Career Profile

It is important to mention that when we talk about irrigation technification we are talking about making an economic investment, since applying technology to agricultural irrigation has a cost and the reason why this investment is made is because it implies an economic return for the farmer, as long as the implementation is done properly. Having said this, let us analyze the main benefits of technified irrigation. <br> <br>Agriculture in the world consumes 71% of the fresh water extracted annually. In Mexico, the figure is slightly higher, since 76% of the available water is used for agriculture, while the domestic sector consumes 16% and the industrial sector 8%, according to World Bank data (2). <br> <br>The fact that agriculture requires so much water and that it is used so inefficiently is a huge problem. In this sense, precision irrigation systems allow efficient use of this resource, reaching 95% efficiency with drip irrigation, while furrow irrigation has an efficiency of 60% and sprinkler irrigation 75%. <br> <br>It must be considered that water is a resource that most farmers pay for, so if it is not used efficiently, production may become more expensive, although at least in Mexico, water prices for agricultural irrigation are very low in most producing regions, which helps to explain the enormous waste of this resource.