Supervisory control and data acquisition software for drip irrigation control in olive orchards: an experience in an arid region of Argentina

Abstract

The proper management of irrigation systems is a key factor to achieve an efficient use of water and an adequate crop production. The use of new automatic control and communication technologies, offers a set of tools for data gathering and analysis, and assists agronomists and farmers to take better decisions in order to develop a sustainable agriculture, able to maintain its productivity and to be useful to the society in the long term. This work presents the implementation and set-up of a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system designed to supervise and control a drip irrigation system. The irrigation system is installed in a young olive orchard, located in San Juan, an arid region fully dependent on irrigation. The main task of the system is to gather and display the information coming from the field devices (soil moisture sensors, weather station, water flow-meters and programmable-logic-controller (PLC) for commanding the irrigation system) and automatically control the irrigation. The main screen of the SCADA software presents current information related to the process and, in other tabs, gives a detailed report of data. The gathered information is saved to a data base that can be accessed by different users, allowing the participation of other users, such as irrigation advisers, laboratories, quality control, maintenance, etc. Information can be accessed locally, through internet or by other means. Results of this experience show that it is possible to apply new technological tools to manage the irrigation process as a way to improve its efficiency.