For Arizona’s large-scale water users, “Water Awareness Month” never ends

“Our average on-farm efficiency, as has been documented, is at between 75 and 80 percent efficiency," said Bobbi Stevenson-McDermott, a retired conservationist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to Arizona Public Media earlier this month. “So, there is no system that is more efficient than the Yuma County irrigation system.” But that was then. Now, researchers from the University of Arizona and NASA are teaming with Yuma agriculture researchers to study the value of special sensors that may prove valuable in measuring the levels of salt and water evaporation in Yuma-area crops.