Italy is the leading rice producer in Europe, accounting for more than half of the total high-quality production of this crop. Rice is traditionally grown in fields that remain flooded starting with crop establishment until close to harvest, and this traditional irrigation technique (i.e., continuous submergence) is recognised as an important water resource sink (almost 40% of the irrigation water available worldwide is used for paddy areas). Meanwhile, the water management in rice areas requires a high level of labour because it is based on maintaining a predetermined water height in paddy fields and because the regulation of input and output flow is typically operated manually by the farmer. This study aims to evaluate the economical sustainability of adopting automatic and remote-controlled systems for irrigation of paddy fields. The results show that the investment is affordable for Italian farmers, it amount on average at about 650 \u20ac hectare-1 and it is repaid in about 15 year

A. Lasagna

C. Gandolfi

D. Masseroni

P. Carnevale

R. Tyrrell

AIR Universita degli studi di Milano

  
11th International AIIA Conference: July 5-8, 2017  Bari - Italy 
“Biosystems Engineering addressing the human challenges of the 21st century” 
 
 
Evaluating economic sustainability of the first automatic system for 
paddy irrigation in Europe 
 
Masseroni D.(1), Lasagna A. (2), Carnevale P.(3), Tyrrell R. (4), Gandolfi C. (1). 
(1)
Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (DiSAA) , University of Milan, Via Celoria 2, 
20133 Milano. 
(2)
Associazione Irrigazione Est Sesia, Via Negroni 7, 28100 Novara . 
(3)
Azienda Agricola 
Cerino, Cascina Molino della Raina 6, 27020 Semiana. (4)Rubicon Water, 1 Cato street, Hawthorn 
East,3123 Victoria, Australia; 
Corresponding author: Masseroni Daniele - mail: daniele.masseroni@unimi.it 
 
Keywords: Gravity-fed surface irrigation systems; rice field irrigation 
management; automatic and remote controlled gate. 
 
Summary 
Italy is the leading rice producer in Europe, accounting for more than half of the total 
high-quality production of this crop. Rice is traditionally grown in fields that remain 
flooded starting with crop establishment until close to harvest, and this traditional 
irrigation technique (i.e., continuous submergence) is recognised as an important water 
resource sink (almost 40% of the irrigation water available worldwide is used for paddy 
areas). Meanwhile, the water management in rice areas requires a high level of labour 
because it is based on maintaining a predetermined water height in paddy fields and 
because the regulation of input and output flow is typically operated manually by the 
farmer. This study aims to evaluate the economical sustainability of adopting automatic 
and remote-controlled systems for irrigation of paddy fields. The results show that the 
investment is affordable for Italian farmers, it amount on average at about 650 € hectare-
1 and it is repaid in about 15 year.  
 
1. Introduction 
Rice is a staple crop for more than half the world’s population. Approximately 90% of 
world rice production is grown in Asia, while the quantities produced in Europe are 
relatively limited (approximately 2 million tons). Italy, with more than half of the total 
European rice production, is the first producer of the old continent, while Spain, Greece, 
Portugal and France appear in the top five producers providing about 30%, 10%, 5% 
and 3% of the total European rice production, respectively (EUROSTAT 2013, ISTAT 
2009). The most important rice-growing area in Italy is a portion of the Padana plain 
located to the east of Ticino river, straddling the regions of Lombardy and Piedmont in 
northern Italy (more than 200.000 hectares, 92% of the Italian rice surface). Although 
the main objective of the rice farms is productive, areas in which the prevailing crop is 
rice create a peculiar agro-ecosystem characterized by the presence of water in the fields 
for several months each year (Masseroni et al. 2017b). The prolonged presence and 
circulation of water, due to continuous flooding of fields from wet-sowing until close to 
harvest, represents a distinguishing feature of these rice areas, some of which have also 
been included in the European ecological network NATURA 2000 and on the official 
list of the European Special Protected Areas (Habitat Directive, 92/43/EEC). However, 
the traditional irrigation technique, based on continuous flooding during the growing 
season, still dominates in most areas (for example, in 85% of the northern Italy rice 
area) and is characterized by very low irrigation efficiencies and a high level labor 
requirement performed by workers (named in Italian “acquaioli”), which combine rich 
hands-on experience and local traditional knowledge. Although there are no accurate 
  
11th International AIIA Conference: July 5-8, 2017  Bari - Italy 
“Biosystems Engineering addressing the human challenges of the 21st century” 
 
 
literature measurements related to the time that farmers spend for irrigation 
management of their fields, it may be estimated that a significant fraction of the 
working day during the agricultural season is dedicated to the manual control and 
adjustment of the gates to maintain the correct levels of water inside the paddy fields. 
This fraction of the day can vary considerably depending on the extension of the 
cultivated area, the growing period and the fragmentation of the rice-growing property. 
Consequently, these features affect the fixed costs of individual companies, primarily 
for the assumption of seasonal workers’ time that is dedicated full-time or part-time to 
irrigation management. The implementation of reliable automatic irrigation systems 
which support the manual operations of these workers is strictly encouraged especially 
by farmers in order to ensure a more rational allocation of water in the fields according 
crop conditions. 
The purpose of this study concerns the evaluation economic sustainability of the first 
automatic and remote controlled gate prototype (already described in its hardware and 
software components in Masseroni et al. (2017a)) originally designed for furrow, basin 
or border irrigations and rearranged for a traditional rice irrigation in Europe and tested 
with a pilot project in Italy.  
 
2. Materials and Methods 
The pilot project was carried out in the agricultural season 2016 (from April to 
September) in a paddy field of the Cerino farm (45° 08’ 00.00’’ N; 8° 44’ 42.15’’ E) 
located in Semiana (PV). The system was composed by one BayDrive® gate of 70cm 
width for automatic and remote-controlled flow regulation, one FlumeMeter® box for 
inlet flow measurements, one FloodTech® sensor for the real-time monitoring of water 
level in the field, and lastly one FarmConnect Gateway® as a connection device to the 
cellular network. All devices were designed by Rubicon Water industry involved in the 
project together with Civil Engineering department of University of Melbourne.  
The assessment of the economical performance is performed analyzing the 
improvements achieved by the automated irrigation system with respect to traditional 
rice irrigation management features. In particular, traditional rice irrigation management 
practices were extrapolated from questionnaires distributed by the National Rice Center 
technicians to 45 farmers homogenously spread over a rice area of about 1500 km2 
located between the Ticino and Sesia rivers. The 13 questions listed in the interview are 
the following and the answer referring to the agricultural season 2016: (i) Municipality 
where the farm is located. (ii) Utilized Agricultural Area (UAA) for rice cultivation 
within the farm. (iii) Type of seeding method, surface devoted to each method, and 
irrigation management. In particular: (iiia) Dry seeding and delayed FLooding (DFL); 
(iiib) Water seeding and continuous FLooding (WFL); (iiic) Dry seeding and 
intermittent IRrigation (DIR). (iv) Number of diversion canals used for the farm 
irrigation supply. (v) Methodology of water delivering to the farm (i.e. continuous or 
rotational). (vi) Level of farm fragmentation (i.e. time the farmer spends to reach the 
farthest rice field). (vii) Type of irrigation: (viia) Gravity irrigation; (viib) Tractor with 
water pomp (pumped irrigation). (viii) Irrigation management (i.e. manually or based on 
automatic systems). (ix) Number of times per day that the inlet gate to a generic rice 
field needs to be maneuvered/adjusted. (x) Man-hours a day required for farm irrigation. 
(xi) Number of workers involved in the irrigation procedures. (xii) Number of times the 
irrigation system requires maintenance in an year. (xiii) Annual average cost for the 
irrigation network maintenance (e.g. gate replacement, canal relining etc.). 
  
11th International AIIA Conference: July 5-8, 2017  Bari - Italy 
“Biosystems Engineering addressing the human challenges of the 21st century” 
 
 
Starting from questionnaire responses, a cost-benefit analysis of the economic impact of 
automation on farmer’s income is performed through Net Present Value (NPV) 
methodology (Khan 1993).  
 
3. Results and Discussion 
The average cost for a complete automated irrigation system inferred by Rubicon 
quotations and composed by one BayDrive® gate, one FloodTech® sensor, 
transmission antenna, communication and actuation protocols, power supply, and 
FarmConnect® software is about 7,704 € (subdivided in 1,540 € for the gate, 700 € for 
the rubber insert, 1,806 € for the water level sensor, 3,224 € for the antenna, 
communication protocols, 245 € for installation and finally 189 € for FarmConnect® 
software and commissioning). The gate cost can vary considerably in function of the 
BayDrive® width, however, in this study we chose the price of a generic gate of about 
70cm width according the dimension used in the pilot project. In addition to this cost, an 
annual maintenance fee for automation of about 21 € gate-1 year-1 and FloodTech-1 year-
1 is required, which include software upgrade services, gates maintenance and data 
storages. An annual SIM card recharge service of about 315 € year-1 has to be included.  
The cost of the initial investment for the surveyed farms is on average 43,474€. This 
cost was obtained by multiplying the fixed costs for the automation system (i.e. 1,540 € 
for gate, 700 € for rubber insert 1,806 € for the water level sensor, 378 € for software 
and commissioning) for the mean number of fields per farm (supposing one field - one 
gate). The mean number of fields per farm is about 9, the latter calculated as the ratio 
between the mean UAA for the surveyed farms (about 63 hectares) and the mean size of 
a rice field (about 7 hectares). Furthermore, to the previous costs, 3,224 € plus 245 € 
respectively for central gateway transmission device and for installation (both costs are 
independent by the number of fields) are summed. 
The life-time of the whole automatic system is supposed to be 20 years, after which all 
the devices should be replaced with new equipment.  
Regarding the management costs of a traditional rice irrigation system, the overall hours 
invested in a day for the farm irrigation were multiplied for (i) the hourly cost of a non-
specialized agricultural worker (13.73 € hour-1 by ISTAT information), (ii) the days of 
an irrigation season (about 90 days) and, lastly, (iii) the number of workers involved in 
irrigation procedures. The irrigation management cost amounts to 3,400 € year-1 as well 
as 2,300 € year-1 for the irrigation network maintenance.  
The NPV methodology was applied to quantify the profitability of the automation 
adoption and separately the manual option, by subtracting the actual value of cash 
outflows (including initial cost) from the actual value of cash inflows over the life time 
of devices (20 year). A discount rate of 5% is supposed.  
The cash outflows for the automation solution are: (i) the initial investment (43,474€) at 
the first year; (ii) the annual fee for automation and SIM card recharge service (688 € 
year-1); (iii) the cost for farm canals maintenance (about 460 € year-1) supposed to be 
20% of the total cost of the irrigation network maintenance;(iv) the cost for the gates 
tele-control (supposed about 15 min day-1) of about 309 € year-1 (i.e. 13.73 € hour-1 x 15 
min day-1 x 90 days year-1 x 60-1 hour min-1). While the cash outflow for the manual 
solution are: (i) the labor cost for traditional rice irrigation (3,400 € year-1); (ii) the cost 
of irrigation network maintenance (2,300 € year-1). 
The results show that the NPV at the end of the 20th year is positive (about 9,400 €) for 
the automation solution and therefore the investment can be accepted and can be 
selected over the manual option (Fig. 1). The investment is fully repaid at the end of the 
  
11th International AIIA Conference: July 5-8, 2017  Bari - Italy 
“Biosystems Engineering addressing the human challenges of the 21st century” 
 
 
14th year, with a total capital cost of ranging from 638 to 689 € hectare-1 the former in 
the case where Gateway® and installation costs are amortized across 12 properties as 
usually performed in the Australian installations.  
 
 
Fig. 1. Cost-benefit analysis over 20 years of the automatic irrigation system life time. 
 
4. Conclusion 
The current costs for the automation appear affordable for the Italian rice farmers since 
the NPV of the automatic solution is positive. Moreover, many externalities connected 
with an automatic and remote controlled management of irrigation should be taken into 
account if the performances of these systems are evaluated on a wider spatial scale (i.e. 
irrigation district or basin scales). In these cases, the maintaining of the ecological, 
landscape and environmental functions of the gravity-fed irrigation systems and the 
continuous monitoring of the binominal crop water requirements - water availability, 
give to the irrigation water managers the possibility to plan the water allocation and to 
regulate water distribution in function of farmer requirements. This overall 
improvement of the management performance could provide a profitable growth in 
revenue of irrigation consortia, in particular reducing the time spending for gates 
maneuvering especially in the context of Padana plain where the length of the irrigation 
network exceeds the 40,000 km. Lastly, the combination of flow regulation and 
measurements provided by the automatic irrigation system, can be a valuable support 
for the regional water authorities in order to evaluate the actual water consumptions 
according to the national law and European Union recommendations. This might 
provide an overview on irrigation efficiencies over the territories allow a more rational 
planning of irrigation resources. 
 
References 
EUROSTAT. 2013. Available from: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database  
ISTAT. 2010. VI Census of agriculture year 2010. http://censimentoagricoltura.istat.it/.  
Khan, M.Y. (1993). Theory & Problems in Financial Management. Boston: McGraw 
Hill Higher Education. ISBN 978-0-07-463683-1. 
Masseroni, D., Uddin, J., Tyrrell, R., Mareels, I., Gandolfi, C., & Facchi, A. (2017a). 
Towards a smart automated surface irrigation management in rice-growing areas in 
Italy. Journal of Agricultural Engineering, 48(1), 42-48. 
Masseroni, D., Ricart, S., de Cartagena, F. R., Monserrat, J., Gonçalves, J. M., de Lima, 
I., Sali G; Facchi A. & Gandolfi, C. (2017b). Prospects for Improving Gravity-Fed 
Surface Irrigation Systems in Mediterranean European Contexts. Water, 9(1), 20. 


Evaluating economic sustainability of the first automatic system for paddy irrigation in Europe

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Evaluating economic sustainability of the first automatic system for paddy irrigation in Europe

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