Satellite image of the Liwa Strategic Water Reserve in UAE. Green spots are locations of pumps for filling up and draining the reserve. (ADWEA)
Today I write on a novel method of water conservation and preservation by the desert state of UAE. This deal with how a desert population deals with scarcity of potable water and brings out a new innovative dimension in conservation of water. Below are the excerpts from an article in qz.com. This would be of great interest to the farmer community also.
On Jan 15, 2018 at the launch of the 2018 International Water Summit in Abu Dhabi, The Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority unveiled the world’s largest reserve of artificially desalinated water.
The reserve exists in an aquifer under the Liwa desert at the southern edge of the country, about 160 km away from the desalination plants located at the coast. It contains about 26 billion liters of water, and needed 26 months to fill it up. In case of emergencies, the reserve can provide about 100 million liters of water per day to the country’s residents. The planning to build the reserve began in 2002, and it cost about $450 million.
The desalinated water is transported through large pipes (about 1 meter in diameter), which had to be pieced together in the desert through high-precision welding to make them leak-proof for at least 50 years. The water is then dumped about 80 meters underground through perforated pipes, where it seeps deeper into the aquifer. There are about 300 wells to recharge, recover, and observe the aquifer’s water.
UAE requires around 6 billion liters of water daily so the amount of about 100 million liters may seem small, but as they say every little drop of water helps manlind.
Pl read the full article on https://qz.com/1180035/uae-has-built-the-worlds-largest-water-reserve-in-liwa-desert/
There are lot of information circulating as to how the population is increasing, and not only increasing but actually consuming more per capita, and how rapid urbanization and industrialization all over the world is shrinking availability of arable land for farming. There is any number of statistics in favor of all such assumptions. One such statistics by.. is that while in 1990 the average world food consumption per person was 2000 calories it is expected to be 3000 calories by year 2050! Add to this expected increase in the human population of world … the number do become huge … And pose a big challenge to the farmers as how to increase productivity to keep pace with increase in consumption demand. It also indicates that farmers can expect better deal in the foreseeable future as the supply of agro products may just keep up with the demand.
Compounding the problems of less arable land and less water would also be lesser availability of human manpower for the fields. This would entirely be due to rapid industrialization and urbanization as also due to reduction in land holding as large lands would be parceled out in successive generations. Smaller parcels of farms are inherently incapable of self-sustaining.
Way Forward
The way forward for increased and increasing agricultural (and related) yields would lie in better management of farm lands, management of scare water resources, management of fertilization methods and of fertilizers used, development of high yielding pest resistant varieties of seeds, control of production environment, management of storage, management of logistics to optimize time delays from farm to homes, ready availability of sophisticated and timely weather report, and other related matters.
No matter which way we look at the above requirements, we are struck with the fact that no longer the farms can be tended without smart persons capable of using smart technology. The farm workers need to be trained to use these new technologies and the biggest requirement of farm workers is that no longer would they deviate from what are the laid down procedures. They would need to always follow the instructions to the letter just like a computer. Are we talking of ROBOTS then!!!
There is a book by author Dan Brown where he prophesizes integration of humans with machines. Although even now we do have a lot of such integration with the way we do every day routines like banking, ticket booking, purchasing, communicating etc. etc.
Yes and NO. Robotic devices would need to be used. In fact they are being used at several places in different ways. But the human hand is always required.
Some of the ways robotic devices would be used are:
1. Identifying the very good, good and just good area in your farm and plant the seeds accordingly. This is possible by integration of the soil health map of your farm with gps coordinates and having an autonomous seed dispensing machine that will plant seeds taking into account such factors like the optimum depth of planting and location as per the soil of your farms. The idea is to support the seed best way possible for growing up.
2. Irrigation of plants as per need by having sensors planted in the soil and the data integrated with automatic drip irrigation system so that optimum fertilizers are added and watering done as per requirement of the particular patch of plants. Such a system would dispense water or fertilizers several times in a day in small quantities instead of in one go as in a week or daily basis that does result in wastage of water and fertilizers. Robots can actually go into the thick fields of crops like corn and provide fertilizer and water directly at the roots.
3. Monitoring of crop round the clock by drones or ground robots. These drones or robots have hardware and software built in so that farmer in one sweep of his farm would get crop health data. Robotics can also help in routine weeding operations.
4. Tractors – robotics is playing great part in tractors. According to a report in published in IdTechex.com written By Dr. Khasha Ghaffarzadeh more than 300 thousand tractors with autonomous functionality such as auto steer were sold in 2016. The sale is predicted to rise to 660 thousand by year 2027. There is some degree of reluctance on acquisition of such tractors at present due to costs involved and natural distrust of new technology. But it is hoped that things would slowly change and sales of unmanned or follow me tractors would be acceptable.
5. With land scarce, green house cultivation of even cash crops would be resorted and this would benefit by greater yields and less pests.
The Food and Agriculture Organization, the United Nations’ agency charged with thinking about such matters, published a report in 2009 which suggested that by 2050 agricultural production will have to rise by 70% to meet projected demand. Since most land suitable for farming is already farmed, this growth must come from higher yields.
The thoughts on ways and means to increase the productivity and cost reduction are many.
Easy Calculate Amount of Fertilizer for a Given Volume
Many a time’s new farmers are confronted with how much of a fertilizer to add to water to make a known PPM strength. There are a number of ways to so calculate. Some are rough measurements and some are very precise computer controlled methods. However, what I use is a small formula for such measurements. The formula is:
Formula for measuring individual fertiliser element in a fertigation solution:
Amount of fertilizer to make one volume = A
Desired concentration ———————— = X
Percentage of required fertilizer ———– = P
Then: A = X / P x K, where K is a constant depending on the units used e.g. K = 75 if units are ounces per gallon; K = 1200 if units are pounds per gallon and K = 10 if units are grams per liter.
Here, before going further in our calculations, let us remember that chemical fertilizers are described as NPK quantities, N being Nitrogen, P being Phosphorous and K being Potassium. A fertilizer mentioned as 20-20-20 NPK means 20% N, 20% P2O5 and 20% K2O. So it means this fertilizer has 20%N, 20% P2O5 and 20% K2O. Further –
%K = % K2O/1.2 and % P = % P2O5/2.3
Therefore, this fertilizer has actually N= 20%, P = 8.7% and K = 16.67%
Shall we do a little calculation – assume we require a concentration of 200 PPM of nitrogen to be given to our crop with a given volume of water. Let us calculate for one liter of water how many gram of this fertilizer to be mixed to get a concentration of 200 PPM of nitrogen. Apply to our equation above
A = 200 /20 (%of N) x 10 = 1 gm. / liter
Now if farmer requires 1000 liters of water to irrigate, he needs 1gm x 1000 = 1000 grams of fertilizer.
The concentration for P or K is also carried out in the same manner taking care to first calculate P% and K%.
If two or more types of fertilisers are being used, then total PPM needs to be added for each of the fertilisers used. As an example if 20-20-20 and 13-0-45 are being used, the concentration of N and K in both would be additive and of P remain same.
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This is my first blog on my site. It is appropriate that it is devoted to farmers worldwide. Farmers who toil hard facing the nature in all its colors from being friendly to adversary, fighting the odds of infestation by pests and blights, of having been supplied with inferior seeds, of insufficiency of irrigation, fertilizers, pesticides, uncertainty of quality and volume of produce. And when it comes time to get his rewards by selling the produce, again face uncertainty of price received. Many a times farmer would not receive even the price for his seeds, fertilizers, irrigation and his time what to say of opportunity cost. There are a number of mechanisms the governments of various countries have made to avoid such disappointments to farmers but all are singularly not even approaching the objective. And the reason is very obvious – the governments need to first consider the expectation of local populace to have plenty of food at affordable prices. And therein lays the rub. What is affordable price to the populace means that farmers would not get the required price of their produce for also having a life style compatible with those who work in offices and factories. And the irony is that those who work in factories and offices do not have to face the elements in its raw form face to face; they are assured of monthly income and pensions when they retire. But the farmers who daily face the raw elements would not be assured of their yearly income and retirement corpus…. They would have to work till the end of their lives. And why because the governments are more committed to keeping prices of food stuff at a level considered affordable by the populace.
This thought process is now turning out to be an egg and chicken example. Because affordable price for the populace is determined by the earning capacity of the individual. The governments have to keep a lid on the salaries disbursable at all levels of the jobs tied to a standard. If the standard is higher, individuals across the job spectrum – be it office workers, factory workers, the politicians, the armed personnel, even the president of the country – all get higher salaries. Consequently their interpretation of affordable food price is tilted towards higher side and the farmer would also benefit. Exactly the opposite would happen in case of governments who due to their peculiar conditions – could be the population is very high, low GDP, low natural resources, etc. – need to down side the salaries, obviously the farmers would get lower prices for their produce.
And this is the point: Regardless of which government the farmers are situated, the costing for produce would remain the same. The farmer would still have to work hard fighting elements, fighting for irrigation, fertilizers, pesticides, and facing uncertainty of volume and quality of his produce at the end of his labors. So for farmer he has to do same amount of labor and investment to get his produce. So should such a farmer be in a country where affordable price is on the lower side he would get fewer amounts for his produce. Such lesser amounts ultimately tell on the sustainability of the farmer and his farming. The country would ultimately suffer. Imaging a country where all are factory workers or office works and there are no farmers!!!
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