Water scarcity in arid regions is a common problem and is usually accompanied by drought, desertification and salinity build up. High rates of evaporation, low regional rainfall, low infiltration rate, and saline groundwater are some of the problems encountered by the farmers of NM that pose a risk to the sustainable agricultural production in the valley.  There is a need to improve the irrigation efficiencies to save the limited amount of available water without stressing the plants. The objectives of this study were to measure water, nitrate and chloride dynamics with respect to drip and furrow irrigation evenets in two onion fields located in southern NM. The field and lab calibration of TDR showed good correlations (R² >0.5) for both soils or fields. The priliminary investigations showed that TDR measured soil moisture showed low variation in drip irrigated field but bulk soil electrical conductivity increased to  2 dS/m during spring and early summer in the furrow irrigated field. Chloride and nitrate showed different transport behavior. Leaching of profile soil nitrate content was observed immediately after irrigation with subsequent upward nitrate movement.  The cumulative stressed ET for onion was 687 mm  for furrow and 736 mm for drip irrigated fields. The determination of irrigation efficiencies and percolation below the rootzone is currently on-going and results will be presented in the conference.