Value of seasonal forecasting for sugarcane farm irrigation planning

An-Vo, Duc-Anh; Mushtaq, Shahbaz; Reardon‐Smith, Kathryn; Kouadio, Louis; Attard, Steve; Cobon, D. H.; Stone, Roger

doi:10.1016/j.eja.2019.01.005

Cited by 35 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…The variables that compose this group are rain (mm/week) and air humidity (%), as sugarcane production systems around the world are exposed to uncertainties associated with variations in rain, which influence agricultural productivity (An-Vo et al 2019 ). Pongpat et al ( 2017 ) corroborate this statement specifically regarding the production of sugarcane, affirming that the adequate supply of water is fundamental for the satisfactory growth of this crop.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental, field and impurity factors to increase the agricultural performance of Brazilian and Australian sugarcane mills

Carlucci

Lemos

Salgado

et al. 2021

Clean Techn Environ Policy

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Graphic abstract This study aims to identify explanatory factors to increase the agricultural performance of Brazilian and Australian sugarcane mills. The relevance of Brazil and Australia for the sugar industry motivated the development this study based on the most important factors in both countries responsible for increasing the efficiency in sugarcane production. Thus, this study is designed to assess the hypothesis that there are a few explanatory variables that are deeply responsible for the agricultural efficiency in the sugar-energy sector. As a specific objective, it proposes a DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) model that seeks to optimize the production of Total Recoverable Sugar (TRS) by planted area, and simultaneously, minimizes mineral and vegetable impurities. The sample consists of 82 observations from 32 sugarcane mills. An agricultural efficiency study was performed using the two-stage DEA, in which the evaluated mills according to the level of efficiency in the proposed model. Then, a Multiple Linear Regression Analysis was performed to identify the variables with the greatest influence on the performance of the mills in terms of efficiency. The results revealed six relevant variables for increasing the agricultural performance in the production of sugarcane: rainfall (mm weekly), chopped cane delivery (%), delivery time (h), borer (%), air humidity (%), and rods in raw wine (× 10 5 /mL). Finally, semi-structured interviews with Brazilian and Australian experts in the sugar-energy sector allowed the identification of five other relevant complementary factors that were unavailable in the database: genetic variety, agricultural cultivation activities, edaphoclimatic factors, renewal of sugarcane fields and irrigation system. The results of this study were grouped into the dimensions of environment, yield, and impurities, providing quantification and better understanding of the identified explanatory factors and the agricultural performance in terms of production efficiency, offering fundamental information that enables managers to make decisions and prioritize the aspects that contribute more significantly to the increase in agricultural productivity of the planted area.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental, field and impurity factors to increase the agricultural performance of Brazilian and Australian sugarcane mills

Carlucci

Lemos

Salgado

et al. 2021

Clean Techn Environ Policy

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“…Water availability is one of the most important determinants of the total area of cotton grown under irrigation in the MDB [8,9]. During severe droughts, such as occurred during 2003-2004 and 2007-2008, water availability for irrigation was significantly reduced, which affected total cotton production within the MDB [1,10,11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of Effects of Deficit Irrigation Strategy on Water Use Efficiency and Yield in Cotton under Different Irrigation Systems

et al. 2021

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Irrigated cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) growers in the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) of Australia, are challenged by limited water availability. This modelling-study aimed to determine if deficit irrigation (DI) practices can potentially improve water use efficiency (WUE) for furrow irrigation (FI), overhead sprinkler irrigation (OSI) and subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) systems. We validated the Agricultural Production System sIMulator (APSIM) against observed cotton lint yield and crop biomass accumulation for different management practices. The model achieved concordance correlation coefficients of 0.93 and 0.82 against observed cotton crop biomass accumulation and lint yields, respectively. The model was then applied to evaluate the impacts of different levels of DI on lint yield, WUE across cotton growing locations in the MDB (Goondiwindi, Moree, Narrabri, and Warren), during the period from 1977 to 2017. The different levels of DI for the FI system were no irrigation, full irrigation (TF) and irrigated one out of four, one out of three, one out of two, two out of three and two out of four TF events. For the OSI and SDI systems, DI levels were no irrigation, TF, 20% of TF, 40% of TF, 60% of TF and 80% of TF. Lint yield was maximised under the OSI and SDI systems for most locations by applying 80% of TF. However; modelling identified that WUE was maximised at 60% of full irrigation for OSI and SDI systems. These results suggest there are significant gains in agronomic performance to be gained through the application of DI practices with these systems. For FI, DI had no benefit in terms of increasing yield, while DI showed marginal gains in terms of WUE in some situations. This result is due to the greater exposure to periodic water deficit stress that occurred when DI practices were applied by an FI system. The results suggest that in the northern MDB, water savings could be realised for cotton production under both OSI and SDI systems if DI were adopted to a limited extent, depending on location and irrigation system.

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“…With regard to seasonal irrigation demand predictions, services on specific crops have been already developed (An‐Vo et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The iCOLT climate service: Seasonal predictions of irrigation for Emilia‐Romagna, Italy

Villani

Tomei

Pavan

et al. 2021

Meteorological Applications

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Emilia-Romagna is a region of Northern Italy whose land use is mainly devoted to agriculture, especially over the plain area. Since the region is characterized by summer water shortages and recurrent drought conditions, a summer irrigation water demand forecast system has been developed, operating both at regional and Land Reclamation and Irrigation Board levels. Remote sensing crop detection is used in combination with a soil water balance model as a monitoring tool in support to water management and to optimize the use of available water resources. These instruments are also integrated with operational calibrated probabilistic seasonal forecast products currently based on Copernicus Climate Services, in order to evaluate summer irrigation water needs in advance in support to decision-making by water managers. Results obtained using this prediction system are characterized by a significant forecast skill. The sources of the predictability of this system are specifically evaluated, showing that the correct representation of crop geographical distribution is crucial for the ability of the system to capture spatial variability in irrigation demand. Furthermore, the system forecast skill is mostly due to the use of an empirical model to assess the hypodermic water table depth initialized by means of the observed meteorological data of the months before the beginning of the summer season. Finally, calibrated probabilistic seasonal predictions also contribute to a minor extent to the good performance of the system as a whole.

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Value of seasonal forecasting for sugarcane farm irrigation planning

Cited by 35 publications

References 55 publications

Environmental, field and impurity factors to increase the agricultural performance of Brazilian and Australian sugarcane mills

Environmental, field and impurity factors to increase the agricultural performance of Brazilian and Australian sugarcane mills

Impacts of Effects of Deficit Irrigation Strategy on Water Use Efficiency and Yield in Cotton under Different Irrigation Systems

The iCOLT climate service: Seasonal predictions of irrigation for Emilia‐Romagna, Italy

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