Dynamic Variable Rate Irrigation – A Tool for Greatly Improving Water Use Efficiency

Abstract

This paper will present a dynamic Variable Rate Irrigation System developed by the University of Georgia. The system consists of the EZZone management zone delineation tool, the UGA Smart Sensor Array (UGA SSA) and an irrigation scheduling decision support tool. An experiment was conducted in 2015 and 2016 in two different peanut fields to evaluate the performance of using the UGA SSA to dynamically schedule Variable Rate Irrigation (VRI). For comparison reasons strips were designed within the fields. These strips were irrigated according to either UGA SSA or Irrigator Pro recommendations. The results showed that Irrigator Pro is a conservative irrigation method which results in high yields. On the other hand the UGA SSA recommendations worked very well with the VRI system and in both years it recommended an average of 25% less irrigation water than the Irrigator Pro.