Click on “Download PDF” for the PDF version or on the title for the HTML version.

If you are not an ASABE member or if your employer has not arranged for access to the full-text, Click here for options.

The use of a resource like water, essential and scarce has environmental, social, economic and political importance, and a continuous increase in prices. In Castilla-La Mancha a semi-arid region and which fundamental activity is agriculture, irrigation constitutes the basis for the agrarian activity.

The optimization model presented uses genetic algorithms to identify the optimum productive strategy; it starts with a curve that relates the gross margin of crops with the irrigation gross depth discharged by the system. It tries to determine the crop alternative and seasonal gross irrigation volumes that maximize the gross margin in the exploitation.

The species chosen for crop alternative offer the highest gross margins, even those that need high water requirements and dry years. Horticultural crops are very common, due to their gross margin; onion, potatoes, and garlic are the most meaningful. Water is applied to those crops that provide a higher profitability.

The optimization using genetic algorithms has succeeded in solving this problem, even if the processing time is long.