The Irrigation Research/Extension program at Clemson University focuses on on-farm agricultural water management, especially related to situations where water is limited. Research includes modeling and direct measurement of crop water use, crop response to water stress, water use efficiency, plant-water-atmosphere interactions, adaptation strategies for climate change and climate variability, irrigation scheduling, and the development of online decision support tools for irrigation planning and irrigation scheduling.
Overview of Current Research Projects at Edisto REC:
- Climate variability to climate change: Extension challenges and opportunities in the Southeast USA
- Demonstration of Innovative Cropping Practices to Enhance Resilience to Drought While Optimizing Farm Profits
- Demonstration of Deep-Rooted Cover Crop, Tillage and Controlled Traffic on Eliminating Hardpan Layer in Coastal Plain Soils to Enhance Soil Health and Farm Profits.
- Development of integrated regional web and smartphone-based irrigation scheduling tools for cotton.
- Demonstration of Innovative Nutrient Management Strategies Combined with Soil Amendments to Enhance Fertilizer Use Efficiency, Farm Profits, and Environmental Quality.
- Demonstration of Subsurface Drip Irrigation for row crop production.
- Demonstration of modern soil moisture sensing technology for irrigation scheduling to Conserve Water and Energy, Protect the Environment, and Increase Farm Profits.
- Statewide demonstration for improved irrigation management to conserve water and enhance farm profits utilizing real-time and site-specific weather information.
Irrigation Updates
Meet the Irrigation Team
Dr. Payero
Assistant Professor, Irrigation Specialist
Phone: 803-284-3343
Email: jpayero@clemson.edu
Dr. Payero received his Ph.D. in Irrigation Engineering from Utah State University. 1997.He has more than 120 research and extension publications, covering a variety of subjects related to irrigated agriculture, including irrigation water management, crop nutrition, crop evapotranspiration, climate change, canopy energy balance, irrigation decision support systems, crop modeling, and remote sensing, among others.
Dr. Udayakumar Sekaran
Post Doc-Project Coordinator
Email: usekara@clemson.edu
Dr. Sekaran received his Ph.D. in Soil Science from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. In December 2020, he joined Department of Agricultural Sciences at Clemson University as a Postdoctoral Project Coordinator with Dr. Jose Payero. In the past five years, his research focused on the impacts of different conservation practices on soil health indicators such as soil microbial community structure, soil sequencing, biochemical activities, carbon and nitrogen dynamics, greenhouse gas fluxes, crop performance, and water quality.
Dana Turner
Research Associate
Email: dbt@clemson.edu
Dana received her A.A.S. and is currently completing her B.S. in Biology with a minor in Business Management at the University of South Carolina Aiken. She began working for the Irrigation Team in September of 2019, her primary responsibilities in maintaining and collecting water and soil data from suction lysimeters and soil moisture sensors and collecting and maintaining weather station data from eighteen weather stations in and around the station. Dana is interested in water and soil conservation and forage and row crop production.
Peer-Reviewed Articles
The Land-Grant Press publishing program is expanding offerings with additional publication series dedicated to the needs of various Cooperative Extension and University audiences. The Land-Grant Press mission is to provide science-based, peer-reviewed scholarly work for the purpose of practical application.
View Irrigation Publications