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HORTIMED

Sustainable Water Use in Protected Mediterranean Horticulture
NUMBER: ICA3-CT-1999-00009
Start Date: 01/03/2000 End Date: 30/09/2003
SUMMARY: (06/09/2000)

As irrigation is bound to rely increasingly on low quality water, the project seeks to adapt protected horticultural practice to this new condition. The idea is to exploit the advanced technologies involved in protected cultivation to improve salt tolerance of the high valued crops and to diminish environmental risks associated with the use of marginal water. The project will compile information on crop salinity tolerance and analyse the data in the context valid in Mediterranean protected cultivation. The experimental research consists of crop response measurements to fertigation and salinity supplemented by studies of specific effects obtained under protected cultivation. The expected results should improve the management of multiple water resources and determine the feasibility of water collection and treatment schemes.

The project treats in parallel scientific, technical, managerial and educational aspects of the problem. The investigation looks into potential water savings achievable by adjusting application to consumption. It establishes functional relations between irrigation parameters (amount, frequency, distribution, solute concentration) and production using past (survey) and current (experimentation) data. It examines the increase of water use efficiency by improving the mineral nutrition through chemical analysis of highly producing plants and the isotopes uptake environments. Another approach consists in testing experimentally the effect of various climate control operations that lower water uptake on stress caused on high solute content in the supply water. These experiments will be carried out in greenhouses divided in chambers fitted with devices allowing the applications of differential treatments. It proposes to compile existing studies of the salinity stress response of crop grown in greenhouses to derive functions relating yield and quality to levels of salinity. The project will consider the agronomic, engineering and economical aspects of rainwater collection, leaching re-use, water treatment, multiple resource allocation and recycling. Results of the experimental work and of the survey analysis form the information basis for the modelling work on decision support systems.
EXPECTED RESULTS:

OBJECIVES AND EXPECTED RESULTS

The objective of this project is to develop a context sensitive strategy for managing irrigation and nutrient supply of protected crops with constraints on the quantity and quality of water supply. The economical (quality and quantity of crop yield) and the ecological (contamination risks of water table, nature conservation) factors affecting the strategic decisions will also be considered. Moreover the research of this project will advance our knowledge about plant response to salinity and water stress. These new findings will be combined with new management techniques into developing a Decision Support System for farmers.

The general objective is to adapt protected horticulture to low water quality by exploiting the high degree of control over the water and nutrient input, over climate and over drainage release. This objective is prompted by urban priority for fresh water and the rising discharge of domestic effluents for which agriculture can provide safe means of disposal. The project seeks fertigation recipes, climate control operations, crop and crop mixture rotations that improve yield and quality under constrains of marginal water use. It considers procedures that minimise the release of pollutants by including the investigation of drainage recycling. Finally it engages specifically in formulating recommendations for growers.

Goals

Tools

Specific Objectives

Increase fresh water use efficiency of protected cultivation

Minimise fresh water use
  • To determine environmental impact for selected protected-horticulture crops, for different root media and salt content of available water.
  • To develop irrigation/fertigation recipes for main vegetables under protected conditions based on soil fertility, growth stage and yield-quality targets.

Increase utility of low-quality water

  • To compile/determine yield response to salinity of the major crops.
  • To determine a strategy for climate management with high salinity of irrigation (CO2 injection, shading, humidification), in order to mitigate salinity damage and exploit the potential for better quality with salty root environment.
  • To determine a strategy to minimise salt accumulation rate in a closed-loop irrigation system, in dependence of water and nutrients uptake and of root medium characteristics.

Decrease their reliance on good quality water

Strategies to maximise use of lower quality water
  • To determine cost-benefit of possible farm level investments (rain harvesting, drain water recycling, use of wastewater, reverse-osmosis, disposal of residuals), depending on available water resources and type of crops.
  • To determine a strategy for management of water sources of varying quality, under given constraint of input of fresh water and/or of release of residuals.
  • To determine feasibility of cascade combinations of crops of increasing salt-tolerance.

Ensure application of new management
  • A Decision support system that aims to maximise return under given constraints in water, water quality and release of chemicals.
  • To develop a farmers guide and "rules of thumb" translated to all participating languages.
  • Dissemination and short courses for extension specialists.
ACHIEVED RESULTS: ( - )
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AVAILABLE DOCUMENTS:
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URL: http://dimitra.aua.gr/ns/
TOPICS 6600 Decision support systems, 6850 Fertigation
KEYWORDS Salinity, Fertigation, Hydroponics, Water_management, DSS-decision_support
 
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