Microirrigation for Crop Production

Dr Ayars is a retired Research Agricultural Engineer with the USDA-ARS, an irrigation/drainage engineer responsible for developing research on the integrated management of irrigation and drainage systems in arid and semi-arid areas. Honored by the California Chapter of the American Society of Agronomy, he also received multiple awards including long-term membership in Sigma Xi, Gamma Sigma Delta and Alpha Epsilon Honor Societies in Agriculture and Agricultural Engineering. He was awarded the Sir Frederick McMaster’s Fellowship by CSIRO in Australia, received the USCID Merriam Award for Improved Irrigation and the Royce J. Tipton Award from the Environmental and Water Resources Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers for his work. In his 40 year career, he served the research community and agricultural industry in a wide range of offices and committee assignments including extensive experience working on a United Nations Development Project in Uzbekistan to improve irrigation and drainage water management. Dr. Daniele Zaccaria worked for the International Center for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM) actively involved in research, extension education, capacity building and technical development projects in several Mediterranean, Middle-Eastern, North-African and central Asian countries, with focus on design and performance assessment of irrigation delivery networks and on-farm irrigation systems, modernization of irrigation infrastructures, water resources planning, and training for capacity building in the agricultural water management sector. He also worked as a professional designer of micro-irrigation systems for horticultural crops and has reviewed a large number of irrigation projects in southern Mediterranean countries. His expertise and current work at UC Davis focus on research, technical development, and extension education on agricultural water management and irrigation under limited water supplies,design, performance analysis, and modernization of irrigation systems, across on-farm, district and scheme scales, and on developing viable agricultural water management solutions to improve resource-efficiency in irrigated agriculture in arid and semi-arid areas. Dr. Khaled Bali is a Cooperative Extension Specialist in Irrigation and Water Management with University of California Cooperative Extension, University of California Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center, Parlier, California. He holds a Ph.D. degree in soil science with emphasis on soil physics and a Master of Science degree in Water Science from the University of California, Davis and a B.S. degree in soil and irrigation from the University of Jordan, Amman. He is currently the UC Irrigation Water Management Specialist and is responsible for designing, implementing, and conducting educational and applied research programs in irrigation, drainage, water management, water quality, soil salinity, waste management, reuse of wastewater for irrigation and nonpoint source pollution control practices. He was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Jordan and conducted research on reuse of wastewater for irrigation and constructed wetlands to treat wastewater.

1. Soil Water Concepts2. Irrigation Scheduling3. Salinity4. Economic Implications of Microirrigation5. General System Design Principles6. Surface Drip Irrigation7. Subsurface Drip Irrigation8. Bubbler Irrigation9. Micro-sprinkler Irrigation10. Automation11. Application of Chemical Materials12. Application of Biological Effluents13. Field Performance and Evaluation14. Maintenance