On July 10, 2015, Toro Micro-Irrigation was invited by Governor Brown to attend the “Water Technology and The California Drought Summit” at CalEPA headquarters.
The 2015 Summit on Water Technology and the California Drought explored existing and upcoming technologies that can be more broadly deployed to strengthen California’s drought resiliency. The summit was hosted by the California state government and effectively brought together water agencies, water technology companies, state and local government leaders, researchers, non-profit organizations, and other key stakeholders for an important discussion.
The summit featured technologies that are already successfully deployed, highlighted upcoming technologies yet to be commercialized, and generated ideas about ways to scale-up successful technologies across all sectors of California’s economy.
This summit was co-sponsored by Imagine H2O and the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA).
Toro Micro-Irrigation partnered with the San Luis Canal Company (SLCC) to exhibit the successful deployment of drip irrigation in the heart of California agriculture. SLCC showed how, with the help of a $500/ac rebate program, nearly 15,000 acres of its district achieved spectacular results using modern drip irrigation technology: not only did water demand decrease by over half in some cases, but yields increased 15-70% as well. These results were echoed in Toro’s educational material on display which further showcased how fruit, nut, vegetable and field crop growers throughout the US routinely increase yields and resource use efficiency using Toro’s drip tape, dripline and micro-irrigation equipment
Data Highlight
Drip Tape User Review
“Having started off by using drip tape laid on top of the ground within the cotton furrow, to now having converted to sub-surface drip, our row crop farming practices have completely changed. Drip irrigation has conserved water, improved yields, and made us much more efficient in all of our other farm inputs.”
– Johnathon Andrews, Andrews Farming
Some of the topics discussed during the Summit included:
- Agricultural Water-Use Efficiency: Water Technologies to Improve Farming and Ranching
- Expanding Water Supplies: Water Technologies to Recycle or Desalinate Water
- The Water Energy Nexus: Opportunities to Improve Water and Energy Efficiency Together
- Water Technology in Agriculture
- Water Technology in the Urban and Residential Sector
This is the last post in a series of four about Toro’s efforts at the state and national level to improve water and resource use efficiency. This series was prompted by the recent introduction to Congress of the California Emergency Drought Relief Act, a bill that specifically includes a provision to accelerate the adoption of drip irrigation in agriculture for conservation and groundwater recharge. The bill is the product of months of meetings between Senator Feinstein and her staff, federal, state and local officials, environmental groups, water districts and other stakeholders, including The Toro Company.
