Agricultural
Drainage Management Systems (ADMS)
Task Force
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An important distinction must be made between improving drainage management through a systems approach and converting additional wetlands. Present agricultural trends are toward intensive use of existing cropland, with increased emphasis on the use of new management technologies. Maintaining and improving existing surface and subsurface drainage management through a systems approach and associated crop yields on wet agricultural soils presently in production minimizes the economic need for farmers and ranchers to convert wetlands. This encourages new emphasis on protecting existing wetlands and establishing new wetland areas, while maintaining our nation’s highly productive lands.
Initial Goals
The
primary goal of the ADMS Task Force is to develop a national effort to
implement improved drainage water management practices and systems that
will enhance crop production, conserve water, and reduce adverse off–site
water quality and quantity impacts. The Task Force will initially focus
on reducing nitrate-nitrogen losses in drainage water from agricultural
lands and improving the economic return of agricultural drainage. As this
first goal is realized, the Task Force will look to the implementation and
development of multiple drainage water management practices that that will
address other site-specific water quality issues, as well as the
integration of other water, pest, and nutrient management practices that
are more suited to advanced drainage water management technologies.
Agricultural drainage improvements can be made either on surface or
subsurface drainage systems, or a combination of both. Surface drainage
is designed to remove standing water from the soil surface. It affects
the water table by reducing the volume of water entering the soil profile.
This drainage includes land leveling and smoothing; the construction of
surface water inlets to subsurface drains, and the construction of shallow
ditches and grass waterways, which empty into open ditches and streams. The Task Force is promoting three basic improvements in drainage water
management practices and strategies. These are addition and incorporation
of structures for the management of surface and subsurface drains
(controlled drainage systems), management strategies to maintain water
tables within fields (subirrigation or water table management systems),
and replacement systems that can be managed (subsurface drainage systems
which are installed shallower than conventional systems).