Provision of irrigation scheduling advice to small-scale sugarcane farmers using a web-based crop model and cellular technology: a South African case study

Adoption of irrigation scheduling techniques in South African sugarcane production has been disappointing. The challenge is to use state of the art technology to provide practical and useful advice to farmers and further to convince farmers of the benefits of irrigation scheduling by on-farm demonstration. The purpose of this paper is to describe (1) a high-technology system to provide practical, real-time irrigation advice and (2) its pilot implementation on a small-scale farm irrigation scheme. The system consists of a web-based simulation model that estimates the recent, current and future water balance, crop status and yield from field information and real-time weather data. The system automatically generates and distributes simple irrigation advice by SMS to farmers' cellular phones. The system was evaluated on a small-scale sugarcane irrigation scheme at Pongola, South Africa. Indications are that adhering to advice from this system leads to large reductions in irrigation applied (33%), deep drainage (64%) and irrigation costs. Yields are not affected significantly and profitability is enhanced considerably. The main impact is to reduce irrigation during winter and when the crop is young. Results suggest that the phased expansion of the system to more farmers and other irrigation schemes is warranted. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.