ALADIN PROJECT: SYSTEMS INTEGRATION FOR VARIABLE RATE IRRIGATION

ALADIN (Agroalimentare Idrointelligente) is a two-year project dedicated to precision irrigation. It integrates different systems for collecting information (monitoring of crop conditions), processing of responses (irrigation prescription maps) and implementation in the field (variable rate irrigating machine). The experimental protocol is tested in four different farms in the Emilia Romagna region on two important crops, maize and tomato. The NDVI index, positively correlated to the crop vigor condition, is used as an indicator of the plants water status. The IRRIFRAME irrigation service, based on integration of NDVI information, produces a prescription map to be supplied to the variable rate irrigating device.