Implementation of an irrigation management program for Energy conservation

The central purpose of the proposed project will be to promote wider adoption and use the IMO-Energy program to maximize the net economic returns by focusing on Energy conservation in irrigated agriculture. To that end, the proposed project is designed to overcome the impediments to on-farm adoption and use of the program by: (i) establishing a prototype ‘mobile lab’ designed to minimize the on-farm effort required to implement the program; (ii) disseminating an adaptable, open-source version of the program to motivate and facilitate private investment in maintaining and improving upon the program (though a user-ready, general-purpose version will continue to be supported for all interested farms); (iii) establishing a high visibility record of IMO success as a tool for optimum irrigation management on large, high profile, high Energy use collaborating farms that have already demonstrated an interest in managing irrigation to minimize Energy costs; (iv) implementing a vigorous outreach/marketing effort to maximize both user and consultant interest in supporting the program for economic benefit.