Polymer additives in irrigation water to reduce erosion and better manage water infiltration

Aditivos de polímero en agua de irrigación para reducir la erosión y darle un mejor manejo al agua de infiltración

Orts, William J. and Sojka, Robert E. and Glenn, Gregory M. (2002) Polymer additives in irrigation water to reduce erosion and better manage water infiltration. Agro Food Industry Hi-Tech. 13(4):37-41.

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Abstract

Water-soluble polyacrylamide
(PAM) was identified as an
environmentally safe and highly
effective erosion preventing and
infiltration-enhancing polymer
when applied in furrow irrigation
water at 1-10 g m-3, i.e.
1-10 ppm. The agricultural use of
polyacrylamide, PAM, as an
additive in irrigation water has
grown rapidly since commercial
introduction in 1995 because it
improves water infiltration and
reduces erosion-induced soil
losses up to 97%, saving tons of
topsoil per hectare per year.
Various polymers and biopolymers
have long been recognized as
viable soil conditioners because
they stabilize soil surface structure
and pore continuity. The new
strategy of adding the conditioner,
high molecular weight anionic
PAM, to the irrigation water in the
first several hours of irrigation
enables a significant costs savings
over traditional application
methods of tilling soil conditoner
into the entire (15 cm deep) soil
surface layer. By adding PAM to
the irrigation water, soil structure is
Unproved in the all-important
1-5 mm thick layer at the
soil/water interface of the 25 to
30% of field surface contacted by
flowing water. Recent studies with
biopolymers such as chitosan,
charged polysaccharides, whey,
and industrial cellulose derivatives
show potential as biopolymer
alternatives to PAM. Their success
will depend on production
economics.

Item Type:	Article
NWISRL Publication Number:	1078
Subjects:	Irrigation > Furrow irrigation > Erosion Irrigation > Furrow irrigation > Infiltration Soil > Erosion Mass Import - autoclassified (may be erroneous)
Depositing User:	Dan Stieneke
Date Deposited:	20 Nov 2010 21:50
Last Modified:	10 Nov 2016 16:12
Item ID:	140
URI:	https://eprints.nwisrl.ars.usda.gov/id/eprint/140