A new agriculture irrigation system that helps farmers groundwater recharge to become compliant with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA).
For centuries we have always irrigated on the surface, the problem with that is the loss of water to evaporation. Scientists believe we lose from 25 to 50 percent of all irrigated water to evaporation.
Here at UmidaAG, we invented a revolutionary way to irrigate orchards: it’s a subsurface irrigation system that sits five feet below the ground and creates a virtual water table creating a moisture plume which expands to two feet high and14 feet wide where the plants feed on. The key to this is the unique design is called the Aquifer Pipe.
Water goes down the side channels and seeps into the center channel and which gets fully saturated allowing the surrounding soil to wack-it-up into a two-foot plume and seven feet on each side of the pipe. The key is; the Aquifer Pipe is placed in the center of the service road five feet below the surface away from the actual trees.
Advantages of Aquifer Pipe
There are many advantages to the farmer:
1) The roots of the trees go deeper so you don’t have trees blowing over,
2) You don’t have water on the surface which inturn prevents weeds from growing,
3) You don’t have to spray herbicides our use labor to control the weeds within your orchard.
4) By elementaing drip lines, rodents can’t cause expensive repairs.
5) The key advantage is that you cut your water consumption from 25% to 50%. Especially here in California’s Central Valley where the temperatures can get up to 110 degrees in the middle of the summer and demand a lot of water from your trees.
6) The Aquifer Pipe can be placed in any existing orchard. New orchards may require your drip irrigation for the first two years, in time the plants start pulling water from the Aquifer Pipe’s moisture plume.
Energy Efficiency
Drip and micro sprayers have a giant energy consumption. You typically have to turn on the systems for 72 hours, and then you turn them off for a week. With the Aquifer Pipe-we changed that, energy usage is 5 minutes to 10 minutes on cycles, to fill up the Aquifer Pipe’s chamber only. Then this water seep into the surrounding area, it takes usually about an hour and then you fill the Aquifer Pipe up again, repeat the process three times a day. But what’s unique about the Aquifer Pipe is that you can fill it up anytime of the day. Whenever the price of electricity is at its lowest and hence the savings are dramatic.
These energy savings can actually pay for the full infrastructure of the pipe leaving you with money in your pocket. The pipe itself will be paid for over a 10-year period, maybe a 15-year period. But the pipe can last 80 years to 100 years, you will reap the benefits, your children are going to benefit, and your grandchildren are going to benefit.
Dual Functionality
The last key benefit of the Aquifer Pipe is that it could be a dual purpose. Meaning that you can use it for groundwater recharge during the wet years. When there’s an abundance of water.
On the other hand, you can also pump additional water into the pipe at any time of the year, whether it’s wintertime or the middle of the summer.
Benefits to farmers about Agriculture irrigation and SGMA compliant
Why is it important for a farmer? And the answer is that you build the water credits on your farm for the benefit of your balance sheet. Here at Umida, you can tell we are a very unique company and we have a very unique device. Our Aquifer Pipe meets the challenges faced by today’s farmers by cutting water consumption. Your irrigation allows groundwater recharge when there’s an abundance of water and reduces the overall energy footprint.
UmidaAG wants to help farmers by providing a legacy of sustainable farming to pass on to future generations. And keep this rich California industry alive.