Irrigation

California’s epic drought is pushing Big Oil to solve a problem it’s struggled with for decades: what to do with the billions of gallons of wastewater that gush out of wells every year 

California’s epic drought is pushing Big Oil to solve a problem it’s struggled with for decades: what to do with the billions of gallons of wastewater that gush out of wells every year.

Environmentalists say the use of wastewater in irrigation could be a dangerous “experiment”

Environmentalists raised alarm bells Friday over controversial use of oilfield wastewater for crops in California.

"It's an experiment that the state of California and the oil industry performs without consumer consent," Madeline Stano of the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment told AFP.

Hydrawise is  new high-tech control system enables landscape contractors to control customers' irrigation systems from anywhere in the world

Hydrawise is operated through a smartphone or tablet using an app available on iOS and Android, or through a web browser. The controller uses a home wireless internet connection to access real time data from local weather stations, and adjusts the sprinklers' watering schedule to suit the conditions.

Since water use in irrigated agriculture is generally very inefficient, and since the economic value of water for agriculture is typically much lower that it is for cities and industry, there will be a natural trend to reduce water allocation to agriculture in favor of other uses

Tata Center team invents the first solar-powered water pump tailored to the irrigation needs of millions of small-acreage farmers in the Ganges River basin

The Ganges River basin of eastern India is some of the most fertile farmland in the world. With shallow groundwater and rich soil, the area is instrumental in India’s agricultural ecosystem. However, all is not well for the roughly 480 million people who rely on the basin for their livelihood.