Fuzzy System of Irrigation Applied to the Growth of Habanero Pepper (Capsicum chinense Jacq.) under Protected Conditions in Yucatan, Mexico

Abstract

Agriculture is the largest user of water worldwide by using about 70 percent of total consumption. The world food production depends on the availability of water, considering factors such as demographic and climate change, so the use of efficient irrigation is necessary to apply the correct amount of water to crops. The traditional irrigation systems generally program their scheme based on measurements made at Class A evaporimeter pan. In this paper an irrigation scheme defined by an algorithm that automates the amount of water supplied is presented, it considers the consumption of habanero pepper crop, and a fuzzy system evaluates the necessary duration of irrigation. The climatic variables considered are temperature, relative humidity, and soil moisture. The algorithm was programmed in a microcontroller Atmel 328p included in Arduino platform, with the addition of a ZigBee wireless system that allows for monitoring through a PC. The climatic variables were inserted into the fuzzy system by sets of trapezoidal and triangular form and a Mamdani type inference mechanism in which the knowledge of an expert is registered through the fuzzy rules. The system was applied to a habanero pepper crop at Conkal Institute of Technology in Yucatan, Mexico.