On Wednesday, October 3rd James Adkins spoke to the AGRI130 class about irrigation systems used in agriculture. The process of irrigating crops vastly increases the yield in a growing season. As Mr. Adkins explained, 20% of the world’s farmland is irrigated. This 20% supplies 40% of the world’s food supply! In the 1950s the center pivot irrigation was created. This became more efficient than previous methods of irrigation because it was less labor intensive. Today the pivot system is still in use, and mostly preferred. If you ever fly and look down and see the fields in the shape of circles, this is an indication that pivot irrigation is in use. Each span of this system runs about $11,000 dollars each. The average size of pivot irrigation seen in Delaware is usually about 5 spans. As technology continues to advance there might be a more effective irrigation system invented. However people are currently discovering the best way to use drones in agriculture and how to use the pivot irrigation systems to spread fertilizer. Overall, the lecture was so informative and extremely interesting. I really enjoyed listening to Mr. Adkins.