Irrigated agriculture is at least twice as productive per unit of land as rainfed agriculture and provides about 40% of the total global food produced. Nitrogen (N) fertilizers are an essential part of any commercial agricultural production. Yet, over-application of N-fertilizers has led to surface and groundwater contamination (mainly as nitrate (NO3-)), increased nitrous oxide emissions, crop loss, and harm to natural habitat following reactive N deposition. Despite its detrimental impact, nitrate in irrigation water of any source (i.e., surface water, groundwater, treated wastewater (TWW)) may serve as a “free N source” for crop production and accounting for that N-source, may reduce the farmer’s operational costs, reduce its carbon footprint and serve as a sustainable remediation solution for polluted water sources. To date, continuous, reliable data on the N concentrations in the irrigation water is scarce; hence farmers hardly account for that free N source. Recently, the N-Pool initiative was founded with the aim of providing free real-time data on the N concentrations in irrigation waters, starting with TWW. This will be achieved through collaboration between all relevant government bureaus in Israel and the integration of off-the-shelf N monitoring technologies solutions. Currently, we are working on establishing a pilot trial with TWW reservoirs in Israel.
