Farmers Try to Improve Their Irrigation Practices by Using Daily Irrigation Recommendations—The Vipava Valley Case, Slovenia

Rozalija Cvejić,Majda Černič-Istenič,Marina Pintar,Špela Železnikar,Urša Pečan,Luka Honzak

doi:10.3390/agronomy10091238

Rozalija Cvejić, Majda Černič-Istenič + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10091238

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Abstract

Based on the latest climate change projections for the 21st century, high exposure to climate change is expected in Vipava Valley, Slovenia’s sub-Mediterranean agricultural area. An irrigation-decision support system was developed and implemented on 35 farms in the period of 2016–2020 to increase agricultural climate-change resilience. Farmers have shifted from irrigation scheduling based on experience and assumptions to irrigation scheduling based on real-time soil-water monitoring to partially implement irrigation based on irrigation-decision support systems. Simulations show that if farmers continue to practice justified irrigation applications and gradually transition to replenishing soil water reservoir content to 85%, they will achieve a 25% reduction in total irrigation-volume consumption, a 24% reduction in energy requirements and a 24% reduction in CO2 emissions. Future agricultural innovation policies should extend actions beyond the financial to those facilitating the establishment of multidisciplinary agricultural innovation teams with corresponding infrastructures to better enable the mutual exchange of knowledge, learning and development of a transparent institutional framework.

Highlights

The European Commission’s Communication on the European Green Deal announced the development of a new, more ambitious EU climate-change strategy to enhance endeavors related to climate resilience, prevention and preparedness
None of the farmers reported water use in wet years, indicating that irrigation is unnecessary in such years and that irrigation requirements vary considerably from year-to-year
A limitation of this study is that it lacks clarity in terms of how the described irrigation-decision support systems (IDSSs) will develop once the project ends

Summary

Introduction

The European Commission’s Communication on the European Green Deal announced the development of a new, more ambitious EU climate-change strategy to enhance endeavors related to climate resilience, prevention and preparedness. Examples show that total irrigation volume can be reduced by up to 25–40% without affecting crop yield by reducing. Achieving high productivity using less irrigation and better matching irrigation volumes to crop water requirements are compatible goals [5]. It is possible to reduce energy costs while improving water use efficiency through comprehensive irrigation management; energy cost savings of nearly 15% are achievable without significant yield reduction [6]. Improved farm irrigation management enables a 40% reduction in CO2 emissions [7]; to do so comprehensive irrigation-decision support systems (IDSSs) tools are required to optimize water consumption and plant production based on regional climate conditions and farming systems [8,9,10,11,12,13]

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