Bryan Jones doesn’t mean to sound defensive, but he’s tired of the idea that farmers are only part of the environmental problems, never part of the solution.
Standing at the edge of a field on the family farm, Jones can point out the St. Johns River, which is clearly visible maybe 100 yards away.
“Do you think we want to put fertilizer in there?” he asks rhetorically. “We don’t want to waste anything. We want to do the right thing.”
Jones is a third-generation farmer in St. Augustine, working for his father, Richard, at Riverdale Potato Farm. The Jones family has been growing potatoes for Frito-Lay chips since the 1960s.
But what they aren’t doing is farming the exact same way as they did 50 years ago.
A New Way to Water
Some of the fields at Riverdale are using an irrigation system that’s being used other places but had not previously been tried on a large scale in North Florida as far as Jones knows.
It’s a simple system that uses irrigation tape (basically a thin hose that expands when full of water) under the soil to efficiently irrigate crops.
The plan has worked well enough that the state is backing it with partial funding, and Jones has helped at least another half dozen area farmers set it up on their own land.
As word of the system’s potential has grown, Jones received an Agricultural-Environmental Leadership Award from Florida commissioner of agriculture Adam H. Putnam.
Jones downplayed the honor, saying he’s more concerned about what can be accomplished by using the system.
“We’ve got the potential to save millions of gallons of water (on this farm),” he said. “We have the potential just in this area to save billions of gallons of water.”
The system Jones uses, called an enhanced seepage irrigation system, is so effective because it’s so simple, affordable and can save farmers money. In the potato fields, Jones can point out to visitors the irrigation trenches every 60 feet for the old watering system. He said that during the eight-week peak growing season water is pumped to the field 24 hours a day.
With the seepage system, he can cut the watering down to as little as eight hours a week, depending on the needs of the area. And that benefits farmers in several ways. They pump less water, use less electricity in the pumping and don’t have to flood an entire field to reach every corner. That means less waste, of course, but it also leads to higher yields.
Because none of the areas have to be overwatered, the crops in general tend to be healthier. Jones said he recently tested the system on one of Riverdale’s fields, and it produced two more truckloads of potatoes than a similar field with the old system.
“What the tape is doing, in my view, is incredible,” Jones said. “Now we’re focusing water where we need it. Now you can make each bed optimal.”
In addition to the tape, most of the equipment used is about the same as that of a home irrigation system. But sensors can be hooked up to allow farmers to operate the seepage system with a computer or even a smartphone.
Jones said innovation is nothing new to Riverdale, which is one of the reasons it’s still thriving. “You still have to farm; you still have to look at your crop and manage it,” he said. “If you don’t improve, you’re going to get left behind.”
Help from the State
At the Florida Department of Agriculture, officials don’t want state farmers to lag behind. That’s why they are behind new technology like the seepage system.
Terry Pride, environmental administrator with the Department of Agriculture, said her department, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and the growers themselves all partnered in the cost-sharing plan for the new irrigation system.
“We’re very excited about it,” she said. “It really saves a lot of water and keeps water on the farm. It’s much more efficient than the traditional seepage system.”
Pride said farmers like Jones who aren’t afraid to try new technology set trends that their peers follow. And the fact that it’s a true farmer championing the innovation makes a huge difference in the response.
“He (Jones) is moving in the direction we’d like to see agriculture move in general,” Pride said. “With the projects, we don’t tell them (farmers) what to do. They come up with the ideas. Bryan has been a particularly good ambassador.”
And the fact that the new irrigation system saves money—in the long run—rather than just costing more makes farmers more receptive, obviously. “For this particular system that’s a real key to it,” Pride said. “They save on water, save on energy costs, save on fertilizer.”
A Cumulative effect
The irrigation improvement is just part of what Jones and other farmers are trying to do.
Jones is unabashedly proud of what he does for a living. He loves to show what farmers are doing to conserve resources and reduce pollution.
It’s not just water that Jones’ farm saves. Riverdale also uses a system called fertilizer banding. The fertilizer is dropped onto a field through long chutes (pulled by a tractor, of course) just inches above the ground.
“We’re able to use less fertilizer because we’re putting it right where we need it,” Jones said.
With no fertilizer blowoff, it’s better for the environment.
Just as important, the tape irrigation system prevents large runoff of fertilizer-enriched water.
That’s more important to farmers like Jones than some people realize. He said his family enjoys recreational activities in the river and other county waterways as much as anyone else. He doesn’t want his industry responsible for an increase in algal blooms—caused by nutrient pollution—that sometimes overwhelms rivers.
He said farmers are already more cautious about runoff than they are given credit for. The perfect example is Riverdale.
“It’s an amazing feeling to be able to do this for the land we farm,” Jones said of his farm’s conservation measures. “This is impactful. We’re changing what we’re doing, and that is huge. Farmers are doing above and beyond what they are required to do.”
Source: The St. Augustine (Fla.) Record