Project properties
Title Development of Irrigation Advisory Services
Group Water Resources Management group
Project type thesis
Credits 36
Supervisor(s) Gerlo Borghuis
Examiner(s)
Contact info gerlo.borghuis@wur.nl
Begin date 2020/01/01
End date 2022/01/01
Description Country: Argentina
Host institute: INTA Santiago del Estero Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia
Agropecuaria)
Period: open

Problem context:
In the irrigated agriculture, the irrigation scheduling is not as precise as it should be, and not enough attention is paid to it. This is valid not only for surface irrigation, but also for sprinkler and drip irrigation. Among other issues, farmers usually neither know about the soil water holding capacity, nor decide the timing of irrigation according to the crop water requirements. Collective irrigation systems are arranged, in most cases, on fixed turns of water delivery, with medium to low frequency. These characteristics make it difficult to meet the crop water needs. Aware of this situation, authorities of several provinces in Argentina have taken actions to shift to a more flexible water delivery in collective irrigation systems. In this context, this project proposes the development of an Irrigation Advisory System (IAS), a tool that will provide farmers with accurate and real time information to carry out an adequate irrigation scheduling; that is, to answer the basic questions: when to irrigate? and how much water to apply?

Research Objective/Question:
In order to establish the effectiveness of the to be developed irrigation advisory system, a baseline study needs to be performed before implementation, and an evaluation study has to be conducted after implementation. In order to build a
correct irrigation advisory system, an assessment is needed of current farmer behaviour and irrigation scheduling.

What is expected from the student (type of research):
Assess how farmers currently make irrigation decisions, and assess if the irrigation system is able to deliver the requirements set by the farmers. This will be valuable input towards the development of the irrigation advisory services. The research can be conducted by combining interviews with farmers and system managers, and ater delivery measurements in the field.
Used skills
Requirements Completed WRM 30806 Water Delivery, Working level Spanish