Crop marketing also will be studied. The demand for water for municipal, industrial, and agricultural use is increasing yearly. The water resources are decreasing and there is great competition for these resources, particularly among the growing cities along the Rio Grande and Pecos Rivers. One of the most efficient ways to use water for agriculture is drip irrigation systems. The benefits include reducing the size of tractors, lower labor costs, better plant disease control, more efficient use of fertilizer, and increased yield with current allocation of water.
Chile is a labor intensive crop.
Many varieties must be harvested by hand, and labor is getting more difficult to find, train, and care for. Labor rules and constraints continue to increase. Currently, forty to sixty percent of a farmer s production costs are associated with harvesting labor. One answer may be mechanical harvesting which has saved many other agricultural crops such as tomatoes, cotton and corn. But chile offers some unique challenges. .