Irrigation: costs management as a tool in decision-taking

Abstract

Irrigation agriculture is currently an activity which employs great water quantities, proportionally close to 70%. Foregrounded on population increase to nine billion inhabitants on the planet in 2050 requiring food and water, a dilemma looms ahead on how food production increase will occur in such a short period of time if horizontal growth is limited and restricted. The solution may be in irrigation techniques which in Brazil is used in approximately 5% of the cultivated area. Since water is a limited resource, it should be well managed and used in a more efficient and rational manner. Precision agriculture, already a fact in machines and equipments, has incorporated such a concept to irrigation and must be preceded by a financial control determining when and how irrigation must be undertaken. The use of costs systems per activity favors management capacity in decision taking, coupled to technical factors commonly employed as a parameter in the management of irrigation.