IRRI-Smart AgroBiodiversity Innovation Challenge

Abstract

In semi-arid and arid regions, water management is a major constraint for crop production, given the dramatic increase in the demand for this resource and the consequences of climate change. In Morocco, irrigation has known a considerable development in recent years, but agricultural water management practices are still of concern, as there is limited knowledge for irrigation parameter determination among farmers (e.g. crop requirements, timing, frequency, etc.). Despite major efforts to switching from surface to drip irrigation systems, farmers are yet to make sound use of available water. The Irri-Smart application has been developed by the SPEC-trum research team at ENA-Meknes (Morocco) to help optimize on-field drip irrigation by providing farmers, farm managers and other end users with the necessary irrigation parameters (daily irrigation needs, calendar in order to implement precision irrigation and help improve profitability.