📋 Tender Overview
Summer spoils Bavaria with sunshine and blue skies. What pleases holidaymakers is causing more and more problems for farmers, gardeners, foresters and winegrowers. Because climate change with heat and drought threatens the cultivation of regional food, especially in northern Bavaria. Local fruit and vegetables, for example, are hardly possible without irrigation. “Currently about three percent of the open land in Bavaria is irrigated. This is a low value compared to other countries. Nevertheless, we urgently need intelligent solutions for irrigation so that fruit and vegetable farmers, especially in northern Bavaria, can continue to produce local food in the future. Because water is becoming more and more of a precious commodity in Bavaria, too,” said Minister of Agriculture Michaela Kaniber.
In future, farmers will be able to use a new irrigation app to use water as sparingly as possible. It was developed on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture under the leadership of the Working Group on Agricultural Engineering and Agricultural Construction in Bavaria eV (ALB) and with the support of the Bavarian State Institute for Agriculture (LfL). The web-based decision tool helps farmers and growers to accurately calculate the best time to irrigate and the right amount of water. Among other things, measurement data from 680 weather stations, the soil quality, the irrigation technology used and data on the cultivated crop are taken into account. In this way, harvest yields and quality can be secured and at the same time water consumption can be limited to what is absolutely necessary.
The aim is to control the use of water in such a way that irrigation is only carried out when the available soil supply has been used up and the plants can just about tolerate the degree of soil drying out. Only the ground space penetrated by the plants should receive water, useless seepage is avoided. “In order for the app to work, you need in-depth plant cultivation knowledge. That is why the app is being continuously developed with the involvement of experts, including specialists from the Bavarian State Institute for Viticulture and Horticulture," said the minister. It is also intended to further develop the app for the special challenges of viticulture on steep slopes.
And the minister emphasized another advantage: “The app not only saves water. The optimized irrigation also ensures that the fertilizer can be reliably absorbed by the plants. This prevents these valuable nutrients from being shifted into deeper soil layers or into the groundwater with the next heavy rain. This is active groundwater protection and benefits the environment, consumers and farmers alike,” says Kaniber.
The new app is free of charge for every user with its full range of functions and is suitable for use both on a PC and on a smartphone. You can access the irrigation app at www.alb-bayern.de/app. Well-founded information on how to use the decision-making tool was developed in the Bavarian Irrigation Forum, which can be found at www.alb-bayern.de/bef1.
