Minimizing water usage has become a goal for many cotton producers in their quest to harvest more sustainable crops.
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To that end, agricultural giant Cargill has joined forces with Australia -based agricultural technology company Goanna Ag for a pilot program focused on improving irrigation efficiency in cotton fields in the Mississippi Delta.
Goanna Ag specializes in on-farm irrigation management with its GoField software solution, which employs field sensors, satellite imagery, weather forecasts and crop data to achieve precise irrigation and optimize water usage.
Through the partnership with Cargill, GoField technology will be available to cotton farmers along the Mississippi River in Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi. The company will install Goanna Ag’s GoField tech on participating farms and offer personalized training specific to each farm’s soil and crop conditions, allowing farmers to optimize watering to reduce waste.
“Goanna Ag’s proven methodologies and easy-to-use tools can help cotton growers improve water-use efficiency, boosting crop yields, essentially delivering more crop per drop,” said Derek Brazda, vice president of U.S. sales and operations at GoannaAg. “Through our partnership with Cargill we are thrilled to offer program participants with solutions to improve water-use efficiency, reduce costs and promote long-term, sustainable outcomes.”
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The Mississippi Delta is home to the third-largest expanse of irrigated cropland in the country, and in 2023, growers planted 380,000 acres of cotton in Mississippi alone, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But the USDA estimated that at least 10 percent of that crop was poor or very poor due to drought conditions in the state. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the Mississippi Delta has experienced significant declines in groundwater levels, posing a threat to water availability in the region.
This pilot program aims to help alleviate some of those issues while also playing a part in Cargill’s global effort to enable the restoration of 600 billion liters of water while achieving a 5,000-metric-ton reduction in water pollutants in water-stressed regions by 2030.
“Major retail brands have set goals related to water and are increasingly looking to supply-chain partners like Cargill for data-backed sustainability solutions. This pilot project underscores Cargill’s commitment to helping our customers meet those ambitions to advance sustainable agriculture and water conservation,” said Matt Dunbar, managing director of Cargill’s cotton business.
“By integrating advanced irrigation technology, we aim to bolster the resilience of cotton farming in the Mississippi Delta while conserving one of our most precious resources—water.”
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