Intelligent fertigation, pillar of sustainable agriculture

Abstract

The growing demand for food in the country has required an increase in agricultural production levels and, with it, an increase in irrigation systems. Among the most widespread are central pivot irrigation systems, but their large number and variety make their optimal configuration difficult, generating overexploitation of natural resources such as water and threatening the sustainability of agriculture and the country. For this reason, the objective of this research was to implement software that would allow obtaining the appropriate configuration of this equipment using information on the type of crop, the agro-climatic conditions of the region, and the soil in order to obtain maximum utilization. As a result, an application capable of performing the calculations so that the value of water delivered by the system is closer to the estimated needs for a crop in each of its phases was achieved. To demonstrate this, an experimental study was carried out in field conditions in the agricultural enterprise La Cuba in Ciego de Avila; it showed that, with the use of the software, there was a saving of up to 94.5% of the water previously misused. In addition, the level of liquid provided allows the sowing to be in better conditions to reach its optimum yield. As an added value, the software has a minimalist and intuitive interface, which allows real-time visualization of field information.