EASYDRIP: dimensionamento de sistemas de irrigação por gotejamento energizado por sistemas fotovoltaicos em regiões moçambicanas desprovidas de energia elétrica

Abstract

Designing is the critical point of any irrigation project since it is the main requirement to provide water to crops at the right time and in the right quantity to meet the production´s water demand. When poorly dimensioned, a drip-irrigation system can make production technically and economically unfeasible. On the other hand, as many variables are considered in the scaling process, it becomes increasingly difficult to perform manually and is susceptible to errors. Furthermore, because drip irrigation is pressurized, energy availability is also essential for its operation, which makes it almost impossible to install in several regions of Mozambique where there is no electricity distribution network. Therefore, the main objective of this work was to develop software to design a drip-irrigation system pumped by solar energy. For this, we used the Visual Studio based on the development of a library of climatic data, motor pumps, pipes, and drippers used in Mozambique and necessary to scale irrigation and photovoltaic systems. We implemented computational routines using codes in the visual basic programming language and generated a graphical interface that allows the user to enter the data and observe the scaling results. The developed software was efficient for designing a drip irrigation system after being tested in designing an irrigation system for tomato crop in an agricultural field of an association of "tamauripo", of small farmers in Mozambique, in the city of Chimoio. Moreover, the software is capable of installation on any Windows-based computer without relying on other auxiliary programs for its operation.