LIFE TRIPLET

LIFE TRIPLET

Project 101113915 - LIFE-2022-SAP-CLIMA – LIFE TRIPLET

Project full name: Digitalisation of efficient fertigation management for a sustainable agriculture

Project period: 2023-2026

Total eligible budget: 2.839.669 €

EU contribution: 1.703.801 €

Website: www.lifetriplet.eu

Farmers are facing an increasing water scarcity scenario, which has led them to search for alternative water sources. This comes at a high cost and with a downfall in water quality, making irrigation and crop fertilisation management and, ultimately, food production very complicated. Therefore, it is necessary to combine technological advances, digitalisation, and agronomy to increase the efficiency and competitiveness of the sector through better management of available resources.

Therefore, it is proposed to implement in the most representative Mediterranean crops a digital platform resulting from the adaptation of four existing ones by UPCT, IMIDA, AQUATEC (VEOLIA Spain-AGBAR) and FMC. The four combined tools will:

1) Capture and monitor information from i) the optimisation of irrigation water mix available in the area according to physicochemical, microbiological quality criteria and energy cost; ii) different soil-plant-atmosphere water indicators, multispectral, and thermal indices at demonstration plot scale (DP); and iii) effects on crop of pests and diseases; 2) Information Processing, and Visualisation of the evolution of different indices for each DP; 3) Predictive modelling using Machine Learning techniques, including information from the PDs and other irrigable areas, in order to, 4) Validate the models and their subsequent, 5) Integration with an intelligent and safe agricultural nutrition center that is able to automate fertigation through the algorithms resulting from the different platforms, 6) Ensuring the sustainability of final product, being a competitive marketable solution.

The project has an overall demonstrative objective, consisting of the implementation of a digital tool for monitoring crop development and sustainable management of plant health, water and nutrient application, extrapolating the indicators of plant and soil water status obtained in the DP to a larger scale, through multispectral indices obtained from drone and satellite image.

Project Partners

• Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena (ES)

• Agbar Agriculture, S.A.U.

• Aquatec Proyectos para el sector del agua, S.A.

• Centro Tecnológico del Agua (CETAQUA)

• AZUD

• FMC Agricultural Solutions, S.A.

• Instituto Murciano de Investigación y Desarrollo Agrario y Medioambiental (IMIDA)

• Comunidad de Usuarios de la Masa de Aguas Subterráneas Mancha Occidental II (CUAS Mancha Occidental II)

• Federación Nacional de Comunidades de Regantes (FENACORE)

This project is co-funded by the European Union’s Life programme under grant agreement no 101113915. The sole responsibility for the content of this document lies with the LIFE TRIPLET project and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union.