DYNA ISSN: 0012-7353 Universidad Nacional de Colombia Cohen-Manrique, Carlos; Rodríguez-Manrique, Jhonatan; Ruíz-Escorcia, Rafael; Pérez-Pérez, Mario Frank Diffuse irrigation systems for the production of watermelon in the Sabanas subregion, Sucre - Colombia DYNA, vol. 86, no. 208, 2019, January-March, pp. 243-250 Universidad Nacional de Colombia DOI: https://doi.org/10.15446/dyna.v86n208.72966 Available in: https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=49660955030 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System Redalyc More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America and the Caribbean, Spain and Journal's webpage in redalyc.org Portugal Project academic non-profit, developed under the open access initiative Diffuse irrigation systems for the production of watermelon in the Sabanas subregion, Sucre – Colombia 1 Carlos Cohen-Manrique, Jhonatan Rodríguez-Manrique, Rafael Ruíz-Escorcia & Mario Frank Pérez-Pérez Facultad de Ciencias Básicas, Ingeniería y Arquitectura, Corporación Universitaria del Caribe-CECAR, Sincelejo, Colombia. [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Received: June 18th, 2018. Received in revised form: January 28th, 2019. Accepted: February 8th, 2019. Abstract In the present study, the relationships between the application of a diffuse tool applied to irrigation systems in watermelon crops are explored, as well as modeling and simulation as a tool applied to the same crop. Both tools were worked through Matlab® software, control cards with sensors and meteorological stations, where the data related to the climatic conditions of the Study Region were taken and measured. It is concluded that the simulated and applied system is economically viable as an alternative for the increase of production in small, medium and large farmers of Watermelon, in the Sabanas Region of the Department of Sucre. In addition, the system is technically stable from the point of view of Control Theory with an error ratio of less than 1.5%, demonstrating good levels of liquid optimization and energy consumption. Keywords: fuzzy logic; watermelon; production; irrigation control system. Sistemas de riego difuso para la producción de sandía en la subregión Sabanas, Sucre – Colombia Resumen En el presente estudio, se exploran las relaciones entre la aplicación de una herramienta difusa aplicada a los sistemas de riego en cultivos de sandía, además del modelamiento y simulación como herramienta aplicada al mismo cultivo. Se trabajaron ambas herramientas a través del software Matlab®, tarjetas de control con sensores y estaciones meteorológicas, donde se tomaron y medíeron los datos relacionados con las condiciones climáticas de la región de estudio. Se concluye que el sistema simulado y aplicado, es económicamente viable como alternativa para el aumento de la producción en pequeños, medianos y grandes cultivadores de sandía en la región sabana del departamento de Sucre, y además el sistema es técnicamente estable desde el punto de vista de la teoría de control con una relación de error menor al 1.5% demostrando buenos niveles de optimización de líquido y consumo energético. Palabras clave: lógica difusa; sandía, producción; sistema de control de riego. 1. Introduction Colombia, the three phenomena have reached a profound impact on economies and societies. An aspect that demands The possibility of developing systems that allow the a lot of attention in areas where the soils are characterized by management of water resources has been constituted in being arid or semi-arid, and that result to have low levels of recent years, in one of the most representative and priority availability of this resource and of the requirements that problems worldwide. The main leaders in the different increase steadily [1,2]. nations of the world, incorporate it into their agendas and Worldwide, the consumption of the precious liquid in development plans. This is due to the enormous concern that agriculture ranges from 70 to 90%, registering efficacy levels is increasing every day, due to effects such as Global of around 50%, at best [1]. For this same reason, we propose Warming, the El Niño or La Niña Phenomena, which affect an Intelligent Control System based on executable models, multiple crops throughout the planet. Specifically, in through a Simulation Software and through wireless sensors 1How to cite: Cohen-Manrique, C., Rodríguez-Manrique, J., Ruíz-Escorcia, R. and Pérez-Pérez, M.F., Diffuse irrigation systems for the production of watermelon in the Sabanas subregion, Sucre – Colombia.. DYNA, 86(208), pp. 243-250, January - March, 2019 © The author; licensee Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Revista DYNA, 86(208), pp. 243-250, January - March, 2019, ISSN 0012-7353 DOI: http://doi.org/10.15446/dyna.v86n208.72966 Cohen-Manrique et al / Revista DYNA, 86(208), pp. 243-250, January - March, 2019. implementation of technological tools oriented to the field. In view of the above, a technological solution was implemented based on Fuzzy Control Systems oriented to the cultivation and production of Watermelon in the Subregion Savannas of the Department of Sucre. The main objective of this tool was to optimize resources in terms of energy, amount of liquid supplied, cost reduction and fertigation management. 2. Materials and methods The Control Diffuse System for Watermelon crops was Figure 1. Harvested Watermelon Area in Hectares. initially proposed in two phases. The first phase was the Source: [7] simulation of the entire Irrigation Controller, taking into account most of the variables that affect the microclimate of a plant, that is, the relative humidity in the air, the and low-cost electronic elements, to rationalize and optimize 3 water consumption in small, medium and small crops. of temperature of the air around the plant (approximately 1 m large extensions. In a particular way —and as a Case Study— around), wind speed, solar radiation. All these variables are , the Watermelon was chosen for its implementation, since it included in the evapotranspiration parameter, which, is a well-known fruit planted in the experimentation zone, the technically, establishes the approximate value of water Subregion Sabanas of the Department of Sucre. consumption of the plant due to these environmental factors. The Watermelon, whose origin goes back to the African In order to obtain the hourly values of these variables, the continent, where it still grows wild [3], is one of the most historical databases of the meteorological stations located in representative cucurbits for human consumption, due to its the Savannahs of the Department of Sucre were used, important contributions of components to the diet. This, for especially the Agrometeorological Station, located at the its high levels of vitamin A, B series and vitamin C. Also, for Green Door Headquarters of the University of Sucre its levels of minerals, such as potassium, magnesium, (coordinates 9.31, -75.38 and altitude 160 meters) and the calcium, phosphorus, sodium, and of carotenoids, such as pluviometric station of La Pastora (coordinates 9.29, -75.49 lycopene, beta-carotene, phytoene, leutin, phytoene and and altitude 58 meters). The record was made in a time neurosporene. Also noteworthy are their levels of schedule organized into 2880 data matrices that relate the carbohydrates, essential and non-essential amino acids, and measured variables, during the 30 days of the 4 months of healthy unsaturated fatty acids. But, the most remarkable harvest in which it is customary to plant watermelon crops in thing is its high moisturizing value, since the fruit is the region, that is, March, April, May and June. composed of 90% water [4,5]. This moisturizing aspect is In the database, the seasons between 2008 and 2015 are somehow reflected in its high level of water consumption in recorded, that is 23.040 data for each simulated variable, each of its stages of cultivation. Still, we lack statistics that which guarantees the correct implementation of the determine the exact levels of fluid consumption during their simulation and the sensitivity of its results, according to life stages, unless techniques such as covariance and vortices Chebyshev's theorem (1) , which was selected to evaluate the are used to measure evapotranspiration [6]. quality of the data, considering that its evaluation does not The main producer of Watermelon worldwide is China, depend on the type of distribution that the data possess, nor with 44.2% of world production; followed by the production should it start from premises or assumptions related to the registered by Turkey, which represents 3.78% of world correspondence that have the distributions of the data with production; Iran 2.78%; Brazil 2.38%. These countries basic distributions such as Gaussian, in studies with discrete constitute around 67% of world production [7]. Colombia variables [10]. registered, for the year 2016, a production of 139,488 tons in 1 7,799 hectares [7]. In Fig. 1, some of these statistics are P( x− Ex() ≥≤ kσ ) (1) shown, where you can see the enormous difference that k 2 China makes with all the other countries in the world, regarding the production of Watermelon. This Probability Theorem establishes the maximum The world production of Watermelon occupies a very acceptable distance between the standard deviation and the important place in international fruit trade, together with average of a random variable so that its result is considered other fruit