New agroclimatic information system revolutionizes water management in potato crops

• Technology 4.0 for agriculture in Cundinamarca

 

Mosquera, Cundinamarca. September 6, 2024. In a significant advance for precision agriculture, AGROSAVIA presents the Agroclimatic Information System for Potato Cultivation (SIAP, for its acronym in Spanish), a Technological Offer that aims to transform how potato producers in Cundinamarca manage agroclimatic risks in their crops.

SIAP is a modular and accessible platform that allows producers, technicians, agronomists, and academics to easily interpret meteorological and climatological information relevant to potato cultivation in specific areas of the department of Cundinamarca, with a particular focus on the province of Sabana de Occidente and the Municipality of Tenjo.

This innovative system, developed over four years through a co-design process led by the Tibaitatá Research Center, offers key products such as the climatic characterization of the production areas, water balance and carbon absorption models, and bioclimatic variables of interest, such as accumulated degree days. All of these data are presented intuitively through maps, reports, graphs, and tables, facilitating decision-making in crop management.

With the information generated by a network of agrometeorological stations, SIAP allows producers to optimize the use of irrigation water, adapting the crop's needs to the specific conditions of each farm. In addition, the platform offers a territorial view, which allows the analysis of climatic variables such as rainfall, temperature, or evapotranspiration and their fluctuation under climatic variability phenomena such as El Niño-Southern Oscillation.

For Angela Castaño, Lead Investigator of the project, "Potato producers in the region now have a robust and easily accessible tool, which not only improves the management of their crops but also strengthens their capacity to face climate change challenges."

SIAP is available through AGROSAVIA's MAPA Expert System (SE-MAPA, for its acronym in Spanish) and can be used without registration, with just an internet connection.

"We feel very optimistic, satisfied, and eager to continue fine-tuning this type of TO. Providing technological solutions with robust technical-scientific bases is not easy. Often, reaching a level of comprehensiveness is impossible, and therefore, the solutions tend to be isolated. We considered these elements and others in the generation of this TO. For example, SIAP is part of the MAPA Expert System (SE-MAPA), understanding that the latter is an institutional brand and a national reference regarding agroclimatic culture for several years. Supporting or leveraging these types of elements is very important, and we propose this. And we speak of optimism because we consider with the group that created this offer that many things are still missing, but others are already beginning to materialize with this technological product," expressed Gustavo Araujo, Master Researcher at the C.I. Tibaitatá.

This new technological development, supported by solid scientific studies and the collaboration of producers, commercial companies, technical assistants, association representatives, academics, and different groups within the corporation, represents an important step towards the modernization of agriculture in Colombia, offering producers a vital tool to maximize their efficiency and sustainability.