CITRIG

Piloting tool for localized irrigation in citrus orchards

CITRIG is a decision support tool developed jointly by the Citrus Technical Center (CTA), www.cta.com.tn, and the National Research Institute for Rural Engineering, Water and Forests (INRGREF), www. inrgref.agrinet.tn, in order to optimize the management of irrigation water in citrus orchards. This application is the result of a participatory approach that involved local actors (farmers, extension workers, development agents, etc.) at the different stages of its development.

The CITRIG-V1 application, launched in December 2022, allows users to establish average irrigation schedules expressed in terms of water volumes and irrigation durations, according to the characteristics of their orchards and their management systems. irrigation. CITRIG is intended for farmers, extension workers, agricultural advisers and other development agents. It can be used by decision makers for irrigation water planning and allocations. The application can also serve as an educational support for students of agricultural sciences.

The genesis of "CITRIG" began in 2015, as part of the activities of the research and development agreement established between INRGREF and CTA around the issue of agricultural water and adaptation to climate change in orchards. of citrus fruits. This collaboration was supported by the development axis of the International Joint Laboratory "Management of water resources in rural areas" LMI NAILA (https://lmi-naila.com) from 2019, of the JPI-water project " FLUXMED » 2019-2023 (https://fluxmed.eu) and the PILOTEAU project of the APIS program led by the French Institute in Tunisia IFT and the Research Institute for Development IRD (https://www.ird.fr /tunisia) in 2022.

A new version of the application, CITRIG-V2, is being developed as part of the EVE project (https://www.eve-italy-tunisie.eu/) funded by the European Union ENI Cross-Border Cooperation Program Italy-Tunisia 2014-2020. CITRIG-V2 will allow the display of climate measurements recorded at the stations that feed the CITRIG library and the generation of real-time irrigation schedules. Read more: https://www.citrig.tn/apropos