As we farm into the future with climate change, irrigation becomes a lifeline for many regions to distribute water sparingly onto pasture and crops most efficiently. Irrigation development has grown 3 fold since the 1950’s with now 33% of the world's crops irrigated.

We know the value of irrigation but we need to continue to research the impacts of irrigation on things such as nitrogen loss and soil carbon.  

Research funded by the Sustainable Food & Fibre Futures fund has allowed our next guests to measure soil physical properties under irrigation across a range of soil types.

Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research research team Veronica Penny & Sam Carrick explain the results of their latest projects.