Micro Irrigation Scheduling and Practices (Innovations and Challenges in Micro Irrigation)

Many countries around the world are struggling with the challenges of water scarcity, including water for crops. Micro irrigation methods are an effective means to make the most efficient use of available water. This volume, Micro Irrigation Scheduling and Practices, continues the efforts of the book series Innovations and Challenges in Micro Irrigation to provide informative and comprehensive knowledge on micro irrigation methods and practices.

This new book presents some of the latest information and research on micro irrigation and covers the area of performance, practices, and design, focusing particularly on the performance of vegetable, fruit and row crops in conjunction with different scheduling and practices. Irrigation scheduling is an important water management strategy, and this book addresses scheduling methods and issues. Design aspects of micro irrigation systems have also been discussed in the book.

The authors present their research and studies on scheduling practices and design micro irrigation systems with a variety of fruits and vegetables, including peppers, chili, watermelon, oranges, banana, litchi, rice, sugarcane, sorghum, and marigolds.

Micro Irrigation Scheduling and Practices will serve as a valuable reference for researchers, water resources professionals, agricultural extension agencies, farmers, and faculty and students.

Megh R. Goyal, PhD, PE, is a retired Professor in Agricultural and Biomedical Engineering from the General Engineering Department in the College of Engineering at University of Puerto Rico–Mayaguez Campus; and Senior Acquisitions Editor and Senior Technical Editor-in-Chief in Agriculture and Biomedical Engineering for Apple Academic Press, Inc. He has worked as a Soil Conservation Inspector and as a Research Assistant at Haryana Agricultural University and Ohio State University. He was the first agricultural engineer to receive the professional license in Agricultural Engineering in 1986 from the College of Engineers and Surveyors of Puerto Rico. On September 16, 2005, he was proclaimed as "Father of Irrigation Engineering in Puerto Rico for the twentieth century" by the ASABE, Puerto Rico Section, for his pioneering work on micro irrigation, evapotranspiration, agroclimatology, and soil and water engineering. During his professional career of 45 years, he has received many prestigious awards. A prolific author and editor, he has written more than 200 journal articles and textbooks and has edited over 25 books. He received his BSc degree in engineering from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India; his MSc and PhD degrees from Ohio State University, Columbus; and his Master of Divinity degree from Puerto Rico Evangelical Seminary, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, USA.

Dr. Balram Panigrahi is an agricultural engineer with specialization in soil and water engineering. Dr. Panigrahi is presently Professor and Head of the Department of Soil and Water Conservation Engineering (SWCE) at the College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology (CAET), Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), in Bhubaneswar, India. He also served as Chief Scientist of the Water Management Project and Associate Director of Research in Regional Research Station of OUAT. Dr. Panigrahi has published many technical papers in different international and national journals and conference proceedings. He has written several book chapters, practical manuals, and monographs. He has also written two textbooks in the field of irrigation engineering. He has received many awards, the Samanta Chandra Sekhar Award for best scientist in the state of Odisha, India, and the Gobinda Gupta Award as outstanding engineer of the state of Odisha, given by the Institution of Engineers (India), Odisha state center. In additional to being a reviewer and an editorial board member of several journals, he has chaired several international and national conferences both in India and abroad.

Dr. Sudhindra Nath Panda is currently Director of the National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research (NITTTR), Chennai, India. Earlier he was a Professor of Land and Water Resources Engineering at the Agricultural and Food Engineering Department of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, India. He has nearly 33 years of professional experience in teaching, research, extension, and training activities at several institutions. Prof. Panda is also the Director (Soil and Water Engineering) of the Indian Society of Agricultural Engineers, New Delhi, India. He is an editorial board member of various journals and a member or fellow of many professional groups. He was the Founder and Head of the School of Water Resources, IIT Kharagpur, where he was instrumental in developing the course curriculum, basic infrastructure, laboratories, computational facilities, faculty recruitment, and creating job opportunities of MTech (water management) students. Prof. Panda is the recipient of various national and international awards and honors from several organizations and has handled almost a dozen international and national research projects. He has edited a workshop proceedings and written and published numerous research bulletins, book chapter, journal articles, conference presentations, and training manuals. He has chaired several international and national conferences both in India and abroad and has organized conferences and workshops.