Irrigation 24 FlowerTECH 2009, vol. 12/no. 3 www.HortiWorld.

nl Agriculture is the largest user of water, making it a big competitor for domestic and industrial users. The Deficit Irrigation system is one option to reduce irrigation amounts, besides the use of water resources with a lesser water quality. The principle of the Deficit Irrigation system is to maximise the water use efficiency (WUE) for higher yields per unit of irrigation water applied: the crop is exposed to a certain level of water stress either during a particular period or throughout the whole growing season. The expectation is that any yield reduction will be insignificant compared with the benefits gained

through diverting the saved water to irrigate other crops. It is important for this system that the grower has prior knowledge of crop yield responses to deficit irrigation. To accept a reduction of yield is still very difficult for a lot of growers. For that reason they are very reluctant in adapting the Deficit Irrigation system, which also accounts for the possibilities to use saline water. Basically this is due to the lack of clear knowledge. This and the increased need for water savings was the reason for a number of universities and research institutes in Europe to start the FLOW-AID project which started in 2006 and will end this year. FLOW-AID focuses on protected

and non-protected growing systems in the semi-arid regions of the Mediterranean. There are four case studies on farms in Italy, Turkey (see Box), Lebanon and Jordan. Simple water controllers The FLOW-AID system is based upon a distributed control concept on farms. This means that simple, sensor activated valve controllers are used to regulate the amount and timing of irrigation in different plots. These controllers are connected via a wireless link to the farmers computer that regularly reads out the sensor data and updates the set-points and scheduling programmes of the controllers. The computer of the farmer can consult a remote Decision Support

System (DSS) over the internet, Reduced availability of irrigation water and water quality are becoming major problems for growers in the Mediterranean. One of the solutions is a better control over the irrigation based on real facts such as transpiration and even weather forecasts. This is the aim of the European project FLOW-AID, by making use of techniques like sensors and computers. It is also important that the developed systems are easy to use for growers and cost-effective. By Jos Balendonck, Wageningen-UR, Greenhouse Horticulture, Hakki Tuzel and Yuksel Tuzel, Kamil Meric and Golgen Oztekin of Ege University Faculty of Agriculture Bornova-Izmir, Turkey Introducing techniques to save The controller (GP1) which decides to irrigate or not on the bases of sensor information and certain conditions as irrigation timing. WET-sensors are placed horizontally in un-stirred soil, which gives more accurate readings and makes them less susceptible to water entering into the stirred soil in the freshly dug holes. The project is the co-operation of different universities and research stations

FLOW-AID (Farm Level Optimal Water management, Assistant for Irrigation under Deficit, European Project: 036958) is co-ordinated by Wageningen University & Research Center (the Netherlands) and involves the following partners: Rothamsted Research and DeltaT Devices Ltd. (United Kingdom); University of Castilla La Mancha (Spain); University of Pisa and Spagnol Srl (Italy); Geomations S.A. (Greece); Ege University Faculty of Agriculture (Turkey); Jordan University of Science and Technology (Jordan); Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute (Lebanon). The project is co-financed by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food. Irrigation www.HortiWorld.nl FlowerTECH 2009, vol. 12/no. 3 25 which supports a whole region and can provide additional information such as expected water availability and climatic conditions on a long-term as well as short-term basis. The DSS even makes use of the specific farmer data, as well as the actual crop and soil

water status, to help the grower in making decisions about the most optimal water gift and settings of his irrigation controllers. The system is tested at four Mediterranean test-sites during three growing seasons/years. During the tests, the system will be enhanced and eventually at the third year demonstrated to farmers. Farmers, local technology suppliers as well as water authorities may find announcements for workshops during spring-summer 2009 on the project website: www.flowaid. eu. By testing and calibrating under the various local constraints of farm and basin management, the FLOW-AID projects aims to improve the performance of irrigation systems.

In the project, several hard- and software concepts are tested, like a maintenance-free tensiometer; a wireless and low-power sensor network; an expert system in view of expected water availability and quality; and an irrigation scheduler. With these tools farmers are able to get more precise data about the status of the crop as well as information about the weather and the water availability in the soil. Despite the introduction of techniques, the aim of the project is to keep it simple and affordable for the growers. n save water Preventing leaching in soil grown cucumbers in Turkey Efficient water use is particularly important in environmentally sensitive zones such as the protection zone of the Tahtal Dam, supplying fresh water to Izmir, the third largest city in Turkey. However, due to pollution risks

from agriculture, governmental authorities have issued a regulation discouraging leaching into the catchment area of the dam, affecting largely local greenhouse vegetable production, being the major agricultural activity in this area. Within the framework of FLOW-AID, an on-farm experiment was conducted to introduce new technology and to define practical recommendations for water management preventing leaching, while keeping acceptable crop yields. Several deficit irrigation programmes were applied, and water use and leaching as well as crop growth and water stress were observed. Cucumber, a major grown crop in this area, was used, serving as a model for other crops having similar problems. Two short season crop production experiments were conducted at a farmer in a polyethylene greenhouse. By using innovative sensor technologies, a full irrigation (no stress) and two deficit irrigation treatments in which soil water content was allowed to be depleted to 40% (deficit 1) and 60% (deficit 2) (see Figures) of the available water content in the plant root zone, were compared with the normal farmers practice. A controller (GP1 from Delta-T Devices) which decides to irrigate or not on the basis of

sensor information and conditions as timing, was installed in each irrigation treatment and the soil moisture, temperature and salinity were monitored with the WET sensor. Water-filled-tensiometers were installed at a 20cm depth and SM200 moisture sensor at 40cm depth. Fertilisation was performed with the used drip irrigation system. For each treatment, some plants were grown in containers in order to measure the drained water. In the overall results of two crop cycles, yields ranked between 22.5 and 28.5 kg/m2 and the amount of irrigation water applied varied from 590-796 mm (see Figure). The Water Use Efficiency (WUE), based on marketable yield and irrigation water applied was the highest in Full Irrigation (40,6 kg/m3) whereas it was the lowest in the farmers treatment (31.6 kg/m3). During the growing seasons, the highest drainage water was received from the farmers treatments (165 mm) followed by the Deficit 1 treatment (9 mm). The water savings were 22% for the full irrigation and 17% for the deficit treatments compared to the farmers practice. This is based upon the water-saving ratio which is the water applied to obtain a kg yield per m2. The farmer where the research was done was satisfied with the yield results since he realized that less water

supply did not decrease the yield. He also noticed that technology is making his work easier. For example he does not have to stay in the greenhouse during irrigation. Moreover, he realized that his visual observation does not always work well. But in general it is not an easy task to motivate farmers for the saving measure, since they do not pay for the water except energy cost. Another issue are the costs for the equipment which are relatively high, since many growers have small farms. But as water scarcity is increasing, water saving will become more important. Irrigation Water (mm) Marketable Yield (kg.m-2)