Managing Soil And Irrigation For Drought

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Event Date
January 01, 2020

Join the CCOF Foundation and the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) for a webinar that reviews techniques for managing soil and irrigation during times of drought. Find out how to use your water resource most efficiently and hear about managing soil for best water absorption and storage.

This webinar is very timely in the context of both the California Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) and for preparing for climate change and drought conditions. The webinar will cover the important considerations of irrigation scheduling (and maintenance!) by the numbers.  

Steve Amador, director of the Irrigation Program at Modesto Junior College, will discuss using California Irrigation Management Information System (CIMIS) data, evapotranspiration rates, distribution uniformity, and soil moisture to effectively schedule irrigations and maximize efficiency.  

Rex Dufour, of NCAT/ATTRA, will highlight the importance of understanding how to manage and invest in your soils so that your crops are able to take full advantage of irrigation and rainfall. 

Participants will come away with a better understanding of how to manage irrigation scheduling and system maintenance and how to manage soils for water infiltration and storage in order to use water efficiently as possible while maximizing crop yields.  

About Our Speakers

Steve Amador currently directs the Irrigation Program at Modesto Junior College (MJC) and teaches a number of courses for students pursuing degrees in irrigation technology. After graduating from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo in 1986, Amador spent 10 years working in industry prior to entering the teaching profession. He is now in his sixteenth year at MJC. Amador believes that the success of California agriculture relies on the sustainable use of its natural resources, and most importantly its water.    

Rex Dufour serves as the California regional director for the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT). Dufour's work focus and background is in teaching and learning about ecological pest management and ecologically-based soil management. His work experience includes managing sustainable development projects in Thailand and Laos. He is involved in several minority farmer outreach projects and is registered as a technical service provider (TSP) with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in California and Nevada. Dufour believes that growers should view the use of compost, cover crops, crop rotation, and other practices supporting soil function as an investment in their soils, the same way they invest in farm equipment, buildings, and training farm personnel.

About Our Partners

National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) is a private nonprofit organization established in 1976 that has been serving economically disadvantaged people by providing information and access to appropriate technologies that can help improve their lives. NCAT manages projects focusing on sustainable and renewable energy, sustainable community development, and sustainable agriculture through the ATTRA project.

California FarmLink links independent farmers and ranchers to the land and financing they need for a sustainable future.

USDA RMA: This webinar is funded in partnership by USDA, Risk Management Agency (RMA), under award number RMRM18RMEPP522C004.