Good irrigation system design and maintenance has the potential to both lift productivity and reduce energy costs. Distribution uniformity (DU) is a measure of how evenly an irrigation system applies water. Low DU means that some parts of the crop are too wet while others are under-watered. Many growers compensate by irrigating to satisfy the [...]

Moving and pressurising water requires a lot of energy. As a result irrigation is the major energy user in growing vegetables. For most growers, improving productivity, i.e. increasing the revenue for the amount of energy used, is more important to the bottom-line than simply improving the energy efficiency and reducing energy costs. Managing irrigation well [...]