An ABB irrigation solution has helped 8,500 farmers in a prime agricultural region of Spain to produce more crops with 30 percent less water during a period of severe drought.
By
ABB Communications
The solution has resulted in extensive benefits for the Lorca Irrigation Community in Murcia, Spain - an association of around 8,500 farmers who grow artichokes, broccoli, olives, lemons and other fruits and vegetables on some 14,000 hectares of land.
In the past few years, this part of Spain has suffered from a severe lack of rainfall and is in the midst of the driest spell on record. Reservoir levels are falling, rivers are running dry, and water has become a scarce and costly resource.
To preserve their livelihoods in what is locally called ‘the kitchen garden of Europe,’ the farmers have adapted to the water shortage by modernizing their irrigation methods and automating the entire system.
The old method of traditional irrigation channels was both labor-intensive and inefficient. A team of 30 people had to operate by hand hundreds of valves, hydrants and also wells, pumping stations and reservoirs that are scattered over 140 square kilometers. A fleet of vehicles was required for transportation.
In its place is now a highly effective system of trickle irrigation, in which water is pumped through pipes from wells, reservoirs and wastewater treatment plants, and then slowly dripped onto each plant or tree to provide optimal irrigation.
An ABB automation solution for the entire 14,000-hectare system not only makes the whole procedure possible, but has brought farmers a number of crucial benefits and shown how substantial cuts in both water and energy consumption can be made in an age of scarcity.
A wireless solution
Based on ABB’s Neptuno system for the remote control of irrigation zones, the solution consists of 3,700 state-of-the-art remote terminal units (RTUs), which use cable, radio or wireless technology to monitor and control the pipes, gaskets and hydrants, as well as the reservoirs, wells and pumping stations of the entire irrigation system.
The data is communicated to an ABB supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system, which is monitored from one central and six local control centers. The system is one of the largest SCADA systems in operation, processing around 200 data input/outputs for each of the 10,000 irrigation points in the 140 sq km site - a total of two million data input/outputs.
The solution was installed gradually between 2001 and 2009 as part of an irrigation modernization project funded by the Spanish Government. Already the benefits have been huge for farmers, the irrigation community as a whole, and the environment:
- Farmers can access and modify the irrigation parameters for their land via an Internet browser or a standard automated teller machine at one of 500 cash points in the Murcia area. They can buy and sell water, obtain data on the volume of water consumed, and program parameters like when and for how long a plot is to be irrigated
- Water from different sources – some of which is saline or effluent – can be blended to the optimal level of quality. The solution detects problems in the pipes, pumps and hydrants and can cut supply automatically by remote. It also allows the irrigation community to perform electronic billing
- The combination of ABB automation and drip irrigation enables farmers to provide each crop with the correct amount of water at the right time of day, and when electricity tariffs are at their lowest. This improves productivity and crop quality, and reduces energy consumption and energy costs
- The irrigation community has halved its manpower requirement from 30 to 15. Only one person is required at each office to operate the SCADA system; the rest perform maintenance in the field. The number of vehicles has been significantly reduced, as have fuel costs and payrolls
- To date, the annual water consumption of the Lorca Irrigation Community has been slashed from an average of 55 cubic hectometers to between 32-38 hm3, a reduction of more than 30 percent.
ABB has provided automation solutions for numerous irrigation projects in Spain. One of the most impressive is a
wireless solution for an association of 8,700 farmers in the Zujar Canal area of Extremadura. After the first irrigation season the association reported a 30 percent reduction in energy consumption, a 25 percent increase in productivity, and a huge saving in water consumption – enough to meet the annual minimum needs of 2.3 million people.