To address the shortcomings presented in the prior art, the present inventionprovidesa system and method to provide improved irrigation management through thedetectionof fast neutrons. According to a preferred embodiment, the fast neutrondetector of the presentinvention includes a 4-He based noble gas detector, a power source, a signalprocessing circuit,and a resistor in series with a preamplifier and a shaping amplifier toproduce a processed signal.According to a further preferred embodiment, the present invention preferablyfurther includes asignal channel analyzer and a pulse counter/rate meter. According to a furtherpreferred embodiment,the present invention includes a controller which receives a count of detectedfast neutronsand translates the detected number of fast neutrons into an irrigation mapindicating the requiredlevels of irrigation needed for selected areas of a given field based on thedetected moisture levels.
