Spotlight Series

Drought is a never-ending battle for us,” explains Jerry Arnold, a fifth-generation Nebraska corn and soy producer who, like most other Nebraska farmers, relies on the declining Ogallala Aquifer to access his most precious resource – water. Fortunately for Arnold, he is also one of a cohort of farmers partnering with the food and agriculture value chain to produce more with less, improving his water use efficiency by participating in the multi-stakeholder Central Nebraska Irrigation Project (CNIP).

Since 2018, the CNIP has equipped farmers in Nebraska with efficient irrigation technology and the technical and financial assistance needed to incorporate water saving techniques on their fields. The project, registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator, is a collaboration between the Nature Conservancy, Cargill, Nestlé Purina, the Central Platte Natural Resources District and fifty Nebraska farmers who are committed to utilizing irrigation technology to more directly support crop needs and conserve water, while saving farmers money in the process.

The fifty participating farmers, who farm a collective 60,000 acres across Central Nebraska, have each received a suite of irrigation technologies to implement on their fields, including flow meters, weather stations and pivot telemetry, paired with technical support and training on the new technologies. For many, the project is their first exposure to these new tools.

“Because we are offering not just financial assistance, but also resources to help answer questions as farmers learn how to use these tools, the producers see the value in trying out new tools and implementing these practices,” explains Jacob Fritton, Water and Agriculture Manager with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in Nebraska.

Fritton and the Nebraska TNC team work closely with the Central Platte Natural Resource District (NRD) to provide this hands-on technical assistance and trusted advice as farmers adopt new water-saving technologies and practices. One tool that is used to give producers a full picture of their environmental impact is Field to Market’s Fieldprint® Platform, which allows farmers enrolled in the project to measure the impact of new technologies on their irrigated water use efficiency, alongside a suite of other sustainability metrics.

“The information I’m getting from the Fieldprint Platform and other tools in this project is so valuable,” shares Arnold. “Before, I was making guesses on the fly about when to irrigate. But now, having access to resources like a weather station is one more tool I can use to make really informed decisions.”