IRRIGATION AND FERTIGATION PERFORMANCE EVALUATED BY STATISTICAL QUALITY CONTROL - DOI: 10.13083/1414-3984/reveng.v23n6p541-551

Abstract

The evaluation of an irrigation system can be made with use of uniformity of water distribution, whereas the Christiansen’s Coefficient of Uniformity (CCU) is the most used, since it is a source of evaluation of its proper functioning as well as a way to check its viability deployment and operation. This work has the objective to use the Statistical Quality Control (SQC), through the process capability index to evaluate the uniformity of water distribution from a conventional sprinkler irrigation system operating with water and performing fertigation. The tests were conducted at the Experimental Center of Agricultural Engineering - NEEA - belonging to the State University of West of Paraná - UNIOESTE - Campus Cascavel - Paraná, using 2 sprinklers Super10 model (NAANDAN), spaced 9 m apart and 18 collectors with a distance of 3 m. Climatic factors were monitored and collected at 10 min intervals by a wireless meteorological station (La Crosse) over 25 trials of 1 h each for irrigation and fertigation. For irrigation trials, an average CCU of 79.72% was found and the wind average speed was 1.85 m s-1and for fertigation, the CCU was 77.14% with an average wind speed of 1.50 m s-1. The upper and lower control limits were calculated for the quality control charts and process capability index for the uniformity coefficients. Results showed that the Statistical Quality Control is a powerful auxiliary tool forclassifying irrigation systems in the pursuit of optimization of water use.