Water... The natural source of vitality, a must and the most valuable resource of all times. The basis of all strategic and political plans, the gift of having travelled to our world from space in frozen pieces, for which wars are fought! We live through times at risk of losing this valuable resource, so everything we have due to drought.
2/3 of our world is water-covered. 97.5% of the water on the Earth's surface is saline water in the oceans. The remaining 2.5% of freshwater is primarily stored in glaciers and deep groundwater locked in geological layers. 74% of fresh water is used for agriculture.
It has a fragile and easily disturbed balance. Yet, we have recently generated more carbon print with industrialization and excessive consumption. This led to global warming, and so the disrupted balance. Climates have changed, and water balance has altered.
Unfortunately, Turkey is running towards water poverty. Now, people started to look at dam occupancy rates apart from their daily check of financial markets. Rain was formerly a disaster that caused traffic jam and flooding in the eyes of people. Yet, it is now a gift awaited.
Well, what should we do?
There are a lot of ways to prevent drought. Some of them are:
Reducing carbon emissions,
Increasing afforestation practices,
Wastewater passing through advanced biological treatment plants,
Using irrigation systems such as drip irrigation, subsurface irrigation in agriculture,
The farmer's knowledge of the irrigation time and the amount of water they should irrigate depending on crops and area.
The first four items are always points of debate in social media, international forums and many reports. Dams are being built. Yet, nobody has focused on the irrigation scheduling and the amount of water at all. A lot of have been carried for drip irrigation; however, farmers conduct wild flooding in it. It is because the farmer does not know when and how much to water. This is not the fault of farmers.
Why hasn't the technology that will soon advance the first human mission to Mars solved this?
We have a limited resource. This resource must be calculated drop by drop using today's satellite, artificial intelligence, and deep learning technologies. Then, digital agricultural applications must convey the information to farmers so that they can understand and practice. Such services are available, but they are too complex and not understandable for farmers. We will have succeeded a much greater job than the items mentioned above if our farmers enter data into this computation on the irrigation time & the amount of water. It is possible to reach efficiency rates of up to 25% and water and energy up to 45% if digital agricultural applications can develop this system and our farmers use it.
The future is in agriculture; the solution is in digital agritech and applications incorporated traditional knowledge...
Göker Kuzucu
İmeceMobil Entrepreneur
