Determination of Irrigation Depth using a Numerical Model of Crop Growth and Weather Forecast

We have presented a new scheme to determine irrigation depth to maximize net income considering the price of water by combining a numerical model of crop growth and weather forecast. We have introduced a new concept of virtual income to optimize irrigation depth at each irrigation event.

So far, we have carried out field experiments in Jordan, Sudan, and Morocco as well as six trials in our sandy field to evaluate the effectiveness of the new scheme by comparing with net income under automated irrigation scheme based on soil moisture monitoring. In most experiments, the new scheme gave higher net income than automated irrigation scheme.

We are still carrying out experiments under collaboration with ICARDA in Morocco and ARC in Sudan to further improve the scheme.

Principal Investigator: Haruyuki Fujimaki (Irrigation and Drainage)