Supporting Farmers’ Decisions: An Intelligent System for Irrigation and Crop Health
The Monitora project, financed by the 2014-2020 RDP (Rural Development Programmes) Regional of Piedmont, in Italy, has developed a web platform providing decision-support service for irrigation and defense of tomato, onion, and potato crops.
In 2021, the Monitora project came to life, presented by Cadir Lab, the University of Turin, Fondazione Agrion, the information technology company Auroras, and OI Pomodoro da Industria del Nord Italia. The main goal was to develop a web platform based on a data network of physical and weather stations through which farmers can check weather data, irrigation requirements, and system alerts. Monitora also hosts other functions, such as an exportable computerized field notebook, an archive of phytosanitary reports filled out by technicians, and a forum for information exchange among users.
The field results
Field trials were conducted during 2021-2023 in the Piedmont region, leading to interesting results for tomato cultivation and, more specifically, irrigation management.
Due to the system’s adequate indications, water volumes were reduced by up to 51 mm, saving 510 m3/ha of water, equivalent to the measures of a semi-Olympic pool.
The Monitora platform has significantly reduced the operating time of the irrigation system to 54 hours, leading to estimated savings of between 1,200 and 1,600 euros. When analyzing the gross revenue per hectare, it becomes clear that Monitora management is economically equal, if not more advantageous, than on-farm irrigation management. This suggests the potential for significant cost savings and a return on investment for farmers, while also optimizing water use and maintaining quality tomato production.
On the defense front, the decision-support service model proved effective in signaling favorable conditions for the development of some diseases, such as Alternaria, where a definite temporal relationship between the alert and the appearance of symptoms was detected. Thanks to the platform, up to 6 treatments were avoided in some trials for the same yield, with consequent environmental and economic benefits.
In conclusion, Monitora project helps farmers maximize the effectiveness of their defense and irrigation strategy by fostering informed decisions to find the difficult balance between economic and environmental sustainability. The platform will remain active for the next five years, hoping to implement the application in other areas.
OI Pomodoro is involved and participates in projects such as Monitora throughout the supply chain in all the territory, in order to share innovations and adapt them to farmers’ needs, to transfer knowledge from research to the field and to make the available innovations and tools interoperable and applicable throughout the territory.
Read more on how OI Pomodoro da Industria del Nord Italia implements sustainable practices and technologies throughout the supply chain.
