Smart Agricultural Technology 1 (2021) 100016 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Smart Agricultural Technology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/atech Identifying barriers to adoption of irrigation scheduling tools in Rio Grande Basin T. Allen Berthold 1 , Ali Ajaz 1,∗ , Taylor Olsovsky, Dhruva Kathuria Texas Water Resources Institute, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, College Station 77843, TX, USA a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: Precision agriculture Efficient irrigation management Water conservation Irrigation survey Soil moisture sensors a b s t r a c t Irrigated agriculture in the Rio Grande region faces water management related challenges due to climate vari- ability and rise in non-agricultural water demand. Scientific irrigation scheduling (SIS) tools allow growers to optimize the water use and conserve water by making informed decisions. Nevertheless, multiple technological and economic barriers could slow down the adoption of these technologies. This study investigates the barriers to adoption of SIS methods in the U.S. part of Rio Grande basin by getting irrigators’ perspective and outlines the factors that influence adoption. Multiple adoption barriers are listed, and the most important ones are lack of access to weather data, uncertainty about future water availability, cost effectiveness of technologies, reliability of weather data, lack of availability of irrigation scheduling tools, and risk of reduced yield. Factors that influ- ence the growers’ decision to adopt SIS are also explored, which are quality of land, yield, water use efficiency, and water availability for future generations. Age, education, and years involved in agriculture may also govern the knowledge and adoption of SIS methods. The results of this study provide guidance to policy makers and extension experts to strengthen water conservation efforts in Rio Grande basin and other comparable regions in the world. 1. Introduction Irrigated agriculture is the largest consumer of fresh water supplies across the globe. The United States (U.S.) has the world’s third largest acreage under irrigation, 22.4 Mha, and in terms of agricultural water use, the country ranks fourth with 176.21 km 3 of annual withdrawals [15]. There are 20 water resource regions (WRR) in the U.S. that are based on the major drainage areas of the country, and the Rio Grande is located among Southern WRR. The Rio Grande is a transboundary river that receives its water both from the U.S. and Mexico, and the latter shares almost half of the watershed area (Fig. 1). On the U.S. side, it flows from Southern Colorado through New Mexico and Texas and drains into Gulf of Mexico. The total area of Rio Grande basin is approximately 924,300 km 2 (92.43 Mha) [29]. The upper reach of the river receives majority of its water from snow melt, whereas the runoff accumulation in the lower reach is mostly due to summer monsoon. According to U.S. Department of Agriculture [56], the total crop- land in the Rio Grande region (U.S. side) is 631,284 ha, out of which 364,450 ha is irrigated. Approximately, 53% irrigation is conducted us- ing groundwater, and off-farm surface water use is 44%. The surface water governance in the basin is based on inter-state and international treaties, and uncertainty in the availability of surface water due to re- ∗ Corresponding author at: 578 John Kimbrough Blvd., College Station, TX, 77843, USA. E-mail addresses: ali.ajaz@ag.tamu.edu, aliajazch@gmail.com (A. Ajaz). 1 These authors contributed equally to the manuscript curring dry periods poses challenges to water planning and management [49]. Prolonged droughts in the region increase the reliance on ground- water to offset the reduced surface water supplies. Also, the irrigation water demand increases due to elevated crop water requirement under drought-induced higher potential evapotranspiration (ET). Historically in the Rio Grande region, droughts have caused considerable decline in groundwater levels e.g., drought period between 2002 and 2015 in the headwaters region and 2003-2014 in middle Rio Grande prompted in- tensive pumping [7]. In addition, climate change will give rise to more frequent droughts and several studies have predicted decline (25% to 50%) in the Rio Grande flows by the next century [9,36]. States in the Rio Grande region have developed regional and state level water plans to deal with future challenges, i.e., population growth and climate change. New Mexico’s state water plan, for regions over- lapping Rio Grande basin, shows an annual administrative (normally available) versus drought water supply deficit range of 0.01-0.26 km 3 by 2030, which is mainly due to greater uncertainty associated with surface water availability [46]. In Texas, the regional water plan (RWP) of Rio Grande water planning area anticipates an annual supply and de- mand deficit of 0.84 km 3 by year 2030 (Texas Water Development Board [54], 2021). Also, in both states, the deficit is expected to enlarge based on the decadal estimations made untill 2060. Annual irrigation demand https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atech.2021.100016 Received 5 June 2021; Received in revised form 17 August 2021; Accepted 9 October 2021 2772-3755/© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)