No. 3. July
| Traditionally, the spread of sugarcane irrigation has been carried out empirically and almost always without taking into account the soil-water-plant relationship. This runs the risk of applying an excessive number of irrigations or subjecting the crop to periods of moisture deficit that can affect the production and quality of the cane. The water balance is similar to a soil water accounting, in which the gains and losses of moisture are compared; this methodology for irrigation programming has been widely evaluated in other sugarcane growing regions of the world. The Cenirrómetro tank, designed and evaluated by CENICAÑA, allows irrigation programming because it visually integrates the different parameters of the water balance. The Cenirometer is based on the idea that the soil is a reservoir of water for plants, and takes advantage of the concept of water balance as a natural process that operates continuously in the crop field. The Cenirometer tank is a practical means of scheduling irrigation, because it functions simultaneously as a rain gauge and an evaporimeter, also involving the water consumption of the sugarcane by means of a K factor and the moisture storage capacity of the soil. The K factor is used to convert the evaporation measured in the Class A tank into actual evapotranspiration, which corresponds to the sum of the amount of water lost by direct evaporation from the soil surface and by transpiration from the leaves of the plants. |
