OPERATIONAL IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT: MODERN CHALLENGES, REALITIES AND VISIONS

Abstract

Introduction. The current challenges in water and agriculture management in Ukraine wield major influence on the development of reclamation science and practice. These challenges and the realities of irrigated farming require a revision of traditional decision-making methods and criteria to ensure resource-efficient irrigation management. Analytical and experimental studies were conducted to evaluate existing irrigation practices, develop a vision for its development over the next 20-30 years, and evaluate the prospects for the use of certain innovative products that can be implemented for irrigation management under existing economic conditions and in the future. The purpose of the research was to improve the methods of operational irrigation management and support the adoption of appropriate strategic decisions to achieve resource efficiency in irrigated agriculture. The following tasks were solved: to investigate the temporal and spatial variability of the natural and economic conditions of irrigation use; to determine the basic directions of models and algorithms improvement for operational irrigation planning taking into account the spatial and temporal variability of natural and economic conditions of real production; to evaluate perspective directions of development of irrigation planning methods to ensure resource efficiency of management in the current agricultural practice. Methods and methodologies. The research was conducted during 2012-2019 at the farms of Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions. Testing and pilot implementation of the operational irrigation planning information system “GIS Polyv” has been carried out. The studies were carried out on 306 fields, the total area of which was 9266.09 ha, the main crops were soybean, sunflower, winter wheat, alfalfa and winter rape. Research methods included on-site observations, modelling, remote sensing, and method of system analysis. Results and discussion. The role of on-site and space agro-monitoring for the correction of bioclimatic coefficients of crop water consumption taking into account the space-time variability of the actual biomass has been substantiated and demonstrated. For the adaptation of irrigation management to the conditions of air drought, it is proposed to use an additional criterion for making decisions on crop cooling, which is determined by the maximally permissible temperature duration at the vegetation surface above the physiologically acceptable level. It is established that under conditions of air drought, in addition to slowing the growth of biomass, physiological processes occur in the leaves and reproductive organs of plants, due to the increase in the temperature of the vegetation surface. According to studies of energy transfer processes in crops during periods of atmospheric drought, an increase in the use of a share of thermal energy for turbulent exchange has been found compared to the volumes of energy that is evaporated. The vision of the future development of methods of operational irrigation planning based on modern agricultural information platforms has been presented.  It will allow to choose a method of operational irrigation management, based on the capabilities of each farm economy and to provide "on-line" consulting for water user organizations or farm personnel.