PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
In Mediterranean agrosystems, farmers are facing an increasing water scarcity scenario, which has led them to search for alternative water sources. This comes at a high cost and with a downfall in water quality, making irrigation and crop fertilisation management and, ultimately, food production very complicated. Therefore, it is necessary to combine technological advances, digitalisation, and agronomy to increase the efficiency and competitiveness of the sector through better management of available resources.
OBJECTIVES
The main objective of the LIFE TRIPLET is to implement, demonstrate and disseminate a digital crop-monitoring tool to optimise the sustainable fertigation strategy and to promote its large-scale acceptance and use in woody crops in water-scarce Mediterranean agroecosystems, without affecting the quality standards demanded by export markets.
- To schedule sustainable management strategies for the most representative horticultural and woody crops on farms in irrigable areas of the seven irrigation communities (ICs) in Andalusia, Castilla La Mancha, Murcia and Valencia regions, located in the Segura, Guadiana and Júcar River Basin Organisations (RBOs), using the soil-plant-atmosphere system water status indicators to minimise crop water footprint and increase water and fertiliser efficiency.
- Implement a digital management system for the whole irrigable area within the project scope to control irrigation water quality resulting from mixing different water sources; optimising crop development over the whole irrigable area; and increasing irrigation energy efficiency.
- Implement a soil and plant water status management system based on the measurement of indicators at plot and aerial scale. Process and analyse images from satellites (Sentinel 2, Pleiades 1, Landsat 8 and 9) and drones on the demonstration plots and their extrapolation to the entire irrigable area through the designed platform.
- Implement a crop protection system based on predictive models and real-time pest and disease monitoring in the pilot plots. Process the information generated for the extrapolation into the irrigable area through the designed platform.
- To evaluate the impact of sustainable fertigation on vegetative and fruit growth, production and yield quality, with special attention to the particularities of each monitored crop (horticultural and woody), and the incidence of pests and diseases. The impact of the ecological footprint (water footprint and carbon sequestration effect) in the entire irrigable area will also be assessed, as will the efficient use of irrigation water and nutrients, and reduced impacts of planned crop protection treatments.
- To implement an automatic, user-friendly irrigation system fed by predictive models based on statistical and Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques. The system will regulate water and nutrients applied in the sustainable fertigation treatment according to established irrigation instructions, predictions of availability and quality at high altitude, and will compensate for any variations that may occur, taking different conventional and non-conventional irrigation water sources into consideration.
- To ensure the sustainability and transfer of project results, the LIFE TRIPLET system will be marketable in the agricultural sector, improving the competitiveness of farms by reducing production costs over an adequate pay-back period. Transfer to different EU Member States which share similar problems of water stress will also be addressed. For this purpose, business cases will be carried out for different regions.
- To increase the information available for, and training of, administrative and commercial entities, technical managers, farmer-entrepreneurs, owners of collaborating farms, students and future researchers regarding the sustainable management of fertigation, as well as the potential for the integration of new technologies in specific irrigation applications for the optimisation of water use in agriculture.
RESULTS
- 22% reduction in the application of water to crops and hence the pressures on water resources, especially from depleted groundwater sources.
- 17% reduction in N fertilisers and 10% in agrochemical applications.
- Five% reduction in energy consumption through non-conventional water management.
- Moving towards climate neutrality of farms by reducing CO2eq emissions by 34% and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions such as N2O by 78% and increasing carbon sequestration and storage.
- From a socio-economic point of view, the project will demonstrate that the proposed technology can reduce production costs by more than 10% through saving water, energy, nutrients and agrochemicals, whilst increasing crop yields by 20% - thereby increasing crop profitability (from +10% in advance to +10% in the future).
- The project will also improve farmers’ and technical advisors’ training, productive capabilities and performance in terms of irrigation and crop management, thus increasing their competitiveness.
- Living labs, or demonstration plots, cover an area of 169.2 ha. By the end of the project, 30% of the provincial area of the crops studied will have adopted the LIFE TRIPLET strategy (53,430 ha).
