Original Article on Cooler Planet
Hourly and daily integrated solar radiation data for the Northern Caribbean can be downloaded from the following link: https://pragwater.com/solar-radiation-data-for-pr-dr-and-haiti/
Pragwater.com is proud to support the design of solar radiation projects in Haiti.
CLICK HERE to download hourly or daily integrated solar radiation data for Haiti.
Coastal Urban Environmental Research Group (CUERG)
CUERG is a part of the NOAA-Cooperative Remote Sensing Science and Technology Center (NOAA-CREST) at the City College of New York.
CUERG has studied Impacts of Land Cover/Land Use Changes in Coastal Tropical Regions under a Changing Environment in northeast Puerto Rico
Research papers from the group can be found here.
http://frapuertorico.wordpress.com
Email: frente.rescate.agricola@gmail.com
Facebook: Frente de Rescate Agrícola (FRA)
Management of Drip/Trickle or Micro Irrigation
By Megh R. Goyal, PhD, Professor in Agricultural and Biomedical Engineering, University of Puerto Rico
http://www.appleacademicpress.com
This important book—the only complete, one-stop manual on microirrigation worldwide—offers knowledge and techniques necessary to develop and manage a drip/trickle or micro irrigation system. The simplicity of the contents facilitates a technician to develop an effective micro irrigation system. Management of Drip/Trickle or Micro Irrigation includes the basic considerations relating to soil-water-plant interactions, with topics such as methods for soil moisture measurement; evapotranspiration; irrigation systems; tensiometer use and installation; principles of drip/ micro/trickle irrigation; filtration systems; automation; chloration; service and maintenance; design of drip irrigation and lateral lines; the evaluation of uniformity of application; and an economical analysis for selecting irrigation technology.
On Reading Old Things is a great article by Jacquelyn Gill. All graduate students should read this article. At the beginning of this semester I assigned a reading by Gautier et al.(1980) and remember feeling a little embarrassed that the article, which is about satellite technology, was so old. Despite its age, however, the article is excellent and forms the basis of the satellite technology which we use to obtain the current hourly and daily solar radiation in the northern Caribbean. I could list other examples of old articles that are foundational and which should be read by anybody working in those fields. Gill mentions, and I have personally observed, that some journal reviewers sometime pressure authors to use recently published references and discourage older ones. Another practice that I have observed is that a journal will require that at least three references in the paper be from their journal. The reason for this of course is to jack up the rating of their journal, since they are rated on the number of times that their articles are cited. Anyhow, I highly recommend that you read On Reading Old Things.
From Gautier, C., G. R. Diak, and S. Masse, 1980: A simple physical model to estimate incident solar radiation at the surface from GOES satellite data. J. Appl. Meteor., 19, 1007–1012.
CROP WATER USE ( HARGREAVES ET EQUATION) NEW WOLFRAM ALPHA WIDGET. Reference: Hargreaves, G. H. and Z. A. Samani, Reference Crop Evapotranspiration from Temperature. Appl. Eng. Agric., ASAE. 1(2). 1985,. pp.96-99.
Widget Application: Suppose you want to schedule irrigation by replacing the water evapotranspired by your crop each day. 1. Click on the appropriate link to get yesterdays solar radiation for your location: Puerto Rico or Northern Caribbean, 2. Check the internet for the average daily air temperature at your location (average = (minimum + maximum)/2), 3. Get the appropriate crop coefficient for your crop from this link, and 4. Finally, enter solar radiation, air temperature and crop coefficient into the widget to estimate ET. Multiply ET x acres x 1069.0663 to get the number of gallons of water you need to apply to your field.
Frente Rescate Agrícola – Dile NO a la pérdida de terrenos agrícolas
El Frente de Rescate Agrícola (FRA) es un movimiento de base popular que agrupa a diversas organizaciones civiles comprometidas con la agricultura y con un desarrollo sustentable del país. Este frente surge como propuesta a la preocupación colectiva de la pérdida desmedida de los terrenos agrícolas de Puerto Rico a causa de un desarrollo desenfrenado en beneficio de un supuesto progreso. El FRA se estará manifestando de diversas formas educando al pueblo y proponiendo alternativas para la preservación de los terrenos y para el progreso sostenible del país. Hemos llegado al punto donde la pérdida de una pulgada adicional de terrenos agrícolas representa una amenaza al sustento alimentario de las presentes y futuras generaciones.
Es momento ya de considerar la agricultura y los recursos naturales como pilar en el desarrollo del país. La crisis alimentaria que enfrenta Puerto Rico y agravada con la pérdida de terrenos agrícolas es un asunto de seguridad nacional y todo aquel que atente en contra de los terrenos está cometiendo una agresión directa al pueblo puertorriqueño.
PRAGWATER 
