WaterWise: helping farmers reduce the water footprint of high value crops
Using our new WaterWise technology, for the first time, growers can see in real time the water stress of their crop and can predict their crops' future water needs.
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The challenge
Trusting irrigation data versus going with your gut feel
Irrigation management relies on farmers taking many things into account. Timing, for example, is critical to maximise crop yield and quality. Successful managers do this well, but often need to rely on experience rather than definitive data to make their decisions. Differences in soil type, regional climate, water availability, system capacity, attitude to risk and the amount of data collected means that irrigation management has to be tailored and responsive. Decisions can be even more difficult when the situation is considerably different from normal, such as with extreme weather events.
A WaterWise sensor in tomatoes
Our response
Harnessing the digital revolution for irrigation decisions
Recent improvements in wireless sensor technology and advanced data analytics mean we can use plant- and soil-based sensors to continually monitor crops and soils providing information like never before.
We've already led ground-breaking research in plant-based sensing technologies to improve yield and water use efficiency in Australian cotton. The system uses proximal (single location in the field) continuous canopy temperature measurement and offers growers a simple means of identifying crop stress.
In conjunction with existing soil moisture measurements, WaterWise can offer significantly refined irrigation scheduling decisions in a range of high value crops.
The results
WaterWise meeting industry needs
Our platform provides irrigation decision making based on both monitored and forecast crop water stress status. It incorporates advanced data analytics, spatial sensing systems, weather forecasts, and novel physiology research in crop biochemistry.
To date, we are working with growers on trialling WaterWise in tomatoes, cotton and sugarcane.
[Image shows a field of plants with a woman holding a high tech looking metal tube with a small solar panel at one end]
Imagine you’re trying to survive on 12mm of water a day. That’s what these commercial tomato are given even in the middle of summer.
What we’re trying to do is see if we can reduce this amount of water to ten, eight or even six mm of water a day. We’re using sensors, the weather forecasts and smart analytics to save water and still produce the perfect tomato.
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Using WaterWise, for the first time, grows can see in real time the water stress of their crop today and are now able to predict their crops’ future water needs. That’s the real breakthrough science.
[Image changes to show a woman bending down running her hands through plants and looking at the soil]
Just like humans, plants have an optimum temperature so we’re using temperature canopy sensors to directly measure the plant, which then tells us how stressed it is and how much water it needs.
[Image changes to show a man and a woman placing the metal tube on a pole in the crop]
Using our WaterWise app, growers can time irrigations to keep the plant in its optimum range.
[Image shows a field of plants with a woman holding a high tech looking metal tube with a small solar panel at one end]
Together with our grower partners, we’re currently testing our WaterWise system in high value commercial crops.
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