WATER!
Its the single most important requirement for your crops!
10% yield increase = 50% increased profit
Consider a yield increase of 10%... Say you currently have a crop which sells for $100,000 and your expenses are, say $80,000.
Your profit is...
$100,000 - $80,000 = $20,000
If you were to increase your yield by 10% you would now have a crop which is worth $110,000. Your expenses have not increased, so they remain the same at $80,000.
Your profit is now...
$110,000 - $80,000 = $30,000
This is a 50% increase in profit simply by using proper soil moisture control!
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Both under- and over-watering cause significant reductions in crop yields.
Why?
OVER WATERING
- Flushes expensive fertilisers and minerals from the soil into surrounding water ways.
- Reduces effective take up of nutrients by your crop.
- Reduces soil oxygen levels.
- Increases disease succeptability.
- Causes water logging and raising of water table levels.
- Excessive pumping costs.
- Reduced long term sustainability.
UNDER WATERING
- Plant stressing due to lack of water.
- Reduced seed germination and seedling survival rates.
- Reduced fruit size and quality.
- Increased disease and insect succeptability.
- Degradation of the soil structure.
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If you add the effects of all of these together, it is easy to see why proper soil moisture control can result in considerable yield increases. This has been demonstrated beyond doubt by both researchers and farmers. We are looking here at increases of 5%,10%... even upto 50% (these figures come from research facilities and farmers). Using 'proper soil moisture control techniques' means you accurately measure what the soil moisture level is, and then irrigate accordingly.
With yield increases of this size, proper soil moisture control will result in huge increases in your profits with very little investment. Whats more, these returns are apparent almost immediately as well as being long term.
