Published in Scientific Papers. Series A. Agronomy, Vol. LXV, Issue 2
Written by Petre VOICU, Mircea OAIDA, Petru SURUGIU
Elaborating this paper, the authors took into account previous research that highlighted the following: Romania falls into the category of countries with modest exploitable water resources; over 85% of the arable land arranged with irrigation works is fragmented in small plots; soil water deficit is the most important risk factor in agriculture. Watering efficiency depends on the watering method; sprinkling is the main watering method; the concept of water monitoring provides for the complex recovery, and quantitative and qualitative control of water sources; sustainable use of irrigation water requires watering at the optimum time, depending on the optimal real evapotranspiration (ETRoptim = Kt × Ev). It is necessary to know the physical evaporation of water, Ev and the monthly value of the indicator Kt, as an average over a series of at least 30 years, for a certain plant. The proposed method captures the irrigation water, so that once the water has passed the root zone it gets absorbed and stored in a modular underground tank. The excess water collected in the modular basin will be reused when the soil and plant sensors will signal the presence of the humidity deficit.
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