Irrigation Advisory System (SAR): when to water and how much to water? Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) as tools to strengthen the decision-making capacity of family farming.

The main result of the project is the development of the Irrigation Advisory Service (SAR) platform, which provides an answer to the two basic questions of irrigation scheduling: when and how much to irrigate? The SAR shows, graphically and numerically, the availability of water in the soil. When the soil water content falls below a threshold (which depends mainly on the crop and soil type), the irrigation alert is given. The SAR has been tested on alfalfa, cotton, strawberry, tomato, pepper and bean. Preliminary results show that adjusted irrigation schedules significantly increases crop yields: alfalfa 33%, cotton 67%, pepper 65%, strawberry 52%, beans 22% and tomato 62%. Complementary results of the project are: a) strengthening agrometeorological information networks through the installation of 6 automatic weather stations, 5 having online access; b) the use of satellite images for soil moisture estimation through algorithms, using predictor variables, such as bulk density and texture of soil, and spectral indices; c) the bases for scaling up the project were established and its results were communicated through reports, workshops, meetings and seminars.