Management irrigation evolution

The correct implementation of the precision irrigation methodology, apart from generating direct benefits to the farmer, can also benefit the reduction of investment in the irrigation system.

In the hydraulic design, it is customary to size the network according to the maximum demand peak, based on the Eto.

This assumes that the network is dimensioned to provide this maximum volume of water regardless of the water retention capacity of the soil.

If we use the information on the retention capacity, in most cases we will see that this peak would have to be divided into more than one irrigation, depending on what the soil can retain, and in which case we could size the pipes with a smaller diameter, less power of the pump and thus reduce the investment in the installation of the irrigation system.

Another advantage lies in sectorizing the irrigation sectors taking into account the possible variability of the soils and thus being able to irrigate each sector according to its characteristics.

This leads us to a change in irrigation management.

Irrigation of various sectors is executed by irrigation shifts, regardless of whether the sector needs irrigation or not. We also ignore the possibility that a sector needs water and its turn is late.

Therefore, if we have the retention capacities of the soils of the different sectors, we can stop irrigating in turns and switch to a demand irrigation model, thus irrigating the sector that needs water and not irrigating a sector that does not.

This vision can modify the way of managing irrigation and the tools already exist and can be implemented.

This can be performed either manually or by demand automatically.