Irrigation Expert Simulator (IES): a platform for training farmers and technicians

in customized irrigation scheduling

Gabriel Anzaldi1, Jaume Casadesús2, Ramon Cuadros3, German Estudillos3,

Joan Girona2, Jordi Marsal2, Josep Pijuan1, Maite Sisquella3, Ferran Tersa1

1BDigital, Gardeny Park. ICT building, 25003, Lleida (Spain)2IRTA, Avda. Rovira Roure 191, E-25198, Lleida (Spain)3ECA Tàrrega, Avd. de Tarragona, s/n. 25300, Tàrrega (Spain)

www.ies-life.eu

• There is a justified social/environmental/economical pressure

in optimizing irrigation

• In the last mile, irrigation water use is decided by farmers

• Irrigation water requirements vary

• Site-to site depending on crop traits, irrigation setup, soil…

• In time depending on weather, crop development,…

• There use to be a large gap between farmer’s practices and

state of the art in scientific / technical knowledge on irrigation

Introduction. Importance of farmer’s skills and practices

in scheduling irrigation

How to train farmers in

scheduling irrigation?

• In real fields

• In virtual fields

• Fast

• Economical

• Wide variety of scenarios

Takes a long time to see the effects

Irrigation Expert Simulator (IES)

Is a web tool that allows farmers / technicians / students:

1. Define very specific study cases on irrigation

irrigation method: flooding/sprinklers/drippers

crop types: annuals/vegetables/fruit trees/…

environment: soils, weather…

allocated water

2. Propose how they would irrigate that case

3. Receive feedback on how their proposal

could be improved

Goals of the Irrigation Expert Simulator (IES)

• Training tool for irrigation scheduling

Promotion of good irrigation practices:

�Frequent update of irrigation schedules

�Adjust to weather

�Adjust to crop development and its size

�Adoption of regulated deficit irrigation

�Assessment and control of irrigation uniformity

Understanding of key irrigation concepts:

�Evapotranspiration

�Crop coefficient

�Limitations from the soil and the irrigation setup

�Expected range of water requirements by different crops

Workflow of IES

Working with a study case

Support by an Expert System

Approach: Instance-based learning

How the user practices with scheduling irrigation

The IES’s Virtual Crop: a simple crop model

backed by examples

Validation. From experimental plots to regional scale

Conclussions

• A web-based tool has been developed for training farmers and

technicians in irrigation scheduling

• In 2014 the tool will be used to support regular courses on

irrigation by the Catalan Department of Agriculture

• The Expert System approached as Instance-Based Learning has

greatly simplified the algorithms for providing recommendations

and evaluating the responses by students

www.ies-life.eu

IES (www.ies-life.eu ) is funded by the EU Life+ program (LIFE11 ENV/ES/621).

The tool will be accessed from the RuralCat portal (www.ruralcat.net )

which is supported by the Department of agriculture, livestock, fisheries, food and

natural environment of the Government of Catalonia (DAAM).

Acknowledgement