Canada expands irrigation research as Irrimap brings ET data to farm-level water decisions

As pressure grows on agriculture to make more efficient use of water, researchers in Canada are combining digital tools with applied research to help farmers make more precise irrigation decisions.

The Mueller Irrigation Research Group (MIRG) at Lethbridge Polytechnic has launched Irrimap, a web-based tool designed to provide agricultural evapotranspiration (ET) information from individual fields to the regional scale. The development comes alongside a C$500,000 investment supporting MIRG’s expansion into a broader applied irrigation research hub. The funding, provided through Results Driven Agriculture Research (RDAR), will support senior research chair Dr. Willemijn Appels and her team as they work toward establishing a provincial and national centre for applied irrigation research.

Evapotranspiration combines two major components of the water cycle: evaporation from soil and other surfaces, and transpiration, the process through which plants release water vapour through their leaves. Understanding ET provides valuable insight into how much water crops are actually using and can help determine when irrigation is needed and how much water should be applied. MIRG research scientist Dr. Michael Kehoe said measuring ET is particularly important for understanding soil moisture conditions and giving farmers, agronomists and researchers better information for irrigation scheduling.

Irrimap uses publicly available data and presents ET information through an online interface accessible from smartphones, laptops and other devices. For farmers, ET data can provide a clearer picture of crop water use and support more informed irrigation decisions. The technology also has potential applications in precision and variable-rate irrigation (VRI), where water applications can be adjusted according to conditions across different areas of a field. This becomes increasingly important as growers face rising input costs and tighter operating margins. Appels said tools such as Irrimap can help optimize crop performance by supporting variable-rate irrigation and other precision, data-driven farming practices.

Rather than applying water uniformly across an entire field, combining ET information with soil, weather and crop data could allow irrigation to more closely reflect actual crop requirements. Development of the tool was supported in part by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through research led by Evan Derdall, as well as by the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture through the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (Sustainable CAP). Irrimap is also intended to support MIRG’s broader research program. According to Kehoe, ET information can be combined with other datasets to develop tools aimed at optimizing agricultural inputs while reducing the risk of yield losses. The value of Irrimap therefore extends beyond irrigation scheduling. Its data could become an input for other decision-support systems under development, including tools designed to improve the management of water and other crop inputs.

The broader objective is to turn increasingly large volumes of agricultural data into information that farmers can use to make practical decisions in the field. The development of Irrimap also highlights the role students can play in applied agricultural research. Derian Setoguchi, who graduated from Lethbridge Polytechnic's Computer Information Technology program in 2025, initially joined the research group as an intern. He has since become a research assistant and applied skills from his studies to developing code for Irrimap.

Setoguchi described the project as his first major experience working extensively with unfamiliar technologies. The work required him to apply programming skills while also developing an understanding of the mathematics behind the platform and improving the efficiency of its code. His involvement reflects the increasingly multidisciplinary nature of agricultural technology, where agronomy and irrigation engineering are becoming closely connected with software development, data science and digital systems. Alongside the launch of Irrimap, RDAR has committed C$500,000 to support Appels in developing MIRG into a larger applied irrigation research hub.

The funding is provided by the governments of Canada and Alberta through Sustainable CAP and will strengthen MIRG’s work in controlled trials, technology validation and industry-focused research. Future research will examine practical challenges including irrigation decision-support systems, the economic and regional impacts of irrigation choices, and sustainable crop production. The group also plans to continue working directly with farmers, commodity organizations, irrigation districts and industry partners to ensure research addresses real-world agricultural needs. RDAR CEO Dr. Mark Redmond noted that farms are generating increasing amounts of information through soil sensors, weather monitoring systems, irrigation equipment and other technologies. The challenge is no longer simply collecting more data, but connecting those different sources and turning them into useful information. Water management is expected to remain a major issue for Alberta agriculture. Applied irrigation research can help farmers improve water-use efficiency while protecting productivity and strengthening the long-term resilience of farming operations.

That philosophy is also central to Appels' research, which examines not only water-use efficiency but the interaction between irrigation and broader agronomic practices. As agriculture becomes increasingly data-driven, tools such as Irrimap point toward a shift in irrigation management: from simply measuring water to understanding when, where and how much water a crop actually needs. Ultimately, the value of agricultural data lies not in how much can be collected, but in how effectively it can be transformed into decisions farmers can use in the field.

Sourced from: https://www.newaginternational.com/irrigation/irrigation-research-hub-in-canada-launches-et-tool-to-sharpen-water-management-decisions/ 

#SmartAgriculture #PrecisionAgriculture #SmartIrrigation #PrecisionIrrigation #IrrigationTechnology #AgTech #AgriculturalInnovation #WaterManagement #WaterEfficiency #Evapotranspiration #DigitalAgriculture #SustainableAgriculture #ClimateResilience #AgriculturalResearch #FarmData