We use cookies on our website. Some are necessary for the operation of the website. You can also allow cookies for statistical purposes. You can adjust the data protection settings or agree to all cookies directly.
Data Protection Declaration
Imprint
Farmers as Water Managers in a Changing Climate (Aquarius)
Project
Project code: TI-AT-08-PID1543
Contract period: 01.01.2009
- 31.03.2014
Budget: 171,000 Euro
Purpose of research: Applied research
In the past decades the goal of research and industry was to distribute water as evenly as possible with irrigation technology. With the current knowledge regarding soil heterogeneity and increasing field sizes in East Germany to around 50 ha irrigated with one machine, the need for partial area specific water distribution become evident. The objective of partial area specific irrigation is to reduce and to better comply with environmental goals by considering the local heterogeneity of soil and the plant population as well as the project related inputs, here water and energy. Partial area specific management, or rather, irrigation, requires detailed information on the heterogeneity of fields, in order to adapt to the levels of irrigation required for local soil conditions. Conventional methods (soil probes and subsequent laboratory analyses) are however too expensive and too time consuming. For this reason quick, destruction-free methods should be available to calculate the needed information. The harvest yields were drawn in for an evaluation of the area specific technology in order to understand the influence of differentiated water inputs and to make an economic statement on the topic. In order to build a strategy for partial area specific irrigation, first an application card and the determination of management zones was needed. The path to application cards goes from the farm soil map, assessment of the electrical conductivity (EM 38, Veris) and the extraction of soil samples for punctual determination of the soil water storage capacity. The technical implementation in the project takes place with circular irrigation equipment. A special nozzle control with a magnetic valve was installed. First information for the partial area specific irrigation can be found in the farm soil map. This information is too general to be used for the partial area specific application card. As the next step, EM 38 equipment was used to scan the areas. For the electrical conductivity measures (EC) the area was traveled over in 5 m strips and each measured EC value was ordered into a GPS value. Here the measurements extended to a soil depth of 150 cm. A picture of the soil differences in dependence of the conductivity emerged after the measurements were evaluated. In this conductivity card, the areas were classified into three management zones according to the different EC values of the soil. In the zones, 24 monitoring points were determined and soil samples were taken at each point to determine the field capacity and the wilting point. The water balancing took place according to the strategy of partial area irrigation. That means that the management zone which first reached a soil moisture content of 50% nFK is driven to and subsequently irrigated to a moisture level of 80 % of the nFK. To monitor the daily implementation point, an irrigation controller model AMBER from DWD was used to measure the climatic irrigation balance. The five day advance calculation of water needs made further targeted irrigation use possible.
Section overview
Subjects
- Crop Production
- Agricultural Engineering Plant Production
- Agricultural hydrology
- Soil science
