Although California is experiencing permanent water deficits compensated by irrigation, the state accounts for more than 90% of total strawberry production in the United States. There is a critical need to optimize yield and crop water productivity (CWP), as influenced by irrigation management. Although studies have reported that irrigation management based on soil matric potential (ѱ) has the potential to increase yield and CWP compared to conventional practices, the cost of this technology may be a limiting factor for some growers. In this study, we assessed the cost-effectiveness of wireless tensiometer technology (WTT) for field-grown strawberries in California in comparison with the conventional irrigation management. As a second step, we evaluated the costeffectiveness of deficit irrigation. Using data from eight sites, we calculated multiple linear regressions (MLR) to describe the relationship between: (1) fresh market yield and average soil matric potential reached before irrigation initiation (ѱ irr) and (2) water use and ѱ irr. Based on MLR results, we evaluated the technical performance of each irrigation management method and conducted an economic analysis. Our results showed that adopting a precise irrigation scheduling tool such as WTT is cost-effective and leads to water savings relative to conventional irrigation. Our results also revealed that any water savings associated with a deficit irrigation strategy are costly for strawberry growers.
Quebec, Canada, is the third largest strawberry (Fragaria ×ananassa) producer in North America, behind Florida and California. In view of increasing global water scarcity and the high water requirements of strawberry production, there is a critical need for growers to optimize irrigation practices to improve crop water productivity (CWP). In Quebec, pulsed irrigation has been shown to increase yields in strawberry crops while using the same volume of water as standard (nonpulsed) irrigation, thus improving CWP. However, more frequent and shorter-duration water applications (pulsed irrigation) might be more complex to manage manually; therefore, it could be of interest to automate the irrigation process at the farm scale. The first objective of our study was to assess the economic impact of pulsed irrigation compared with the standard irrigation procedure (nonpulsed irrigation) in a strawberry crop grown in a highly permeable clay loam soil in Quebec. The second aim was to determine whether pulsed irrigation would generate enough benefits to offset the cost of an automated irrigation system. We used data from three sites to determine the effect of pulsed irrigation on marketable yields and gross revenues compared with nonpulsed irrigation. We conducted a cost–benefit analysis to assess the cost-effectiveness of an automated irrigation system based on net gains associated with pulsed irrigation. Our results showed that pulsed irrigation was appropriate in strawberry crops grown in a highly permeable soil because it led to significant gross revenue increases relative to the standard irrigation procedure. Our results also revealed that pulsed irrigation generated enough additional benefits to cover the cost of an automated irrigation system, with a short payback period of about 1 year.
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