The slow, steady drip of water hits right where the plant is.
"You can see under here, it’s just a drip, drip, drip," farmer Matt Peterson said, picking up a line running under a row of tomato plants.
Peterson, who owns Ogden Bay Produce, grows fruits and vegetables for grocery stores and roadside stands around the region. Ogden Bay Produce also has a popular "pick and pay" garden here in Taylor. Nearly all of Peterson's crops are grown using sub-surface drip irrigation.
"You’re getting water right on the roots rather than flooding a field and soak over the plant," he said in a recent interview with FOX 13 News.
Peterson can also put fertilizer and pesticides directly in the plant instead of mass spraying. He converted from traditional methods of flood and pivot irrigation to drip about 12 years ago and said it has been very successful. Peterson said he has seen extra yields on his crops and he estimates his water use has dropped by as much as 70%.
"Right now, we're watering this field with 60 gallons per minute. My allotment is 1,200 gallons per minute," he said.
The saved water he sends downstream toward the Great Salt Lake, which has faced an environmental crisis as a result of water diversion, drought and impacts from a changing climate . Sub-surface drip irrigation is something that state agriculture officials are increasingly pushing as they work to reverse the Great Salt Lake's declines and address water use along the Colorado River and the rest of Utah.
"It’s brand new here in the state," said Utah Department of Agriculture & Food Commissioner Craig Buttars. "We’ve got a couple of research projects. But that’s where you can see the benefits for alfalfa. You’re not putting water on top of the ground, you’re putting it in the root zone."
Agriculture is Utah's top water user, with as much as 80% of the state's supply going toward crops. During a trip to Israel last year to see how that nation handles water issues, state leaders visited the headquarters of drip irrigation company Netafim — a major player in this space. The Great Salt Lake Collaborative, of which FOX 13 News is a member, accompanied them to see the systems and how they work .
See more of the Great Salt Lake Collaborative's reporting from Israel here
"You're reducing your water use by almost half and you're increasing your yield by almost double," said Aubrey Bettencourt, Netafim's Global Director of Government Relations and External Affairs.
But getting farmers to adopt technology like this has some hurdles.
"Just kind of knowledge base has been a big hurdle and then tradition, right? A lot of the farmers in the area maybe don’t want to consider that change because it’s always been the way we’ve done it," Peterson said. "A lot of our laws, our water rights in Utah go back hundreds of years and they’re maybe not set up exactly for catering to drip irrigation. And lastly just monetary. Just money. It’s expensive."
Peterson said he has personally invested more than $100,000 in his drip irrigation systems. He said he likes Netafim's customer service and is happy to show his system off to other farmers to demonstrate how it can be successfully implemented. He utilized some federal funds to help pay for the system as he's expanded it on his farm.
Bettencourt, who is a farmer herself in California, said many agriculture producers across the United States have not recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic. They are also impacted by war in Europe and supply chain disruptions.
"That all has had impact on creating what we know to be some of the most expensive years in farming over the last two to three years," she said. "So it really, right now, what we're hearing from our farmers is it's the access to capital."
To help farms make the switch, Netafim recently launched new resources in an effort to help connect agriculture producers to funding resources .
"There's a lot of programs that get thrown out from states and federals and that can be really hard to navigate," Bettencourt told FOX 13 News. "So what we're really focused on is how do we help the farmer have better access to that information? Have it all in one place."
Utah's Department of Agriculture & Food is offering to cover as much as 75% of the cost to go to drip irrigation. This year, the state reported 25 farms applied for funding to install drip systems. Altogether, it added up to 950 acres. Many of those farms grow the water-intensive crop alfalfa (which can be successfully grown with drip irrigation systems).
"It’s a start, and we expect there will be more interest in the future," Buttars said.
Lawmakers have already allocated hundreds of millions to the state's agriculture optimization program . Buttars said he is content right now to see how far those dollars go before seeking even more, but has plans to ask for permanent ongoing funding to incentivize more farmers to switch to water-efficient methods to grow crops.
See more of the Great Salt Lake Collaborative's reporting on farm solutions here
Peterson said drip irrigation has been a good investment for Ogden Bay Produce.
"We are getting to market five to seven to 10 days earlier than traditionally, which is huge in the local market when you maybe have a six week window of growing and producing for harvest," he said.
This article is published through the Great Salt Lake Collaborative, a solutions journalism initiative that partners news, education and media organizations to help inform people about the plight of the Great Salt Lake—and what can be done to make a difference before it is too late. Read all of our stories at greatsaltlakenews.org .
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