| dc.description.abstract | As global populations increase and freshwater supplies decrease, improving farmers’ adoption of water-efficient irrigation equipment and practices is crucial. This aim is particularly imperative in resource-constrained regions like East Africa (EA) and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) where existing precision irrigation solutions— which are designed to achieve high water efficiencies—often do not meet the needs of farmers. In these regions, farmers prefer their current manual practices, or they may not be able to easily purchase, install, or maintain traditional precision irrigation equipment. This work aims to bring the water-efficiency benefits of precision irrigation to resource-constrained farmers by understanding and meeting their specific needs.
First, this work sought to elucidate the differences between the diverse types of EA farmers and to understand if opportunities exist for new irrigation products targeted to these farmers. An interview-based market assessment was conducted to reveal distinct market segments and each segment’s values regarding irrigation systems. Then, a techno-economic feasibility analysis was conducted to reveal which irrigation methods and energy sources would be most promising for each segment. Four market segments were found: the traditional smallholder, the semi-commercial smallholder, the medium-scale contract farmer, and the remote farmer. The remainder of this thesis focuses on the medium-scale contract farmer who would value low-cost prediction capabilities and solar-powered drip irrigation systems optimized for profit. The identified opportunities for innovation in this work can guide irrigation designers as they develop new systems that directly serve farmers’ needs.
The second aim of this work targeted medium-scale contract farmers in EA and a similar segment of MENA farmers. Functional requirements were proposed for a tool that could address the efficiency needs of these farmers while integrating into their current manual practices. To meet these requirements, a design concept for an automatic scheduling and manual operation (AS-MO) user experience (UX) was proposed. Storyboards and a prototype demonstration of the AS-MO UX were evaluated by farmers and key market stakeholders in Kenya, Jordan, and Morocco. Farmers in Kenya and Jordan in particular valued the proposed UX because they want increased efficiency on their farms without installing automatic valves for cost and complexity concerns. Interviewees provided feedback on how to improve the tool’s design in future iterations.
Finally, this work describes functional AS-MO tool prototypes that were installed on a farm in Jordan and a farm in Kenya. To understand how this tool performs under real farm conditions, these prototypes were designed to deliver a long-term ASMO UX to study participants. The prototype monitored local weather conditions, generated water-efficient schedules using an existing scheduling theory, and notified users’ phones when they should manually open or close valves. The irrigation practices of participants using the AS-MO prototype were compared to conventional practices. After 11 weeks of use, study participants also demonstrated successful use of the prototype on a daily basis. Irrigation events were measured on the field to show that users confirmed 93% of the scheduled events correctly using the tool’s interface. Further, of the irrigation events that did occur, a majority of their durations fell within 15% of the scheduled duration. Results from this work and feedback from study participants can continue to improve the design of the proposed AS-MO tool and its UX. If adopted at scale, this tool could increase the adoption of water-efficient irrigation practices on resource-constrained farms that are not served by existing precision irrigation technology, improving food security and sustainable agriculture in EA and MENA. | |
