A comparative study of an automated irrigation system with a conventional system

Abstract

Water is a precious resource to the whole world. Therefore, it is our responsibility to use this resource sensibly. Agriculture is one of the largest consumers of water. In dry places like Malta, fields have to be regularly irrigated with water. Most of the times this irrigation is carried out arbitrarily, and without following any measurements. But nowadays, over irrigation is avoided by electronically scheduling water management. In this way, less water is consumed and flooding of the fields is avoided, thus reducing the risk of fungal attacks. In this project a prototype of an intelligent, flexible, easy-to-use but accurate irrigation system was tested in seven different countries. For the trials carried out in Malta in a poly-tunnel at Ta Qali', the scheduling system managed to consume about 30% less volume of water when compared to a conventional system. This system, which is known as Water-Bee, took advantage of modem technological advances in wireless networking, environmental sensors and improvements m crop modelling.