Informations et ressources scientifiques
sur le développement des zones arides et semi-arides

Long-term Europe-Africa Research and Innovation Partnership for Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture

Titre : DATI : Digital Agriculture Technologies for Irrigation efficiency

Pays/Région : Morocco ; France ; Italy ; Spain ; Portugal

Date : Start date 2021-06-01 // End date 2024-05-31

Identifiant : 457-DATI
Type de projet : Development and innovation oriented (research) project

Contexte
Water is becoming the most limiting factor for crop production, with irrigated agriculture being one of the main water-consuming sectors, which is a challenge for substantial water savings. The continuous technological development has made available to the farmer innovative technical solutions (TS) capable of optimising water use according to a precision irrigation approach that minimises water waste according to the needs detected in the soil-plant system. The monitoring system represents a critical issue between the technologies involved. There are many solutions on the market ; however, frequently, the costs and complexity of these systems do not allow them to be widely used by medium-small companies. These are often proprietary systems with non-open technology, which further limit the flexibility of use. This represents a significant problem, especially for agricultural realities in developing countries, which find it challenging to apply sustainable techniques for water resources. In addition, given that these companies are often placed in climatic contexts characterised by drought and water scarcity, finding a solution to this problem becomes a priority.

Objectif
The DATI project aims to develop and implement new Digital Agriculture (DA) technological solutions and innovative digital procedures. To enhance irrigation efficiency by developing low-cost and lean solutions for small-scale farmers, primarily using low-cost hardware simplified data-driven models. The DATI project will take advantage of innovative low-cost technologies such as Wireless Sensors Networks (WSN) for agrometeorological monitoring, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) coupled with different sensors, free satellite imagery, decision support systems (DSS). The systems will be developed in pilot demo farms located in five representative Mediterranean countries : Italy, Portugal, Spain, France, and Morocco. The technological components will be affordable, flexible, and adaptable to be replicated in different locations and applied to other crops and farming systems. More specifically, each technical solution will be developed as a lean package and support Mediterranean small-scale farmers. It aims at increasing the profitability of irrigation and achieve optimal crop yields while ensuring water quality and quantity through the optimisation of water use efficiency with a low-cost approach.

Coordinateur : National Research Council, Italy (CNR)
Partenaires : Ente Terre Regionali Toscane Consorzio di Bonifica 6 Toscana Sud CSIC - Spanish National Research Council Montpellier SupAgro Mohammed I University (UMP) University of Tras-os-Montes e Alto Douro

Financement principal : Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD) (H2020)
Budget : 2 175 110 EUR

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