Research on Cotton Field Irrigation Amount Calculation Based on Electromagnetic Induction Technology

The rapid and efficient acquisition of field-scale farmland soil profile moisture-distribution information is very important for achieving precise irrigation and the adjustment and deployment of irrigation strategies in farmland. EM38-MK2 is a portable, non-invasive device that induces electric currents in soil to generate secondary magnetic fields for the rapid measurement of apparent electrical conductivity in the field. In this study, cotton fields were used as experimental objects to obtain soil apparent conductivity data for three periods, which were combined with soil-moisture content data collected simultaneously from soil samples and measured in the laboratory to construct an apparent soil-profile moisture regression model. A simple kriging interpolation method was used to map the distribution of the irrigation volume in the field, considering only the highest irrigation volume in the field as the maximum water-holding capacity in the field. The results showed that EM38 could accurately detect the spatial variation of soil moisture in the field. The R2 of the linear fit between measured and predicted soil-water content ranged from 0.51 to 0.89; the RMSE ranged from 0.66 to 1.87; and the R2 and RPD of each soil-layer water content model of the single-period model were higher than those of the full-period model. By plotting the distribution of field irrigation, it could be seen that by comparing the predicted field irrigation with the actual irrigation, at least 160 m3 ha−1 of irrigation could be saved in all three periods at an irrigation depth of 40 cm, which is about 30% of the actual irrigation; at an irrigation depth of 60 cm, about 30% and 15% of irrigation could be reduced in July and August, respectively. There are three areas in the study area with high fixed-irrigation volumes located in the northwest corner, near 500 m in the northern half of the study area and 750 m east of the southern half of the study area. The results of this study proved that the use of EM38-MK2 to monitor and evaluate the soil-moisture content of the farmland at different periods can, to a certain extent, guide the irrigation amount needed to achieve efficient and precise irrigation in the field.