Objective

The goal of this project is to understand the factors affecting water productivity in large irrigation districts.   The project will include physical and engineering data and also social and economic information to understand how technologies, policies and practices affect water use, agricultural production, farm household income and environmental quality.  

Research Approach

To achieve the research objectives we will partner with a research station in a large irrigation district to engage in an ambitious program of measuring and monitoring an extensive set of field parameters over multiple years in a selected tertiary canal system in the district.   The information collected will be analyzed to identify inequities in water delivery at the field level and the effect these inequities have on total water use, crop production, rural incomes, surface and ground water quality and soil salinity.   We will develop a sampling strategy to ensure representative information on the spectrum of cropping patterns, soil types, water table depth, surface and ground water quality, location and farm household social and economic factors.   The layout of canals, fields and sampling locations will be located with a Global Positioning System (GPS) and entered into a Geographic Information System (GIS) to assure accurate collection and assimilation of data.  

Activities

The proposed project will bring together specialist in both countries to conduct collaborative research, combining both social and physical sciences, on irrigation efficiency at the tertiary canal level.   Specifically, the research will examine unequal water deliveries at the field level, the causes of these outcomes, and how they affect aggregate crop production, production costs, and downstream water flows, both quantity and quality.   Based on a research proposal developed by the collaborators and submitted to China’s Ministry of Science and Technology in October, 2008, MOST approved partial funding or the project of 1 million RMB yuan (approximately US$146,000) in May, 2009.

Initial activity on this project includes a follow up to a visit by Dr. Clemmens and other USDA specialists to Hetao Irrigation District in Inner Mongolia in May, 2008, and the selection of 2,000 ha of irrigated farmland for the collaborative research partly funded by MOST, and irrigation and drainage as well as groundwater table variation and fertilizer inputs have been monitored. Dr. Clemmens visited the project in October 2009 to discuss data collection. Current activities are centered on hydrologic measurements of the study area.

Contacts for the project are: