for future drought years.  The outcome of this 10-year collaborative effort between scientists and citrus growers show water savings for alternative irrigation methods such as drip, micro-jet sprinkers, and border flood (BFd) irrigation that channels water faster down the tree row. It was found that BFd irrigation use had similar water savings to that of drip and micro-jet sprinklers.  Besides saving 36% of water using BFd when compared to TFd, the BFd irrigation method produced the highest percentage of fresh-market fruit in the larger grapefruit size class resulting in the highest economic benefit to the growers.