A Smart Irrigation Tool to Determine the Effects of ENSO on Water Requirements for Tomato Production in Mozambique

Abstract

Irrigation scheduling is used by growers to determine the right amount and timing of water application. In most parts of Mozambique, 90% of the total yearly precipitation occurs from November to March. The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon influences the climate in Mozambique and affects the water demand for crop production. The objectives of this work were to quantify the effects of ENSO phenomenon on tomato crop water requirements, and to create the AgroClimate irrigation tool (http://mz.agroclimate.org/) to assist farmers in improving irrigation management. This study was based on daily grid-based climate information from 1983 to 2016 from the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis. Daily crop evapotranspiration was calculated by Hargreaves equation and crop coefficients. This tool is available online and considers different planting dates, ENSO phases, and crop growing season lengths. Irrigation needs varied from less than 250 mm per growing cycle during winter to 550 mm during spring. Both El Niño and La Niña influenced the irrigation scheduling, especially from November to March. El Niño periods were related to increased water demand due to drier and warmer conditions, while the opposite was observed for La Niña. The ENSO information might be used to understand climate variability and improve tomato irrigation scheduling in Mozambique.

Decision support systems for scheduling tasks in Biosystems Engineering

“…However, predominant decision support systems prevailed. -Forest management model [21] -Impact of water resources on forest productivity [22] -Watershed Management Priority Indices (WMPI) [22] -Forest Road Evaluation System (FRES) [22] -Harvest Schedule Review System (HSRS) [22] Agriculture -Planning the harvest of tomatoes [23] -Dynamic Bayesian Network [23] -Optimization of the sugar cane harvest [24] -Regression analysis [24] -Optimization of grass harvest [25] -Mixed Integer Programming [25] Decision problem Method / algorithm / framework to support scheduling -evaluate the DSS for Agrotechnology Transfer Cropping System Model (DSSAT-CSM) for assessing grain sorghum yield and water productivity [26] -DSS for Agrotechnology Transfer Cropping System Model (DSSAT-CSM) [26] -Predictive irrigation planning system [27,28] -Artificial Neural Network (ANN) [27] -Predictive methods [28] -Basin Irrigation Design with Multi-Criteria Analysis Focusing on Water Saving and Economic Returns [29] -(meta-)heuristics [29] -A simulation tool which integrate the energy efficiency of the pumping station taking into account irrigation events distribution according to the crop irrigation scheduling at each plot [30] -GREDRIP [30] -Quantify the effects of The El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon on tomato crop water requirements [31] -AgroClimate irrigation tool [31] -Development of an integrated decision support system (IDSS) based on wireless sensor networks (WSN) and simulation procedures [32] -Platform Matlab (R) i Opnet (R) [32] -A decision support system based on the combination of the wireless sensor and actuation network technology and the fuzzy logic theory [33] -Fuzzy Logic [33] -Modeling the water and nitrogen productivity of sunflower using OILCROP-SUN model in Pakistan [34] -DSS for Agro-Technology Transfer (DSSAT) [34] , 0 (2019) https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf /2019 0 E3S Web of Conferences 132 10 1320100 POLSITA 2019 8 8 -A flexi...…”

Decision Support System for Variable Rate Irrigation Based on UAV Multispectral Remote Sensing

“…Miller [4] developed a DSS, which uses the Natural Resources Conservation Service Gridded Soil Survey Geographic Database to estimate water capacity available for root zone, and determines irrigation amount based on the estimates. Besides, AgroClimate is a DSS tool for improving the efficiency of irrigation water usage () with its irrigation decision made on the basis of daily crop evapotranspiration calculated by the Hargreaves equation and crop coefficients [5]. Most DSSs are generally designed for specific crops or farmlands; it is difficult to apply them in other crops or the same crop planted in different districts.…”