Conditions are ripe for big leaps in the adoption of some very innovative technology to help growers everywhere be more efficient, more sustainable, and more profitable with their water.
By Richard Jones, Corporate Content Director Meister Media Worldwide
Historic drought conditions placing intense pressure on water resources. An increasing worldwide emphasis on sustainability focusing its gaze directly on agriculture. A changing climate causing growers everywhere to adapt to unfamiliar production conditions. There has never been a more optimal time for the adoption of efficient and innovative technology tools for irrigation.
Weather stations, soil moisture sensors, remote sensing from planes, drones, and satellites — much of the available technology is familiar to growers everywhere at this point. But those tools are just scratching the surface of what’s available, and what soon will be.
“During the pandemic period of this past 15 months, from my standpoint as an observer there was no slowdown in the major manufacturers in developing new products testing and commissioning research. They emphasized their new product development. I think [those companies] came out the better for it,” says Stephen Smith, Owner, Buena Vida Farm and Wade Water LLC
“I think what is most exciting about new technology is the ease of use and how they’re boiling it down to being pretty simple for a farmer to use. A lot of these concepts have initially been expensive and complicated. But today the manufacturers have been able to figure out a way to make the technology more usable,” says Deborah Hamlin, who retired as Executive Director of the Irrigation Association in January 2022 after 15 years in the position.
While some of the more anticipated developments may still be a few years away from practical use in ag, according to the experts there are a number of technologies available now that are yet to be fully exploited by growers and agriculture in general.
“The advancement in probes and the ability to remotely monitor now provides reliable information for the standard ‘When, Where, and How Much’ question. However, the adoption is not what you would expect with many still managing their irrigation based on tradition and/or ‘one-size-fits-all’ strategies,” says Hylon Kaufmann, Director of Business Development & Marketing, Ranch Systems.
The flow meter is underused as well, she says.
“Flow meters not only provide the ability to know how much total water has been delivered in a system. When they are installed in a system providing remote monitoring, they also document run times and validate water volume applied per set. Things happen, systems are started and stopped off schedule, etc., resulting in less or more water than the ‘schedule’ recommended being applied. At the end of the year when yields are being analyzed and fields compared, this documentation can highlight differences that would otherwise not be known.”
The use of thermal data is another example, says Victor van den Berg, Vice President of Grower Relations, Aerobotics. “Remote sensing technologies which use thermal imagery can allow for early detection of irrigation-related challenges in orchards,” he says.
John Bourne, Vice President of Marketing, Ceres Imaging agrees. “Thermal data is incredibly valuable to growers and this isn’t being adopted fully. It can tell you about the water status of your crop before issues impact yield. As such, thermal data helps growers go from reactive to proactive irrigation management. Leveraging thermal data and combining it with machine learning techniques is a very easy way to identify issues impacting uniformity when there is still time to do something about it,” he says.
Automation is an area that deserves more attention, says John Rowley, Product Manager, Nelson Irrigation.
“In tree and vine drip systems and solid set sprinkler systems for row crops, the automation of the zone valves is not fully adopted. Especially wireless options with remote control features,” he says.
From a broader perspective, automation is the next logical step in streamlining a traditionally labor-intensive process like irrigation. But we’re not there yet, says Benjamin Smith, Lead Technical Irrigation Support, Semios. “Irrigation automation is still sort of an ethereal concept. Is it just remote control? Is it a set schedule, or is it a dynamic system that responds to changing local conditions and applies water accordingly? Does it include fertilizer and filter stations? What about wells and booster pumps? There are options already out there, but even the most sophisticated barely reach the scale of landscape irrigation controls,” he says.
Demand for automation has increased 20- or 30-fold in the last 10 years, but a lack of reliable, full-scale solutions has hindered adoption from all but a few blocks operated by the most innovative growers. New insights and indicators are being developed by ag technology companies, but due to complexity and labor shortages, much of the potential aid it can provide is only achievable with the use of automation systems. Until we have systems that can easily be implemented and relied upon, we will not be able to take full advantage of new insights provided by data from the field.
In some cases, the technology isn’t the big missed opportunity.
“With the advancement of microirrigation, distribution uniformity and scheduled maintenance are not standard practice,” Kaufmann says. “The use of technology, such as pressure transducers, as well as water adjustment solutions make a difference in an irrigation system.”
Industry irrigation consultant Paul McFadden agrees. He cites a study he worked on with a number of large growers in the West checking the uniformity of their drip systems.
“We saw uniformities of 0.6 to 0.9. We should be seeing 0.9 to 0.94. Other studies have shown that the uniformity in that region is typically 0.8 to 0.85. There are lots of inefficient systems out there,” McFadden says. “We need to take a hard look at designing better systems and more importantly, maintaining them. Extra water means extra nutrients running off or leaching.”
Charles Hillyer, Director of the Center for Irrigation Technology, CSU Fresno, puts it even more directly: “You can spend $10,000 an acre on the most accurate precise drip irrigation system on the planet. If you don’t invest any money in management, then you’ve spent $10,000 an acre to very, very precisely mismanage your water.”
What will be the next important development in irrigation technology growers will be talking about five years from now? The collection and actionable use of data is at the top of the list.
“[The goal is having] soil moisture sensors along with in-field weather stations, cameras, and aerial imagery all working together to allow growers to monitor irrigation and soil moisture in real time, and its influence on fruit development,” says Aerobotics’ van den Berg.
According to Hillyer, some of the most interesting innovation is happening in sensing.
“The really new stuff on the sensing side are things that are doing essentially plant-based measurements using different modes, using multispectral sensing,” he says. There are a vendor manufacturers offering plant-based sensors that use visible and near-infrared light. And then there are the more proximal type sensors where a sensor is embedded in the plant itself or touching the plant. I’ve seen a few other types of sensors that are basically heat pulse that are measuring sap flow.”
Insight from the tree or plant itself is critical, Semios’ Smith says. “We are really good at gathering data from the atmosphere — evapotranspiration, humidity, radiation, wind — and we are pretty good and getting better at gathering data from the soil using soil moisture sensors. But we lack data from the middle of the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. Giant leaps are being made in breaking the code to understanding the data, and within the next 5 years I expect that something will clearly stand out as providing the best insight into what is going on in the plant.”
Cost will likely play a role in how the data is gathered, however, according to Hillyer.
That is where the remote sensing products really sort of shine in terms of value because you get multiple measurements per acre at a similar price point,” Hillyer says. “Remote sensing, if it’s not more adopted than the proximal sensing now, will be eventually. "
Once data is collected, many experts see the integration of different technologies as a critical next step.
“We’ve made incredible progress in a number of irrigation technologies, from imagery, to in-field sensors, to irrigation automation. In the near future, the conversation will not be which option you should use, but how you best integrate them,” says Ceres Imaging’s Bourne.
Amir Lin, Marketing Director, Phytech agrees with that assessment. “[I am most excited about] the emergence of an A-Z operating system which will facilitate digital transformation and can seamlessly integrate other services to make farming more efficient and sustainable,” he says.
Nelson’s Rowley says combining data collection, automation, and evaluation of the results of the irrigation will be a valuable next step in integrating different technologies for growers. “I think we’ll possibly have a combination of the use of zone valve automation combined with the verification of the irrigation event. This kind of irrigation tool relies on new and emerging data collection technologies that may become widely used by producers to track irrigation and evaluate the effect of irrigation practices on yield and quality from year to year,” he says.
This crossing and processing of data has real potential to identify trends that we never realized were related, with some amazing results in the quality and attributes of a crop.
“With more data, more sophisticated algorithms, and developing AI, we will be able to pick up trends that occur by comparing and contrasting data sets that we maybe didn’t realize impact each other. Does soil temperature affect a plants’ ability to uptake water? Is it possible that a tree ‘hoards’ water when it gets hot and as such it is harder to induce stress than we thought? And how does potassium nutrition work with transpiration to move water through the plant? We think we have a lot of data now, but we have very literally just barely scratched the surface,” says Benjamin Smith, Semios.
Once the buried treasure of insights and information begins to be discovered, artificial intelligence (AI) will identify trends and correlations we humans are not even thinking about as yet. Ultimately, the treasures of insights may become crop growing and nurturing recipes for the nurture aspect of the nature/nurture continuum. What do I grow where and when do I apply which concentrations of what where and at what depth in order to affect not only the quantity of output, but also the quality of the yield with respect to size, water and sugar content, and even taste?"
Another significant shift may come with the business model for irrigation itself. Hillyer sees a not-too-distant future where companies offer irrigation technology as a service rather than relying on the growers to make significant investment in hardware, software, and data analysis resources themselves, particularly in a fast-evolving tech environment.
“The sensing and the actuation of the irrigation systems are separate essentially, and the management is what brings them together. So, fully integrated systems are going to be something that makes the management part of the overall system. I’m starting to see some manufacturers that are actually offering that as a service. We may see the business model for sensors where you’re buying the data rather than the widgets, and I think you’ll start to see models where you’re basically buying the tech service for maintaining all this fancy hardware, Hillyer says.
“As more and more agronomists expand into crop management services, technology will be accepted and expanded. One of the issues with remote monitoring and automated control is farming operations have installed systems and sensor equipment, but then don’t use the data due to it being overwhelming sets of single data points. They don’t have time to manage exporting data, generating spreadsheets, etc. to create the action data points they need and want,” Ranch Systems’ Kaufmann says.
“The move by both retail and independent agronomists and farm managers to adopt equipment to help them service their customers begins to deliver on the ROI for the equipment and platforms. This is true for dry land farming as well where environmental monitoring, soil monitoring, and crop protection and management activities all can benefit from sensors in the fields. Whether you have an irrigation system or you are dependent on Mother Nature, having sensors and remote monitoring in farming operation provides key insights to a farm’s crop production and results,” she says.
The potential of all these innovations is exciting, but unless the industry can gain adoption from a large segment of production agriculture and horticulture, no amount of technology is going to help protect or conserve our water resources. How do we move the needle with growers?
“It’s no secret that agriculture has always had a slower adoption than some other areas of technology. There are still people who make decisions on when they’re going to irrigate by when they see their neighbor doing it. But generations change. We are seeing more acceptance of trying things out. I do think it’s going to take time, but I think there will be a faster adoption than there has been in the past,” Hamlin says.
As the technology improves, and proves itself to growers, adoption may be a foregone conclusion, says AquaSpy’s Moeller. “Like every other major technology humans have ultimately adopted, at first many regard new technology as unnecessary or frivolous, then as the ideas begin to take hold, the volume increases and the cost curve comes down which removes the adoption barriers. Eventually nice-to-haves become must-haves. Not adopting the best practices becomes a competitive disadvantage and an existential threat to those farms, so as in all life, it is simply adapt or die,” he says.
But as with all new innovations in ag, success stories from grower peers will help.
“I think you’re going to find these success stories in landscape, nursery, and agriculture and we’re going to get some farmers that are readily accepting of the new technologies,” says Buena Vida Farm’s Smith. “Yes, they’re going to be expensive, but farmers are going to be able to justify it because of decreased water use and decreased fertilizer applications and increased yields.”
Understanding the growers’ mindset and clearly presenting the benefits to their own businesses is key.
“When we recommend growers put more water on a certain area to achieve their goals, this often gets adopted quickly. However, when we recommend that growers take water off because they are over-watering, this recommendation is much more likely to be ignored Ceres’ Bourne says. “This is because the incentives are wrong. Growers would rather pay extra for water than risk yield, which makes perfect sense. In short, we need to set up grower-friendly incentives to encourage water use efficiency in a way that helps and doesn’t hurt their businesses.”
Other innovative incentives could help as well.
I think there will be in the not-too-distant future an opportunity for farmers to be able to demonstrate that they can irrigate in a more efficient manner that saves water. If we can take that difference between what they were doing and what they are doing and, similar to a carbon credit, monetize and trade that water savings in some form back to companies who are trying to get to water neutrality or water positivity, it could open up a new revenue stream for a farmer. That makes technology more affordable and that will enable more efficient irrigation in some of the lower-value crops."
In the end, the success of these developments may rely on the approach of the irrigations companies themselves. Grower acceptance in the long term will be slow if companies overpromise results, our experts say.
“[We must] illustrate the importance of this technology with validated findings and proven success,” says Aerobotics’ van den Berg.
“The inevitable frustration from the growers that find themselves with a product that is less than what they hoped for leads them to be suspicious and hesitant to adopt new or more developed ag technologies that have a little more to offer,” says Semios’ Smith. The truth is, we, the industry, are still in the early stages of developing irrigation technology. Our products have limits, but they also have benefits. It does far more good for a company, and the industry, if we are honest about what our technology can do, what it cannot do, and to provide realistic timetables regarding improvements.”
Farmers have an incredible capacity to multitask, but analyzing data gets in the way of farming. Competition in the industry must move to collaboration so growers can get critical, digestible, and actionable information. They’ll talk about in the coffee shops! And, like us, they’ll follow their leaders."
