Farmerless Profit-Oriented Irrigation Scheduling Strategy for Solid Sets. II: Assessment

The companion paper presented a self-programmable profit-oriented irrigation scheduling strategy based on simulation models. This study is an assessment of the strategy and aims to contribute to the analysis of its viability. The assessment is based on the simulation of corn irrigated with a typical solid-set system under 81 scenarios that combine different conditions of weather, soil, and prices over a period of nine years. Two simpler self-programmable yield-oriented strategies serve as benchmarks for the assessment. The profit-oriented strategy achieves up to 168 euros/ha higher profit, depending on the conditions of the scenario. Lower percolation and better harnessing of initial soil water are the main drivers of the profit gap, in which the influence of prices is low because of the high efficiency achieved. This water conservation (up to 128 mm) could also deliver additional benefits that future researches should analyze. The models and a multidisciplinary approach provide a better understanding of the technical and economic processes that enable the development of advanced self-programmable strategies that lead to wiser, more situation-specific irrigation decisions.