Duck River
Challenge
Duck River faces the challenge of efficiently managing irrigation and fertilization for a vast almond crop spanning 2,600 hectares. With approximately 20 irrigation pumping stations, the company needed to centralize and standardize all processes related to water and nutrient management, ensuring efficient use of resources and preventing human errors in planning and execution.
The complexity of managing multiple farms and the need to maintain precise control over fertilization and fertilizer inventory called for a comprehensive technological solution that would provide reliable, real-time information.
Solution
To address these challenges, Duck River implemented Irrigation Manager, the VEGGA module that enables centralized planning and monitoring of all irrigation and fertilization operations, allowing users to create:
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Farming-Specific Irrigation and Fertilization Plans for Farms
Irrigation Manager makes it easy to create customized irrigation plans, ensuring that each tree receives the right amount of water and nutrients.
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Bulk Irrigation Programming
The module allows you to create and send irrigation programs simultaneously to all greenhouses, optimizing time and resources.
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Control of deviations and automatic corrections
Irrigation Manager calculates weekly deviations in irrigation and fertilization, automatically adjusting the schedules when necessary.
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Fertilizer Inventory Management
The tool accurately tracks fertilizer inventory across all farms and generates PDF orders ready to send to the supplier, simplifying logistics and reducing the risk of shortages.
In addition, a weather station was installed in the almond crop, and the Assisted Irrigation solution was implemented, which made it possible to:
- Compare irrigation based on Evapotranspiration (ET), adjusting the water application rates without damaging the crop.
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Significantly reduce water consumption in almond trees:
Overall length: 7059 mm. Assisted irrigation (unrestricted): 6132 mm with a 13% gradient. Assisted irrigation (restricted): 5684 mm
- Maintain precise control over irrigation rates and improve the crop’s water efficiency.
Thanks to these features, Duck River is able to manage its crops more consistently and efficiently, minimizing waste and maximizing almond tree productivity.
Results obtained
The use of VEGGA has brought Duck River clear benefits:
- Centralization and standardization of irrigation and fertilization management across all farms.
- Greater operational efficiency, with fewer human errors and optimized use of fertilizers and water.
- Precise control over resources and the ability to make informed decisions based on real-time data.
- Duck River has been using Irrigation Manager for four years, relying on its reliability and efficiency to manage large areas of crops.
- A significant improvement in the unit’s workflow, allowing them to focus on the productivity and health of the almond trees rather than on repetitive manual tasks.
- A significant reduction in irrigation water application through assisted irrigation, compared to the method based on calculating water requirements using crop Evapotranspiration (ET). This result was achieved while maintaining adequate crop development even under conditions of limited water availability on the farm, demonstrating more efficient water resource management.
Paulo Reguino, Director of Irrigation at Duck River“Since we implemented Irrigation Manager, we’ve been able to control all our irrigation and fertilization processes in a centralized and efficient manner. This gives us peace of mind and allows us to focus on what matters most: the health and productivity of our almond trees.”
