Ensuring food security in a changing environment

We are unable to use limited natural resources sustainably. The most significant consequence of the unsustainable use of natural resources is climate change. Global food security is based on a global food system that covers primary production, further food processing and distribution. Risks in the reliability of the global supply chains are seen in the context of acute disruptions such as the corona pandemic. Recovery from the corona does not remedy the real threat to the food system, namely that food production is not able to respond sustainably to increasing food consumption.

It is obvious that food security must be increasingly based on the maintenance of national food production. It requires, among other things, that our agriculture is able adapt and mitigate climate change. This project addresses the challenges caused by climate change by developing an integrated water management system that integrates off-farm drainage into drainage system on-farm. Off-farm drainage waters are first stored into water storage pool and used later in irrigation of fields.

The project will be implemented at Ruukki research station, where irrigation system can be tested under experimental conditions. The movement of water in the soil profile is examined first in laboratory conditions to get background information how irrigation and controlled changes in water table level function on plots with different peat depth. This is further continued in actual conditions in the field and the effects of irrigation and changes on water table level on greenhouse gas emissions, leaching and yield is studied. The targeted soil moisture can be reach by regulating ground water level which can be adjusted by increasing water into subsurface drainage system. The aim is to make an automatic control system for the implementation of irrigation.