Portal de Cartagena
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The Polytechnic University of Cartagena (UPCT) coordinate for the next three years a European project, which last October 8 held at the School of Agricultural its initial meeting, demonstration of the Life + program to implement a large-scale smart irrigation and automated to will save water and energy, helping to combat climate change and increase the sustainability of irrigated agriculture.
The project, called IRRIMAN and entitled 'Implementation of an efficient irrigation management for sustainable agriculture', will be based in automation through an algorithm based on the irrigation water status of soil, plant and atmosphere continuously measures with various sensors on the system endometry.
"Plants will indicate its water needs," says Pastor Alejandro Pérez, coordinator of the project, which also involved researchers from seven other UPCT school of Agricultural, Industrial, Roads and Mines and the Faculty of Sciences the company.
CEBAS, the Ministry of Agriculture, the University of Cordoba (UCO), the irrigation community Genil-Cabra and the Federation of Irrigators Communities Mediterranean participate as partners.
The EU co-finances the project with 840,000 euros.
"The project of the research that we have been doing for years in UPCT and in the UCO and CEBAS and encompass pioneered by saving water, energy and emission of C02 into the atmosphere," explains Pérez Pastor.
"It will monitor the energy savings," says the director also the School of Agriculture, to check the cost to be avoided by using less pressurized irrigation.
The use of wastewater and lower greenhouse gas emissions due to deficit irrigation also contribute to the sustainability of the method to be implemented.
Researchers estimate a savings of 30% in both water and fertilizer inputs.
"The challenge is to validate and implement this innovation on a large scale," says Pérez Pastor.
To this end, the project has the support of the communities of irrigators Campotéjar (grouping plots Cieza, Murcia, Molina de Segura, Fortuna and Abanilla), Miraflores (Jumilla) and Genil-Cabra (Córdoba) and will test the system irrigation on about 15,000 hectares.
Source: UPCT
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