Efficient irrigation and fertilization management of greenhouse tomato crops using iGUESS-MED DSS. Las Palmerillas Research Centre, Almería (Spain). 26 March 2024
From 14:30 till 19:00 p.m. of 12 July, a training course was organized by CREA (Research Centre for Vegetable and Ornamental Crops Council for Agricultural Research and Economics), to present the user manuals of the protocols, models and softwares involved in iGUESSMED Decision Support System. The event was aimed at technicians, agronosmist, and growers of Salerno province (high concentration of protected crops), and for this main reason presentations were made in Italian. University students and researchers were also present in the audience. In total the participatios was of 66 attendees (presence and online).
After a brief introduction explanation of the iGUESS-MED project by Dr. Alejandra Navarro Garcia, coordinator of iGUESSMED, training course presentations in Italian started as follow:
The first session consisted in 3 presentations, first one regarding tomato diseases, IDM, and biocontrol titled: “Protocolli dedicati per prevedere l'insorgenza di patologiee parassiti, aumentando i livelli di controllo biologico nelle coltivazioni di pomodoro delle serre mediterranee” by Dr. Catello Pane (CREA). After this , two presentation regarding tomato pest, IPM, biocontrol, and climate influence in IPM, where Dr. Marco Mosti (BIOPLANET) and Dr. Valeria Zeni (UNIPI) presented “Integrated Pest Management protocols” and finally Dr. Asma Laarif and Dr. Thameur Bouslama (CRRHAB) presented “The importance of climatic parameters in integrated pest management.”
In the second session, the models to determine precise irrigation and nutrition management in low-tech MED greenhouses with conventional and low-quality waters in soil systems were shown and explained. VEGSYST user manual (nutrition) was presented by Prof. Marisa Gallardo (UAL) and PrHo (irrigation) user manual by Dr. Maria Dolores Fernández (CAJAMAR).
In the third session, the SIMULHYDRO user manual was presented by Prof. Luca Incrocci (UNIPI) and Dr. Daniele Massa (CREA-OF) to explain soilless cultivation and the models used to determine precise fertigation (nutrition and irrigation) management in low-tech MED greenhouses with conventional and low-quality waters in soilless systems.
The last presentation was made by Dr. Esteban Baeza (FUTURE FARM Solutions) dealing the greenhouse climate control by adding small modifications or improving existing techniques in the MED greenhouses.
She is a researcher of the Agri-Sustainability department of Cajamar Foundation, where she has worked since 1997. She has experience in measuring and modelling greenhouse crop evapotranspiration, incorporating this work into a practical DSS (PrHo) to irrigation scheduling for greenhouse crops. She has worked in different national and European research projects related to irrigation and N management for greenhouse-grown vegetable crops.
Dr. Mª Dolores Fernández Fernández (CAJAMAR)
She is a researcher in the AGR-224 research group at the Department of Agronomy, University of Almeria, Spain. Her recent research has focused on the evaluation of soil and plant nitrogen monitoring systems as well as on the establishment of sufficiency levels in horticultural crops for use in optimising nitrogen management.
Dr. María Teresa Peña Fleitas (UAL)
He is professor and researcher at the Department of Agronomy, University of Almeria, Spain. His work focuses on the use of in-plant monitoring systems with emphasis on nitrogen fertilisation in protected horticultural crops.
Dr. Francisco Padilla (UAL)
She is a PhD student in the research group AGR-224 at the Department of Agronomy, University of Almeria, Spain. Her research focuses on the evaluation of different strategies to optimise nitrogen management in greenhouse crops.
Jenifer Martínez (UAL)