Abstract
Numerical models of crop response to irrigation and weather forecasts with internet access should be fully utilized in modern irrigation management. In this respect, we developed a new numerical scheme to optimize irrigation depth that maximizes net income. Net income was calculated as a function of cumulative transpiration over irrigation interval which depends on irrigation depth. To evaluate this scheme, we carried out a field experiment for groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) grown in a sandy field of the Arid Land Research Center, Tottori University, Japan. Two treatments were established to compare the net income of the proposed scheme with that of an automated irrigation system. Results showed that although the proposed scheme gave a larger amount of seasonal irrigation water 28%, it achieved 2.18 times of net income owing to 51% higher yield compared to results of the automated irrigation system. This suggests that the proposed scheme would be more economical tool than automated irrigation systems to optimize irrigation depths.
Highlights
Irrigation is a vital factor for agriculture in both arid and semi-arid regions
Despite water applied to treatment S exceeded that of treatment A under the same application rate of nutrients, there was no large difference between leaf area indices or biomass till 75 days after planting (DAP) in both treatment A and S
In this paper, we evaluated the effectiveness of the proposed scheme on determination of optimum irrigation depth that maximizes net income using a major crop, groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.)
Summary
Irrigation is a vital factor for agriculture in both arid and semi-arid regions. Even in the humid and sub-humid regions, it is essential for rain-fed crops during drought periods when rainfall fails to provide sufficient moisture for stabilized crop production (Debaeke & Aboudrare, 2004). By 2050, the global population is forecasted to reach 9 billion (United Nations, 2007); the world needs to produce at least 50% more food (World Bank 2016) This gives the irrigation a great challenge in the coming decades to satisfy world’s requirements from food, in countries with limited water resources. Stirzaker et al (2017) used electronic detectors for wetting front of infiltrated irrigation water through the soil profile to close a solenoid valve at a certain value to manage irrigation water. Those technologies, require high initial investment; the foundation of cheap technologies will encourage farmers to save irrigation water. Numerical simulation of water flow and crop growth can be utilized as a substitute for sensing drought stress
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