CalCul
This simulation software allows the construction, at the scale of a whole irrigation scheme, of a provisional calendar of cultivation operations for a rice crop according to the variety, date and planned mode of implantation. This calendar is optimal for the crop and takes into account the duration of the work carried out collectively on the scheme.
- This software (running under MS-DOS) was designed at the end of the 1990s within the framework of the CORAF research pole on Sahelian Irrigated Systems (PSI-CORAF). It is based on a model of irrigated rice development in the Sahel and cropping recommendations developped by AfricaRice. Depending on the variety of rice, the date and method of planting chosen, it builds a provisional calendar of cropping interventions at the scale of the irrigated perimeter, from pre-irrigation to harvest. Used by an agricultural advisor, this tool is intended for a collective irrigated scheme.
PSI-CORAF tested this tool in Mauritania and distributed it to ISRA and AfricaRice researchers, and to development structures in Mauritania (SONADER) and Senegal (SAED). Unfortunately, this tool has not been used outside PSI-CORAF.
The agricultural consultant uses this software with a group of producers to build a provisional calendar of crop interventions on their irrigated perimeter. For each operation (from pre-irrigation to harvest), a period (start and end dates) is proposed; the work in each plot will have to comply with the water turn between plots.
The parameters are the duration (on the scale of the perimeter) of each collective work (soil preparation, impoundment, harvesting, and possibly pre-irrigation and transplanting), the expected date of the start of sowing, the variety of rice (the software uses the characteristics of 49 rice varieties) and the chosen planting method. The software uses climate files (site latitude, minimum and maximum daily temperatures recorded in past years) from various weather stations in the Sahel; simply select one close to the perimeter. It provides a provisional schedule of rice development and cropping interventions (pre-irrigation, tillage, watering, transplanting, de-weeding, fertilizer application, harvesting) with a start and end date for each one. The implementation of this work in each plot will then have to follow the rhythm of the water turn between plots.
Contact: jean-christophe.poussin@ird.fr
To know more about it: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308521X05001927