Usina Estivas located in the municipality of Ares/RN is a sugar cane mill which produces sugar, ethanol and power generation The mills intended to increase the productive life of the sugarcane crop by protecting it from the long dry period of the region.
Rivulis was commissioned to find a solution that worked with the extremely arid, sandy and light soils. This required special attention in the drip spacing of the laterals, as the water holding capacity of the soil was very low. With the need for long lines to optimize mechanization, D5000 laterals were used at flow rate of 1.0l/h with close emitter spacing . The Rivulis team was present every day during installation to monitor the project’s technical schedule and standards.
The biggest result of the project has been the rare possibility of the producer having two harvests during the year, with the first crop yielding more than double non-irrigated crops nearby, and in just 7 months.
“The project has been developed in the SDI model with low flow and high frequency application drippers, using medium quality water. It has been possible to develop a project with low instantaneous application and high irrigation time per ideal sector for sandy soils with D5000 PC”, says Usina Estivas Director, Eduardo Queiroz Monteiro.
