“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” Albert Einstein
How we are managing irrigation today is not working for sustainable groundwater.
Net Zero Water Farming (NZWF)
Putting an equal amount of water back into the groundwater during the spring runoff that was taken out during the growing season.
Discoveries continue on how to use NZWF practices in different soil types, how to use on different crops, and even how to use within different groundwater basins. As Californians we are a creative bunch and when given the tools to challenge our drought issues, they will be solved with improvements that will come from unexpected and surprising places. Where there’s a will there’s a way.
Here at Drought Diet Products – we have made the capital investment to produce the 6 inch Aquifer Pipe, a tool that creative entrepreneur farmers can use, test, and discover what works for them.
The water crises below ground and on the farm is too big to sit and hope for change. We at Drought Diet Products can guide and assist with the hard work that has to be done on a farm. As we collectively learn and share, we all benefit making a sustainable way of life in agriculture that will continue for generations to come.
More Goals:
- Cut water consumption per crop season by 50%
- Eliminate water lost to surface evaporation
- Recharge the groundwater in the spring runoff an equal amount of the water used to grow the crop
- Share the best practices knowledge
Order your test lengths of Aquifer Pipe for the fall. We are limiting 40 feet of Aquifer Pipe per farmer which will cover irrigating 6 trees. Our goal is to offer the Aquifer Pipe to as many farmers from the supplies of what we presently have available.
Pricing over a three year introduction.
Year one: a period that farmers and their teams are learning how trees react to the subsurface irrigation in their soil. It is important to get the workers to understand the importance of saving water with this new system. We sell only forty feet of 6” Aquifer Pipe to allow as many farmers to try the system from our first production run. Goals are to watch their trees respond to subsurface irrigation. Measure the inputs of the water and outputs of yield.
Forty (40′) liner feet $2,000 dollar investment. (Price is high due to limited production run of the 6″ Aquifer Pipe)
Optional automated moisture controls to measure water inputs for growing and groundwater recharging: $6,000
Year two: Once farmers are comfortable that their staff is ready to manage a larger section, continue to grow out the test sites at each farm from 1 to 5 acres. Goals are to watch tree response, measure groundwater recharge rates, and tree yield. Install cost $2,000 to 3,000 per acre (in most case *with power contract).
Optional automated moisture controls, to measure water inputs for growing and groundwater recharging: $6,000
Year three: Full adoption across the farm. Install cost $2,000 to 3,000 per acre (in most case *with power contract).
Automated Moisture controls per 25 acre grove used to measure water distribution and groundwater recharging : $6,000
*Power contract:
Separate agreement to manage and sell the operations power used on the farm. We then use this to aggregate with other farmers and buy power on the wholesale market. The difference is between aggregating the wholesale price and the retail price lowers the cost to install the new irrigation down to $2,000 – $3,000 an acre.