Abstract

Irrigation is often necessary to obtain a good economy on the farm. It can be hard to optimize irrigation even when the farmer has sufficient knowledge about the irrigation need and has the capacity to meet the need, due to uncertainty in weather forecasts and variability in selling prices for the crop. There are several technical tools to facilitate the decision-making regarding irrigation, such as forecasting models and soil moisture sensors. The evaluation assessed seven different models and sensors. The Danish irrigation forecasting model and the Watermark sensor showed the best result and are recommended for decision making in irrigation of quality potato in order to increase profitability. It is not profitable to use the soil moisture sensors in starch potato for facilitating decision making in irrigation due to low price and low demands on quality of the tubers

Keywords

Markfuktsensor; Prognosmodell; bevattning; potatis; moisture sensores; prediction models; irrigation; potato

Published in

Landskap, trädgård, jordbruk : rapportserie
2010, number: 2010:41
ISBN: 978-91-86373-48-1
Publisher: Område Agrosystem, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet

Authors' information