Saving water in Tenerife is essential for everyone, but in this article, we shift focus slightly to banana cultivation.
The island government, Cabildo de Tenerife, has tasked the state company ITER with examining banana and avocado farms to optimize irrigation. This initiative, named REGADIA, will involve collaboration with the Canarian Institute of Agricultural Research and the University of La Laguna. The project’s goal is to forecast the water requirements of these crops seven days in advance.
Bananas and avocados are approximately 75% water. Depending on the fruit’s ripeness, more or less water is required during growth. Knowing this in advance allows for irrigation with adjusted volumes, conserving water during periods when reserves are lower.
Artificial Intelligence
Through ITER and in partnership with the Canarian Institute of Agricultural Research (ICIA) and the University of La Laguna (ULL), the government is developing a project to study significant agricultural areas (fincas) to assess irrigation methods and predict the water needs of crops up to seven days in advance. Once sufficient representative data is available, predictive irrigation models will be developed using artificial intelligence (AI).
Bananas have the highest water requirement among crops in Tenerife, accounting for 60% of agricultural water use on the island. Meanwhile, avocado cultivation, which requires slightly less water than bananas, has grown exponentially in recent years.
Supercomputer (HPC)
ITER technicians have visited several banana and avocado farms across the island to evaluate field characteristics where water meters and moisture sensors will later be installed. ITER is also developing the electronic devices to be installed on-site, which will collect sensor data, store it, and make it available to the supercomputer (HPC) for further processing as part of the project.
At the same time, ICIA has begun analyzing soil samples from representative farms to assess water retention capacity, providing valuable information for predictive models.
Funding
The REGADIA project (PLEC2022-009444), coordinated by ITER’s Robotics Unit, will span 36 months and is funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation and the State Research Agency (10.13039/501100011033), along with the European Union’s Next Generation EU recovery plan and Spain’s recovery, transformation, and resilience plan (PRTR).
Pixabay © Photography
Saving water in Tenerife ©
More TRIVIA can be read [HERE].
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