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Overview of funding institutions
SFB 564: T1 - Development of automated control systems for water saving irrigation of fruit orchards
Project
Project code: DFG SFB 564
Contract period: 01.07.2009
- 30.06.2012
Purpose of research: Applied research
Fruit production is an important source of income for small and medium scale farmers in the northern part of Thailand and accounts for an important share of the country’s foreign exchange revenues from export. Most of fruit production is taking place during the dry season under irrigation. With an increasing acreage and more intensive production, water is becoming scarce and natural water bodies are affected by overuse in the dry season as well as by the impact of dam and canal construction. For a sustainable consolidation of fruit production, the water consumption per unit of fruit must be reduced. Automatic irrigation control systems help farmers to allot water according to the plants’ needs at predetermined supply levels. That way farmers have the combined benefit of reduce labor cost and can, at the same time, reduce the water consumption to the lowest level to guarantee optimum yield.
Objectives
As the production conditions are highly heterogeneous between upland farmers and farmers in the river plains, different strategies are necessary to achieve the target of water saving. For farmers in remote areas of the uplands a cheap and sturdy irrigation control tool is most appropriate. Such an irrigation control depicts a first step from uncontrolled water use towards optimal irrigation in terms of water efficiency as well as fruit quality and quantity. Where the conditions are favorable and the technological level of production is higher, advanced methods of deficit irrigation, namely partial rootzone drying (PRD) can further improve water use efficiency. As PRD requires a high degree of understanding of the plants’ reaction to different levels of water supply and high managerial efforts, farmers are reluctant to adopt it in the practice. An automatic PRD system can overcome this problem and helps farmers to make use of PRD benefits without the risk of a reduced harvest. (initiated by the SFB subproject B3)
Section overview
Subjects
- Agricultural Engineering Plant Production
- Arboriculture
Collaborative Project
Funding programme
Excutive institution
Agricultural Engineering in the Tropics and Subtropics (440e)
