Efficient Irrigation Management Tools for Agricultural Cultivations and Urban Landscapes (IRMA)
The IRMA project (Efficient Irrigation Management Tools for Agricultural Cultivations and Urban Landscapes,www.irrigation-management.eu/), financed by the ETCP Greece-Italy 2007-2013 program, aims to develop irrigation management tools and to carry acknowledge to the farmers. The Partnership is composed by: (Greece) Technological Educative Institute of Epiro-RC (TELEIP, LP), Decentralize Administration of Epiro - West Macedonia (ROEDM) and Olympaki SA - development firm of West Greece District (AEPDE); (Italy) Regione Puglia (POR), National Institute of Agricultural Economics / Bari branch (INEA) and National Council of Research - Institute of Food Production Sciences / branch of Bari (ISPA).
The Regione Puglia commit the Agrometeorological Regional Service's implementation and management to the Associazione Regionale dei Consorzi di Difesa (Assocodipuglia).
Within this service, it has been developed a brand new model for the smart utilization of the water resource in agriculture. The model, tested on tomato crops, is an excellent help also for different crop's irrigation management.
Within the IRMA project, Assocodipuglia is upgrading the web schedule of irrigation assistance and it is carrying on the testing processes of the DSS Bluleaf on farms.
The Irrigation assistence schedule
Irrigation Assistance: The irrigation assistance schedule gives advices about the right time to water and about the volume of water to give to the culture. The irrigation shifts and the volumes found are variable with the phonological phases, the hydrological characteristics of the soil, the weather changes (whose parameters are detected by agrometeorological stations), the irrigation method adopted and the water volumes given to the plot. The schedule bases on the calculation of the hydric reserve easily reachable (RFU) by the culture and the daily waste of the soil for evapotranspiration, found thanks to the 'Evapotranspirometrical criterion' (Penman-Monteith-FAO method).
You can require the assistance service to the Assocodipuglia, who will provide to deliver it with the technical support of the Provincial Operative Centres (COP). Users can anytime consult the schedule, after the registration.
The Bluleaf DSS testing processes on farms
Bluleaf is a decision support system for the planning and management irrigation tools enterprise-wide. It was born during the Hydortech projects (developed by the private-public partnership between Sysman P&S/IAM-B/CNR-ISPA and financed by Regione Puglia). Its main skills are the data acquisition from the field (measures form meteorological and soil station, user's detections), the data processing for gaining an evaluation of the hydrological balance of the crop and the irrigation planning for the next 72h. This is possible thanks to the meteorological predicted data and to the information given by the users about the soil, culture and system characteristics, and the information about the irrigation strategy to be used according to the Phonological Deficit Irrigation. The irrigation advice and the field's information are deliver to the uses through desktop and mobile systems and can be used thanks to the irrigation fixture's management systems remotely. Within the IRMA project, Assocodipuglia is testing the adoption of Bluleaf on two pilot farms. The Moccari farm is famed for the high top quality fruit and vegetables productions. It is situated in the countryside of Mesagne (BR) and covers over 80 hectares of extension. The testing processes of Bluleaf started in 2013 on various peach crops and nowadays it supports the irrigation of over 13 cultures. The Parcappello farm is situated in the countryside of Putignano and it is specialized in the production of cherries. The testing processes started in 2015 and regards Bluleaf's skills like the irrigation management and culture monitoring through soil sensors. The testing processes outstanding will provide to integrate the meteorological data from the weather station of Servizio Agrometeorologico Regionale and the prediction data at 72h provided by the Meteorological Service of the Aeronautica Militare to the Servizio Agrometeorologico of Regione Puglia. The testing activities will continue during the whole 2015 and the access to the results will be guarantee for the next 5 years.