Recirculating Trailwater Reduces Nutrient Loss in Agriculture

Description: This project aims to employ innovative, in-field water recirculating technologies that economically reduce nutrient and sediment runoff from agricultural production lands. The central hypothesis for this project is that autonomous, tailwater-recirculating technology can be integrated into endblocked, furrow-irrigated fields to increase irrigation efficiency and N utilization while also reducing nutrient runoff and improving the crop’s productivity and profitability relative to furrowirrigated production systems that do not reuse tailwater. This goal will be accomplished by completing three objectives: 1) Develop novel tailwater recirculating techniques that improve runoff water quality from rice production, 2) Improve rice productivity and profitability, and 3) Increase knowledge and promote implementation of strategies that reduce nutrient loss in rice.