QIrriga: a mobile application for climate-based irrigation management

Overuse of water is evolving into an unsustainable practice, giving rise to various problems. The use of technologies that facilitate the calculation of the actual demand for water resources in irrigated agriculture is of paramount importance for both productive and environmental sustainability. The aim of this study was to develop a computer application for irrigation management based on climate information for sprinkler and localized irrigation systems. QIrriga was developed in the Java programming language using Android Studio, which is an integrated development environment, and can be used to obtain the irrigation time for micro-sprinkler, drip, and conventional sprinkler irrigation systems, as well as the per centimeter value for center pivot irrigation. These values are determined by inputting location, weather, irrigation system, and crop data, thereby facilitating users in achieving efficient and sustainable irrigation management. The application also has a user-friendly interface. To validate the process and use of the app, the results generated by the app were compared with the values calculated using equations from the literature; it was found that both methods yielded consistent values. QIrriga is indicated for irrigation management.