| چکیده انگلیسی مقاله |
As Guam pushes toward a sustainable agriculture, farmers are still facing challenges with the high costs of water and fertilizer. An irrigation system optimized in tandem with technological components can provide maximum water savings with minimal impact on soil health and water quality. Thus, to improve farmers’ overall confidence in the agriculture economy, a web-based irrigation scheduling tool known as ‘CropManage’ (CM) is currently being evaluated in Guam to help farmers with irrigation decision making. ‘CropManage’ is a smart advising tool that is expected to significantly reduce irrigation costs as well as meet the plant water requirement for optimum water-use efficiency. Factors such as soil type and crop coefficients are entered into CM, which generates a profile for a specific crop growing in a given farm/field. ‘CropManage’ then considers past rainfall data (via on-site weather station) together with proximal evapotranspiration (ET) data to generate recommendations for irrigation rates that meet the plant water requirement. The tool uses information specific to an individual farm like geographic location, crop type, basic soil parameters, and atmospheric data via on-site weather station. During 2020 monitoring, data were collected from two farms: 1) Island View Farm in the northern Guam, and 2) University of Guam (UOG) Research farm also in northern Guam. At the UOG Research Farm, where eggplants were irrigated with using ‘CropManage’ recommendation had greater canopy cover and higher crop yield (although not statistically different), compared to the traditional irrigation system practiced by farmers (control). Preliminary data from a cropping season (2020) showed over 13,500 gallons of water saved (approximately 85% water saving) when CropManage was used compared to a traditionally practiced irrigation system by farmers (control). In addition, there were noticeable improvements in crop yield for CropManage study plots. However, damages to crops by insects, diseases, and weather conditions were encountered during the cropping season. Therefore, more data collection is recommended to confer the efficacy of a weather-based irrigation scheduling tool in Guam’s farmlands. As Guam and other islands in the Marianas move from subsistence agriculture toward cash-crop economy, the integration of such technology in agriculture can help enhance environmentally sound and sustainable cropping system while increasing farmers’ overall confidence in agricultural economy. |
