The UF/IFAS Suwannee Valley Agricultural Extension Center has been helping watermelon farmers save water—and money—for 30 years. All 40 area melon farmers have transitioned to best management practices such as using plastic mulching and drip irrigation, and in a 2016 survey they reported water-use reductions from 50 to 80 percent per acre with equivalent savings in fuel costs. They’ve also reduced their applied nitrogen 15 to 30 percent, all while increasing yields from 25,000 to 40,000 pounds per acre in the early 1990s to 50,000 to 60,000 pounds per acre today. The water they save each year amounts to about 2 billion gallons, roughly equivalent to the water 65,000 Florida residents use in a year. The UF/IFAS-led transition to best management practices has helped the environment by making watermelon farming more sustainable. For the farmers, all that saved water (not to mention fuel and nitrogen) boils down to profits. “The chain stores want a quality-grown watermelon,” reported Jody Land, owner of Jody Land Farms in Branford, Florida, “and now we can provide that.”

UF/IFAS Extension Agent Mace Bauer (right) and a watermelon farmer examine a soil moisture monitoring device. UF/IFAS File Photo