The use of technological tools to improve efficiency in the use of water resources in agriculture and the implementation of the PLAS FONTAGRO Satellite Platform for crop monitoring and irrigation management.
The work implemented under the regional project “New Technologies for increasing efficiency in LAC agriculture by 2030” will be presented at the International Symposium “Innovations for efficient water management in Agriculture in LAC”, to be held in the city of Colonia, Uruguay, during March 6 and 7 of this year. The activity is part of the final actions of the project, which has been in development for four years and is the result of the joint work of several scientific, private organizations and researchers. It will feature keynote talks from world experts on topics related to the management of water resources and crop irrigation.
Claudio García, researcher at INIA Uruguay and host of the event, invited the community to participate in the symposium since “experiences and results of a regional LAC project on water resource management and new technologies for efficient water management will be shown.” irrigation". The project was co-financed by FONTAGRO and developed by researchers from the Agricultural Research Institute-INIA Chile, the National Institute of Agricultural Technology-INTA Argentina; the Colombian Agricultural Research Corporation- Agrosavia Colombia, the National Institute of Agricultural Research-INIA Uruguay and the Institute of Regional Development of the University of Castilla La Mancha-IDR UCLM, Spain.
The activity will be attended by special guests from the University of Colorado and the Nebraska Food and Water Institute in the United States, in addition to the participation of other researchers from Uruguay, who have been working on this topic. Topics related to the use of new sources of information and modern technologies to define the water consumption of crops will be addressed.
“A very relevant contribution of the project is the implementation of an open Satellite Platform, where users can consult time series of the NDVI vegetation index and the crop coefficient, used to estimate the transpiration rate of crops,” said Claudio Balbontín, director of INIA Intihuasi (Chile) and who leads the project. “The available information can be used both for intra-farm irrigation advice (in plots) and to estimate the water consumption of crops in large regions (basins). The spirit of the Symposium is to highlight the importance of the inclusion of digital technologies within standard conceptual frameworks to improve crop irrigation management and management,” added Balbontín.
During the event, the professionals co-executing the project will propose to the community the formation of a Collaboration Platform between researchers, which will allow the generation of a network of scientific interaction that facilitates the dissemination of results and the use of new technologies for efficient irrigation. implemented during this and future projects for the LAC agricultural sector.
The complete program of the symposium and registration will be open until February 23 on the website http://inia.uy/estaciones-experimentales/directiones-regionales/inia-la-estanzuela/Simposio-sobre-Riego-Sensoramiento-Remoto -and-Efficient-Water-Management-in-Agricultural-Productive-Systems.
About INIA
The Agricultural Research Institute (INIA) is the main agri-food research, development and innovation institution in Chile. Linked to the Ministry of Agriculture, it has a national presence and a work team of more than 1,000 highly qualified people. It executes an average of 400 projects per year around 5 strategic areas: Climate Change, Sustainability, Food of the Future, Emerging Technologies, and Extension and Capacity Building. These initiatives contribute to the sustainable agri-food development of the country, creating value and proposing innovative solutions to farmers, strategic partners and society, generating a social profitability that varies between 15% and 25%, for each peso invested in each of their projects.
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Press contact: Estefanía González, INIA Intihuasi Communications: comunicaciones.intihuasi@inia.cl
