Fuzzy modeling of biometric variables development of tomato crop under irrigation and water salinity effects

Abstract

Tomato is a demanding crop in terms of handling, mainly because irrigation has a strong influence on fruit production and quality. Salinity changes the absorption, transport, assimilation, and distribution of nutrients in the plant. In general, such effects are analyzed using statistical tests. However, fuzzy models allow simulations between points that are not verified in agricultural experimentation. Currently, systems with artificial intelligence have excelled in the field of applied sciences, particularly fuzzy systems applied to mathematical modeling. The objective of this research was to use fuzzy modeling to analyze the biometric variables during the development of hybrid tomatoes under two different conditions: the first concerning different water tensions in the soil and the second concerning different salinity doses in irrigation. To this end, two models were developed based on an experiment carried out at São Paulo State University (UNESP), School of Agriculture, Botucatu, São Paulo State, Brazil. Both models sought to estimate the values of biometric variables of the tomato crop. Thus, two models were developed: Model 1 regarded water tensions and days after sowing (DAS), while Model 2 featured salinity and DAS. Fuzzy models provided results that verified the effects of irrigation and salinity layers. Two Fuzzy Rule-Based Systems (FRBS), an input processor with two variables, a set of linguistic rules defined from statistical procedures with percentiles, the Mamdani fuzzy inference method, and the center of gravity method to defuzzification were elaborated for this purpose. The range between −25 and −10 kPa (for Model 1) and between 0.08 and 3 dS m−1 (for Model 2) provided the development within the ideal parameters for the complete development of the plant cycle. The use of fuzzy logic has shown effectiveness in evaluating the development of tomato crops, thus showing potential for use in agricultural sciences. Moreover, the created fuzzy models showed the same characteristics of the experiment, allowing their use as an automatic technique to estimate ideal parameters for the complete development of the plant cycle. The development of applications (software) that provide the results generated by the artificial intelligence models of the present study is the aim of future research.