module4 summative revised092518...irrigation in a semi-arid region is called “dryland farming”....

Module4–SummativeAssessment

1

Food, Water, and Pawnee County, Kansas

IntroductionTheobjectiveofthisassignmentistoassessthebenefitsofmoreefficientirrigationmethodsonafarminKansasusingyourknowledgefromModule4aboutwaterforcropscombinedwithanonlinetoolthatestimatescropyieldfromdifferentirrigationstrategies.ThefarmislocatedinPawneeCounty,Kansas(Figure1).PawneeCountyisintheArkansasRiverdrainagebasinandrunofffromthelandinthecountyflowsintotheMississippiRiverandthenintotheGulfofMexico.Inaddition,manyfarmsinPawneeCountyextractirrigationwaterfromtheOgallalaAquifer,oneoftheworld’slargestandmostover-exploitedaquifers.PawneeCountyisanagriculturalcountyinKansaswhere75%ofthemarketvalueofagriculturalproductssoldinthecountyisfromlivestocksales(morethan$270million)andtheremaining25%arecropsales(morethan$92million).Wheat,grainsorghum,andcornarePawneeCounty’sbiggestcrops.Bothgrainsorghumandcornareusedforcattlefeed.(Note:Ifthefiledoesnotopen,copyandpastethelinkintoyourbrowser)http://www.agcensus.usda.gov/Publications/2012/Online_Resources/County_Profiles/Kansas/cp20145.pdf

TheGreatPlainsoftheUS,wherePawneeCountyislocated,isoneoftheworld’slargestexportersofcommoditieslikecornandsoybeans,andtheregionisextremelywaterstressed.BecauseofprecipitationratesontheGreatPlains,muchoftheagricultureontheUSplainsreliesonirrigationfromgroundwaterpumpedfromtheOgallalaAquifer.Cropscanbegrowninthisregionwithoutirrigation.Farmingwithoutirrigationinasemi-aridregioniscalled“drylandfarming”.Drylandfarmingispossible,butcropyieldsaremuchlowerandcropchoicesarelimitedtothosecropsthatareproductivewithlimitedwater.Thethreemaintypesofirrigationusedareflood/furrow,center-pivotsprinklersandsurfaceorsubsurfacedrip.Flood/furrowisleastefficientwithonlyabout50%ofthewaterappliedactuallybeingusedforcropgrowth.Sprinklersareroughly75%efficient,whiledripirrigationcanbeupto90%efficient.Useofsprinklersisbecomingmorewidespread,butdripirrigationisnotyetwidelyadoptedbecauseoftheinitialexpensetoinstalladripsystem.Theresultingincreaseincropyieldsovertimewithdripirrigationcanoffsettheinitialexpense.OneofyourfriendsatschoolisfromafarmingandranchingfamilyinPawneeCounty,Kansas.Shementionedthatherfamilyisconsideringtransitioningsomeoftheiracreagefromfloodandfurrowirrigatedfeedcropsintohigh-valuefruitsandvegetablesusingahighefficiencyirrigationsystem.Sheexplainedthatthereisdebateamongtheneighboringfarmersaboutthecosttotransition(costofirrigationsystem,etc.)versusthebenefits.Sheknewthatyouweretakingaclassrelatedtofoodandtheenvironmentandsheaskedyoutoexplainwhatthebenefitsmightbeofmakingsuchatransition.

Backgroundreadingandvideo1. Visithttp://www.ksre.k-state.edu/sdi/andwatchtheshortvideo(1min28sec)entitledSnapshotof

Success,ResearchandExtensionOutreach,SubsurfaceDripIrrigation.2. ReadtheshortarticlebelowthatincludesrecentdataabouttheDeadZoneintheGulfofMexico

GulfofMexicoDeadZoneLargestSince2002

Module4–SummativeAssessment

2

ByJoAnnaWendel6August2015,eos.orghttps://eos.org/articles/gulf-of-mexico-dead-zone-largest-since-2002

Figure1-Avisualizationofhownutrientrunofffromfarms(green)andcities(red)intheMississippiRiverBasininfluencesalgalbloomsintheGulfofMexico.Thewarmercolorsrepresentahigherconcentrationofalgae.NOAAscientistspredictthatthesizeofthe2015GulfofMexicodeadzone,whichiscausedbythedecompositionoftheseblooms,willbeaboutthesizeofConnecticut.Credit:NOAA,https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/podcast/feb18/nop13-hypoxia.html.

**ForallofthefollowingexercisesfillinyouranswersintotheExcelspreadsheetprovided“Module4_SummativeResults.xlsx”.Youranswersshouldbeinputintotheshadedcells.Asyouaddvaluestothespreadsheet,thegraphwillpopulate.

Part1:Precipitation1. Gotothe“Watersourcesforcrops”pageinModule4.1(https://www.e-

education.psu.edu/geog3/node/1093).2. UseFigure4.1.5todeterminetherangeofannualprecipitationforPawneeCounty,Kansas?Pawnee

countyislocatedabitsouthwestofthecenterofthestateofKansas(Figures1and2indicatethelocationofthecounty).Recordyouranswerintheresultsspreadsheet.

Pawnee County, KS

Module4–SummativeAssessment

3

Figure2–LocationofPawneeCounty,Kansas

Part2:Crops1. Onthe“Watersourcesforcrops”pageinModule4.1(https://www.e-

education.psu.edu/geog3/node/1093,findFigure4.1.6,whichshowswaterusefordifferentcropsinCalifornia.WhichcropshaveamedianwaterapplicationdepthlessthanthenaturalprecipitationrateinPawneeCounty,KS(assumingthatthewaterapplicationrateinKansasissimilartothatofCalifornia)?Recordyourlistintheresultsspreadsheet.

2. It’simportanttorememberthatalloftheannualprecipitationdoesn’tfallduringthegrowingseason.Also,theannualprecipitationratewe’reusingfromFigure4.1.5isanaverage.Someyearsaredrierandsomearewetterthanthisaverage.ThislistgivesyouanideaofwhatcropscouldbefarmedinKansasusingdrylandfarming.

Part3:IrrigationEfficiencyandCropYieldThenextsectioninstructsyouhowtouseanonlinetooltoestimatetheimpactofdifferentirrigationefficienciesandannualrainfallamountsoncropyield.Followtheinstructionsbelowtofilloutthetableattheend.

1. Visithttp://www.bae.ksu.edu/mobileirrigationlab/cwa2,theCropWaterAllocator.

2. ClickthegreenStartbutton:

3. Youwilllandonapagethatlookslikethis:

Module4–SummativeAssessment

4

4. Double-clickontheverticalbluebarattherightsideofthepanetoopentheresultspaneontheright.

5. Clickonthe“Crops,Prices,Yields”tab.

6. Checktheboxesforallofthecropsshownincludingfallow.

7. ClickthegreenCalculatebuttonatthebottom.

8. Theresultspaneontherightshouldpopulatewithinformationaboutallofthecrops,asinFigure3.

o Noticethatthereisahorizontalscrollbaratthebottomoftherightpanethatallowsyoutoseealloftheresultsinthepane.

o Also,theverticalbluebarcanbedraggedleftorrighttodisplaymoreorlessoftherightandleftpanes.

Module4–SummativeAssessment

5

Figure3-CropWaterAllocator

Usethisscrollbartoseealloftheresultsintherightpane

Dragthebluebarleftorrighttorevealmoreofeitherpane

Module4–SummativeAssessment

6

9. ClickontheFieldandIrrigationtabontheleft.Usethefieldsonthispagetoadjustfordifferentirrigationstrategiesaccordingtotheinstructionsbelow

o Thedefaultscenariois130acres,100%irrigatedagriculture.

o Youwillonlychangetwosettings:§ AnnualPrecipitation,

inches§ Efficiency,%

o UsethevaluesinTable1tosetupsixdifferentscenariosofprecipitationandirrigationefficiency.

o ClickthegreenCalculatebuttonatthebottom.

o Scrollthroughtheresultsintherightpane.

o Noticethatthecropyieldcolumnreportsyieldwithdifferentunitsofmeasurefordifferentcrops.It’sbeyondthescopeofthisclasstogetintowhysomecropsarereportedinbushelsandothersinpoundsortons.Thekeyresultstoconsiderrightnowarethefinancialreturnsperacre.

10. Recordtheresultsfor“TotalReturn–net$peracre”foreachscenarioforthesevencropsintheresultsspreadsheet.

Table1–Sixrainfallandirrigationefficiencyscenarios

Scenario1Avgrainfall,floodfurrowirrigation

Scenario2Avgrainfall,center-pivotsprinkler

Scenario3Avgrainfall,dripirrigation

Scenario4Droughtyear,floodfurrowirrigation

Scenario5Droughtyear,center-pivotsprinkler

Scenario6Droughtyear,dripirrigation

AnnualPrecipitation(inches)

MiddleofrangefromPart1

MiddleofrangefromPart1

MiddleofrangefromPart1

25%lessthanavgprecip

25%lessthanavgprecip

25%lessthanavgprecip

Efficiency 50% 75% 90% 50% 75% 90%

Module4–SummativeAssessment

7

Part4:DiscussionandSynthesisWriteashortdiscussion(~2paragraphs)ofthebenefitsofthetwodifferentfarmingstrategies:traditionalcattleranching,feedlots,andwheat,grainsorghum,andcorncropsvs.highvaluefruitsandvegetableswithhigh-efficiencyirrigation.Inyourdiscussion:

o includetheconceptsofwaterfootprints,waterscarcity,deadzones,andirrigationefficiencyo considerboththequantityofwaterused(e.g.,methodofirrigation,waterfootprints)andthe

impactstowaterquality(e.g.,fertilizerrunoffandthedeadzone)o refertoyourscenariosfromPart3o thepossibleresponseinthehumansystemtotheformationofdeadzones.Proposestrategiesthat

couldbeimplementedtoreducetheamountoffertilizerrunningofffromthefarmlandtominimizethefarm’scontributiontothedeadzoneintheGulfofMexico.Reviewthecoupledhuman-naturalsystemdiagrambelow.

For the on-line class The discussion portion of the worksheet is incorporated into the weekly discussion post. You will not be quizzed on the discussion portion of the assessment but will answer similar questions in the weekly discussion.

Module4–SummativeAssessment

8

AssessmentRubric

Criteria PossiblePoints

PointsAwarded

Part1:Precipitation Precipitationratesfrommaparecorrect. 2 Part2:Crops Listofcropscorrectlyrepresentscropsthatcouldbegrownwithnaturalprecipitation 4

Part3: ScenariotablecorrectlypopulatedwithresultsfromtheCropWaterAllocator 14

Part4:DiscussionandSynthesis Includescorrectusageoftheconceptofwaterfootprintsandconnectionbetweendietandwaterconsumption. 5

Clearlyexplainsconnectionsbetweenfarming,waterscarcity,deadzones,andirrigationefficiency.Alsodemonstratesclearlytheconnectionbetweenincreasedwaterconsumptionandimpactstowaterresources,includingqualityandquantityimpacts,suchasnutrientpollutionandgroundwaterdepletions.

10

Well-written,properspellingandgrammar,andusescompleteandwell-craftedsentences. 2

Logicalpresentationoftopics.Reasonablelength. 3

TOTAL 40