Studies have demonstrated that onion yield and grade are closely related to onion irrigation practices. Onions have a shallow root system and don’t require a lot of water after they’ve been established, requiring only small amounts of frequent irrigation. Careful attention to irrigation practices can help assure high onion yields, better bulb storability, and better internal quality. But what’s the best way to tune your onion irrigation practices?

Crophesy by AquaSpy utilizes intelligent algorithms and underground sensors to monitor the crop’s active root zone and moisture uptake, allowing growers to use precise process control to give their onion crops exactly what they need and when. Crophesy can show when the moisture is reaching the active root zone but not going below it, which will push costly nutrients past the root zone. This saves money and conserves nutrients.

An excess of water can cause waterlogging. However, underwatering can impact yield as well. Onions rarely show signs of drought so make sure to water during dry conditions to prevent bolting. Crophesy below ground wireless technology transmits soil moisture and crop status hourly so growers can immediately take action, before crops are stressed, without having to step foot in the field.

Crophesy Process Control for Onion Irrigation

With a Crophesy subscription, you receive a free, three-sensor, wireless, soil moisture probe and access to the AgSpy software and AquaSpy app, making your data accessible on the go – on your mobile, tablet or desktop. Place the rugged, water-tight probes throughout your onion or garlic field and connect them to the app via your smartphone. Then you can constantly monitor soil and crop health for all of your onions and garlic and receive alerts if your soil moisture or salinity falls outside of the crop-specific desired tolerances.

While you can look at the visual analysis of leaves, spending hours in your field, Crophesy enables you to open your app from anywhere and show you what kind of nourishment is available in your soil at your onion/garlic crop root depth. With this data, you can determine when the active root zone needs vital nutrients.

Each Crophesy data access subscription come with:

• Free hardware! 16” wireless, battery-operated below ground probe
• Custom 24” auger
• Pre-programmed onion and garlic templates
• Works with pivot or drip irrigation and is soil agnostic

The Crophesy app can show you data on a mobile phone, tablet or computer:

• Moisture consumption at the root level
• Salinity level in the active root zone
• Root depth
• Soil temperature near the sensors
• Irrigation depth

And it tells you all this without you having to step foot in your onion or garlic field. Get the insights you need for optimized onion irrigation practices with Crophesy by AquaSpy.

What is Irrigation Water Management?

According to the USDA’s Conservation Practice Overview, Irrigation Water Management (Code 449) is “the process of determining and controlling the volume, frequency, and application rate of irrigation water and is primarily used to manage soil moisture to promote plant growth.”

Irrigation Water Management or IWM, can also be used to optimize the application of various inputs including fertilizer, reduce erosion and runoff, and manage salts in the root zone. It’s important to note, that IWM is an annual practice which should vary by crop type and should changes each season as well as throughout the season.

What is NRCS IWM Code 449?

NRCS Conservation Practice Standard (CPS) Irrigation Water Management (Code 449) is a required component when CPS Sprinkler System (Code 442), Irrigation System, micro irrigation (Code 441), or Irrigation System, Surface and Subsurface (Code 443) are used. Practice Standard 449 provides an incentive payment for irrigation management technology and tools. For more information, visit the NRCS Irrigation Water Management webpage.

IWM is important for plant and soil health as well as water use efficiency

Poor or ineffective irrigation management often has negative impacts, not only on crop health and yield, but also can have negative environmental impacts on water resources as well as long term soil health and ultimately can decrease farm profitability and value. As water resources become more constrained across the globe, farmers and growers turn to agronomy advisors, equipment dealers, federal agencies and university extension programs for advice on new practices and technology to help them with improving irrigation management.

There are a number of technologies that growers use for IWM including above and below ground soil and plant sensors and imaging. Each of these have their various benefits, costs, and ROI. It’s important for growers to use the right technology or mix of technologies that drive farm profitability. University programs and farm competitions such as the UNL Taps program have shown that IWM processes applied produce positive outcomes using below ground sensors used such as those by AquaSpy as they guide more informed irrigation decisions that are prompted by the crop needs at that precise time in the season. IWM supported by AquaSpy below ground sensor technology allows for increased irrigation water use efficiency while delivering optimum yields for maximum farm profitability. These results have been demonstrated in multiple studies and field competitions.

IWM and Process Control

Evolved IWM processes and soil moisture monitoring technology go hand in hand.  The question most farmers have is how to put that to the test? There are numerous ways to conduct a study. One way is to participate in an extension competition like TAPS or one of the regional Master Irrigator programs. Those give growers the added benefit of learning from their neighbors in real time, comparing notes and tuning processes. Other methods can be to reach out to trusted local agronomy consultants familiar with the region and technology, or the agronomy services teams at your regional cooperative or dealer. Another option is to parse out a test area and grown your own side by side comparison.

What you’ll find is that in most cases, how you irrigate today will dramatically change. Many growers are irrigating the same way in their fields for generations, pushing for maximum yield. Over time, between the soil and climate changes, the soil may not have the same holding capacity, or weather conditions are impacting the soil. Even more, salinity levels are rising as there is less beneficial rain. What all this means is that it’s even more important than ever to not just know if the top few inches of soil are wet or dry or leaves are wilting to make that important decision to turn on the pivot. It’s better to know where the active root zone is and if the water is available there as well as if the crop is actually taking up the available moisture. Once you have that complete picture, you have the elements for the process control need by IWM.

AquaSpy and Irrigation Water Management

AquaSpy has conducted yield correlated field studies that reveal the relationship between optimum soil moisture, salinity, temperature, and crop health throughout the growing season. The findings reveal new insights into how to better manage the timing of farm inputs throughout the growing season for a number of different crop types including soybeans, corn, cotton, potato, sorghum and alfalfa.

TAPS and Master Irrigator Programs

Here at AquaSpy we know that the best way for AgTech adoption to grow is for it to get into the field and into the hands of farmers so they can experience how it interacts with their crops. Now celebrating its seventh year, the real-time annual Testing Ag Performance Solutions (TAPS) Farm Management Competition is a successful peer-to-peer program that offers the ability to compare / contrast one operation with another, giving farmers direct and immediate insights into the effects of the decisions they and their peers make during the season.

In the years since it’s launch in 2017, UNL TAPS has become a model for other programs.

“The idea that Chuck, Daran, and Matt had for this program quickly became a model for extension and goes far beyond the classroom paradigm. By partnering with OSU, we have proven that it can be replicated in other locations, crops, and with differing issues, yet still provides stakeholders similar opportunities to learn from each other. I believe the model will be replicated in more locations, as the program continues,”
Krystle Rhoades, TAPS Program Manager.

AquaSpy has supported UNL TAPS from the very start. Typically the winners of the Farm Profitability challenge use AquaSpy technology to guide their winning decisions around irrigation and nutrient inputs that let’s them gain solid yields while minimizing inputs and driving farm profitability.

The success of the UNL TAPS program has spawned a number of related and similar competitions and master irrigator programs throughout the US. AquaSpy is a proud supporter of many of these programs including:

• UNL (University of Nebraska Lincoln) TAPS
• OSU TAPS/ Master Irrigator
• CSU (Colorado State) TAPS
• KS WISE
• Colorado Master Irrigator  
• North Plains Master Irrigator

If you have a master irrigator or farm competition program and are looking for support, please reach out. Or, if you are interested in starting a program in your region, we’d be happy to help. Contact us today!

Your land is your legacy. Optimize your farm profitability and build your legacy by improving soil health.

Traditional farming methods going back many generations have focused on maximizing yield goals by applying as much fertilizer and water as possible. The green revolution had many benefits and led to high productivity of crops and a massive increase in the ability to produce cereal crops consistently and reliably.

However, there are a number of challenges resulting from this approach that impact farmers’ legacies and profits:

1. Soil depletion – Over time, soil can become depleted by too much fertilizer, leaching, or runoff that erodes valuable topsoil.
2. Water stress – Continued demand for fresh water over time can reduce groundwater tables, deplete aquifers, and increase soil salinity.
3. Loss of farm profitability – In the chase for maximum yields, profits are eroded due to the high costs of seed, fertilizer, crop protection, and fuel / energy required to pump water in irrigated farmlands.

Fortunately, there are a number of proven approaches that can be applied today that will reduce soil depletion, conserve water resources, and increase farm profitability. While there are a variety of climate smart techniques that can be deployed over time in the field to improve soil health, one very simple change can be made in the first season by using low-cost, below ground technology that gives insights that drive better irrigation decisions: Crophesy technology by AquaSpy. In just one season you will be able tune your irrigation process control to reduce inputs, save water, and increase farm profitability. AquaSpy technology has been proven through use across thousands of acres of commodity and specialty crops as well as demonstrated results in university studies and competitions such as UNL-Taps.

Related articles:

Impacts and risks from rising soil salinity in agricultural soil

How AquaSpy supports the first pillar of Climate Smart Agriculture

How AquaSpy Provides Key Soil Quality Indicators for Regenerative Farmers

Soil Health and Conservation 

Soil health and conservation go hand in hand to maintain or enhance soil health to optimize crop yield and protect long-term soil productivity on agricultural lands.

Tips for improving soil health over time:

• Apply inputs only when needed
• Use less fertilizer through precision applications and careful timing
  • Reduced fertilizer use reduces harmful runoff. This allows for increased productive soil activity (microbes) that can lead to improved soil. Be sure to monitor for leaching.
• Utilize a cover crop strategy
  • This isn’t an overnight change, but even small steps and experimentation can bring about changes. Analyze soil temperature, changes in moisture retention and availability as you change up your approach.
• Use a crop rotation strategy to naturally increase nitrogen and other nutrients in the soil

Healthier, less stressed crops better utilize available nutrients and contribute to a more balanced nitrogen – carbon cycle, helping to capture more carbon and mitigate climate impact.

Protect Water Resources 

Protect water resources and manage water for efficient agricultural productivity. Groundwater is part of your farm legacy. AquaSpy below-ground technology gives growers insights to be able to:

• Use water more efficiently
• Use less water and reduce runoff
• Reduce leaching to protect regional water sources (aquifers, rivers)

Process control measures proactively meet sustainability objectives and performance measures for soil health, soil conservation, water use, and water quality

Intelligent soil and crop sensor technology provides process control for best practices which drive a direct and measurable impact on both soil health and protection of water resources. The ability to continuously remotely monitor and more precisely manage the use of inputs including nutrient applications and irrigation water leads to a demonstrable reduction in the use of inputs while simultaneously benefiting the grower with better outcomes – more predictable, consistent, and higher yields and farm profitability.

• Better outcomes – Using a unique vertical approach of looking at each crop’s roots, a grower can gain up to between 25 and 40% more yield in addition to conserving valuable water and costly nutrients.
• Reduced inputs – Grower reported yield surveys and University studies have shown that using vertical insights into soil and crop consumption lead to a minimized use of inputs.
• Less runoff – Better control over timing and amount of irrigation reduced runoff from nutrients.
• Mitigate effects of salinity – Certain high value fruit and nut crops are highly sensitive to salinity in the soil and our technology improves management and plant health.
• Saves energy and fuel – Precise management and remote monitoring means fewer trips to the field and fewer pivot turns.
• Realtime remote monitoring – Growers as well as partners such as agronomists or farm managers can remotely monitor soil moisture, temperature, Ec/salinity, and crop consumption via desktop, tablet or mobile device.
• Field Comparison and Year Over Year History – Compare fields and gain insights for year over year improvements and tuning.

Interested in learning more about the proactive measures you can start using to improve soil health today? Contact a regional AquaSpy sales rep or your local coop or dealer.

The Swiss municipality of Salquenen, with the AQUA4D and partners including AquaSpy, launched the project “IrriSalgesch” in 2022. The IrriSalgesch project investigated irrigation water savings potential using AQUA4D® water treatment technology. The water savings through AQUA4D were determined by comparing two plots with drip irrigation, one with normal water and one with AQUA4D-treated water, where the amount of water was adjusted through monitoring to the exact needs of the vines.

Switzerland is considered the “water castle” of Europe, but the effects of global warming and the unpredictability of the climate are being felt here, resulting in risk of water shortage. In the municipality of Salgesch (Valais) as well as other communities, there is already an acute risk of a water shortage that threatens local agricultural production. 

How precipitation is distributed in this Swiss region has changed. Now there is less rain in the summer, more in the winter, and most damaging, less in the form of snow. In this most recent winter (2022 – 2023), ski resorts throughout the Alps have shut down due to lack of snow, leaving local citizens and agricultural growers concerned about the spring and summer to come.

The current context of climate change and increasingly frequent periods of drought underlines the interest and urgency of evaluating the contribution of technologies in agriculture, like AQUA4D and AquaSpy, for a better efficiency in the use of resources, especially water and energy.

Monitoring of soil moisture and water status

The water savings achieved with AQUA4D® were evaluated by comparing 2 plots of vineyards irrigated with drip irrigation, one with normal water and one with water treated with AQUA4D®, with a monitoring system allowing to optimize the quantities of water applied according to the exact needs of the vineyard. AquaSpy sensors were installed in the test plots in order to track the irrigation effects on soil moisture. A pressure chamber and additional sensors measured leaf potential and drones gathered overhead overview data.

An additional water saving target of 20% on top of the savings achieved with drip irrigation was set for the side treated with AQUA4D®, and this without any decrease in yield and production quality.

Project participants recognized that by the end of the year 2022 that:

• The AQUA4D® treatment saved 20% more water compared to a vineyard irrigated with a drip system, and this with plants kept in a state of moderate water stress
• The yields and the quality of the crops of the 2 plots are identical in spite of the 20% less water on the AQUA4D® side

Order of magnitude of possible water savings depending on the means implemented

General conclusions in the report: “Research and field analysis have already confirmed that replacing sprinkler systems with drip irrigation systems can yield savings on the order of 25%. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to monitor the situation in real time and optimize irrigation cycles based on this monitoring, with automated and remotely programmable irrigation.

With additional savings of 20-30% with AQUA4D, water savings of about 45% can be achieved, with at least the

same quantity and quality of crops. Based on their experience, the specialists at AQUA4D believe that the savings will be higher in the second year of irrigation than in the first year, as the plants adapt by developing hairy rootlets.”

For more information on the IRRISALGESCH project access the full report:

Integrated Water Management with Hi-Tech Solutions in Switzerland’s Valais

World agriculture is confronting a major challenge: in order to sustain the population that will exist in 2050 and end chronic worldwide food insecurity, agriculture will need to produce 60% more food on essentially equivalent arable land. Producing high yields of a narrow suite of cereal grains using indiscriminate quantities of inputs and water as well as pesticides and heavy tillage can no longer be sustained. The needs of regenerative agriculture must be met by a confluence of sustainable energy, robotics, communication, analytics and field sensors now known collectively as precision agriculture, or AgTech. As part of the transformation, AgTech must confront old problems previously managed with techniques and products no longer acceptable for regenerative farming. One of those legacy problems is unwanted invasive plants, or weeds.

Farm robots take on an old headache for growers: weeds

Farm robots (technically Unmanned Surface Vehicles, or USV’s) are highly visible indicators of the revolution taking place in agriculture known as precision agriculture. Other sectors of precision agriculture may get more attention from venture capital, but do not fire the public’s imagination like a shiny robot in a field. Farm robots incorporate some of the latest technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), Internet of things (IoT) as well as advanced image acquisition/analysis and an amazing variety of sophisticated end effectors purpose-built for the farm task at hand. Development of these systems is complex, and can be expensive and time-consuming.

Many investors and others new to AgTech are often surprised at the number of farm robotics developers that are focused on the mundane task of weed abatement. In 2017, John Deere paid $305M, or about four times valuation to acquire Blue River, makers of a sophisticated system that could identify weeds from crops and deliver a precision dose of herbicide. There are many other systems now competing for market share. Why all this interest in robotic weeders? Do growers really need them enough to pay for them?

Why do growers need robotics weeders?

Many factors have come together to drive this need to kill a weed.

Regenerative Farming—Traditional farming methods with heavy tillage have left the soil vulnerable to erosion from wind and rain. Regenerative farming proposes a number of practices to “regenerate” the soil. Among those is “no-till” which recommends little or very light tilling. One issue for the grower who implements regenerative farming is the impact on weeds; tilling was an effective pre-emergent control method. Without that, the grower must rely on a heavy pre-emergent application of herbicide (called a “burndown” as it also removes remnants of the last crop). This is essentially swapping one environmental issue for another.

Herbicide-resistant weeds—In 1996, Monsanto introduced the herbicide Glyphosate (trade name Roundup®) concurrently with genetically modified soybean and corn seeds that were resistant to glyphosate. Growers had an herbicide that could be used post-emergent up to harvest, and the combination was credited with a reduction in famine worldwide. In the years since, several common weeds, notably waterhemp, feathertop Rhodes grass, sesbania and amaranth, have developed effective resistance to glyphosate, forcing growers to use other strong herbicides pre-emergent and in most cases simply deal with the weed growth or remove weeds by hand.

Drought—Drought over much of the Western United States including California has dramatically reduced the available supply of water. Weeds compete with crops for water very effectively, and may grow fast and tall enough to make a canopy over crops, depriving crop plants of essential sunlight.

Labor shortage—Immigration policies and pandemic travel restrictions have limited growers’ access to foreign labor. Growers who might have managed weeds with hand-weeding may not have access to the resources they once did.

These four factors come together to create an impossible situation for growers. They need fresh ideas. They are ready for robotic weeders.

Farm robotics and autonomous vehicle basics

Evaluating available offerings related to a specific use case or set of use cases can be complicated. It is helpful to understand some fundamentals about self-driving vehicles and some basics of robotic automation as it applies to a task like removing/killing weeds:

Self-driving (autonomous) capability—How does the robot know where to go? Many systems go with a straightforward “teach” mode, where a human operator sets the system to record, then manually pilots the drone/robot through the entire sequence. The robot can then repeat the sequence with excellent precision and repeatability. These systems still require sensors to detect unanticipated objects in the path and stop as needed. Other systems may use a combination of GPS, area transponders and image recognition/machine learning to plot a course through the crops.

Power source—Farm vehicles today are usually powered by diesel engines (about 75% of farm vehicles are diesel). While today’s Tier 4 diesels are very low emissions compared to older engines, they are relatively heavy, especially when the weight of the gas tank is included. Regular use in a field can lead to soil compaction. Some robotic systems offered today are all electric or solar-electric, which can save money and energy as well as offering a lower gross vehicle weight. The trade-off is that electric at this time does not offer the power or performance of diesel, so the end effectors for the system must be designed with this in mind to keep power consumption low.

End Effectors—There is no one ideal solution for robotic weed removal. Depending on the power source, the power provided to the tools abating the weeds can be electrical or hydraulic. Hydraulic systems are highly reliable and can have high response speeds, but they are usually associated with fossil fuel powered systems as they must be energized with compressed air from a compressor powered by a generator powered by a diesel or gas engine. Here are some common approaches:

• Mechanical mowing—A series of rotating blades cuts off the weeds on either side of the crops. For some systems a set of scythes also cuts weeds between the plants if spacing allows. Weed roots are not removed and the cut off weeds may re-seed, but this method can be fast and relatively low power, lending itself to electric platforms. Because the system does not distinguish between plants and weeds, less compute is needed, which can make the system faster while using less electricity.
• Mechanical pulling—Grippers that remove weeds by the roots require the system to distinguish between weed and plant, so they generally need to be programmed for each crop that is to be managed so that they can recognize crop plants at specific stages of growth. Everything else is a weed.
• Precision herbicide—For this the system distinguishes weeds from crops similar to pulling, but then precisely applies a micro-dose of herbicide to the weed. Advantage here is that the weed is destroyed, and may not re-seed. Compute power can be quite high. It will use much less herbicide than broadcast, but may be victimized by overspray. Any home gardener will attest to weeds very cleverly growing right next to the crops.
• Lasers—Similar to precision herbicide, except in this case the system burns each weed with a micro-laser. This avoids the overspray issue, and the weed is destroyed, but crop/weed differentiation is the same. This system will probably use the most power of the three types shown here.

For robotic weeders, an opportunity exists in Internet of Things (IoT). Several of these systems will “know” how many weeds they killed, and possibly what kind of weeds they killed. This could be useful in the selection of pre-emergent burndown herbicide. Some systems also collect data on crop plants at various growth stages, useful in phenotyping, yield estimation and basic crop management. All of these data might be transmitted in near real time or batch for post analysis and predictive analytics.

For artificial intelligence and machine learning, most of the systems available are learning systems; true AI is not yet a reality. That said, many systems are collecting excellent feature identification, which may one day lead to weed removal and high-speed diagnosis/treatment of crop plants for specific issues. As the world-wide need for more food from less land grows, robotic farm systems will be there to help meet the need.

The intelligent, automated future of farming

At AquaSpy, we believe in the intelligent, automated future of farming through AgTech. There are a lot of exciting innovations taking place. These new ideas and technologies plus the resulting shared data stems that from them will help create a better, more sustainable world for our future on this planet. That’s why we’ve joined the Global AgTech Alliance because it’s important that we collaborate to facilitate the adoption of precision and digital agriculture products and practices.

Excessive soil salinity has become a severe problem for growers in several parts of the U.S. including Florida, Texas High Plains/Rio Grande and California Central Valley. Successive years of drought have forced growers to rely on irrigation water, which can contain salts. If the salts are not leached out of the soil by rainwater or other clean water source, then the salts accumulate, and salinity increases.

Soil salinity can affect crops in three ways; the salty soil draws water from the plants through osmosis, making it difficult for plants to uptake water, increased levels of sodium in particular can alter the structure of the soil, causing the soil surface to transform from flocculated to dispersed, forming a barrier to water infusion, and last there can be specific ion toxicity with certain crop plants and certain soils.

Common salts in soil

Elements and compounds that commonly exist in soil as ions or mineral salts include sodium, calcium, magnesium, potassium, sulfate, chloride, carbonate and bicarbonate. Sodium can be a particularly difficult issue, as an ion it is not soluble, and will not leach out with application of clean water. When a soil has too much sodium it is sodic soil.

Some crops are less susceptible to soil salinity issues, notably barley and cotton. Others such as fruits and nuts can be very sensitive. That said, when salinity gets too high, all crops experience some level of yield loss. Without remediation, the soil may become too salty to farm. These fields go fallow, or in some cases are reverted back to grassland.

Read how to avoid salt toxicity in fruit and nut crops here.

Managing sodium in soil

With careful management, soil salinity can be remediated to the point where some crops may be planted. For sodium, this can include the injection of gypsum, which degrades to calcium. Calcium displaces sodium, and initially increases salinity, but calcium also encourages soil flocculation, which helps water added to penetrate. Where it is known that the soil contains lime, sulfur may be added, which forms sulfuric acid that breaks down the lime, freeing calcium to displace the sodium. Remediation strategies require good knowledge of soil chemistry, and are often managed by professionals who assist growers with particular issues. An under-developed plan for solving a soil salinity issue can create another. Sodic soils that have formed a dispersed “crust” near the surface may require tilling to break up the soil for further remediation.

Cover-cropping for managing soil salinity

Cover cropping can be helpful in managing soil salinity. Where the water table is high, they can draw water from the soil which can lower the water table, carrying salt away from the surface. Some crops will do better with lower salt just after germination/emergence, later in the growing cycle they can tolerate more salinity. Cover crop roots can create channels in dispersed soil, allowing water to percolate downward. And cover crops add nutrients to the soil as an additional benefit.

Soil leaching remediation methods

All soil salinity remediation plans ultimately involve leaching mineral salts down past the root zone through the addition of clear water from the surface. A good guide calls for 6 inches of clear water percolated down through about 30 inches of soil. While the concept is clear, it can be difficult for the grower to know that the additional water has really penetrated the prescribed 30 inches. The grower can be tempted to add more, potentially wasting vital water.

Nitrate leaching risks

One risk of leaching to remove salt is that soluble nitrates, originally added as chemical fertilizer, can also leach down into the water table after harvest when there is no crop to absorb it. Nitrates pose a health risk in drinking water, and the introduction of excess nitrate into a river or lake can cause eutrophication, the result of a harmful algae bloom where oxygen is removed from the water, resulting in a decrease in the population of fish and invertebrates, possibly even their demise. To control nitrogen, its use should be limited to what is necessary, and a legume cover crop such as field pea can be effective at scavenging nitrogen from the soil.

Increasing soil salinity is a challenge for many growers. Effective management of soil chemistry, clear water leeching and cover cropping to control excess nitrates can keep fields productive. AquaSpy Crophesy is an excellent tool for monitoring soil moisture and water uptake by growing roots, as well as EC for tracking salinity.

Read more on how to use soil EC in irrigation management here.

Soil monitoring technology from AquaSpy

Soil monitoring technology from AquaSpy can track moisture every 4 inches down to 48 inches and provide soil salinity data every four inches by measuring electrical conductivity (EC). With AquaSpy Crophesy™ wireless probes, the grower can accurately track the effect of an irrigation or rain event to ensure that the leaching exercise completed successfully.

For the past decade there has been growing awareness that climate change combined with a growing global demand for food is driving a need for climate smart agriculture. While we often hear solutions that talk about green house gasses and carbon sequestration, the first pillar of climate smart agriculture (CSA) – increasing agricultural productivity and incomes – can be addressed readily and immediately at the farm level with affordable technology.

What is climate smart agriculture?

In 2014, Leslie Lipper, Senior Environmental Economist with FAO, defined climate-smart agriculture (CSA) as an approach for transforming and reorienting agricultural development under the new realities of climate change. Lipper says this approach requires concepts, policies, technical tools and an investment framework. In this post we’ll focus on some simple and affordable technical tools that farmers can use today to adapt to climate change.

What are the three pillars of climate-smart agriculture?

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) defines climate-smart agriculture as consisting of three pillars:

(1) sustainably increasing agricultural productivity and incomes (food security);

(2) adapting and building resilience to climate change (adaptation); and

(3) reducing and/or removing greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation), where possible.

Climate change means farmers today have to make different decisions

Crops have been grown the same way for generations. However, as climate changes it means that weather patterns aren’t the same as in our great grandparents or even grandparents’ time. The regional climate might be a lot wetter, drier, colder, or warmer than before. A case in point is that in South Dakota, over the last several decades, there has been a trend of warmer winter temperatures. Now, many areas of South Dakota are categorized one zone warmer, for example from 4a to 4b, or 4b to 5a. And we’ve all heard much about the severe drought conditions throughout the west and south.

The need for data to make more informed decisions

When that kind of weather change is happening, it impacts soil moisture, temperature, and salinity, and not just at the surface – it creates changes deep into the soil, layer by layer. The good news is that farmers who need to adapt to climate changes can use readily available, cost-effective below ground sensor technology to give them the data they need to make more informed decisions.

How to increase agricultural productivity and incomes

For years, farmers have focused primarily on driving yield, and soybean and corn growers could easily achieve maximum yield by applying a high amount of water and nutrients. Today, this is no longer practical, affordable, or sustainable. Even if water is available, it’s more expensive to pump it further as the ground water tables shrink. Adding to that the high price of fuel, nutrient prices have spiked sharply as well. That means the cost alone of this outdated practice makes it no longer practical. University of Nebraska has run a multi-year TAPS farm management competition where it has been demonstrated that a very good yield can be achieved with a minimal amount of inputs, and this increases farm profitability.

A further downside to applying excess water and nutrients is runoff and damage to the soil and surrounding environment. That aspect gets into the other pillars of climate smart agriculture and we’ll address that in a future article.

Crophesy by AquaSpy supports climate smart agriculture

At AquaSpy, we feel that technology should be affordable, easy to use in any soil, or any farm around the globe. When we envisioned Crophesy, we know that we wanted it to be easy to install, work virtually anywhere, in any crop, and give farmers the data they need to make better informed decisions about when the crop demand in the active root zone is greater than the available moisture. Read more about Crophesy and how it works here.

We can’t make it rain, but we can help you best utilize the water you do have

The United States is the world’s leading cotton exporter. In August 2019-July 2020—the United States produced nearly 20 million bales of cotton, representing about $7 billion in total value (lint plus seed) (source: USDA ERS).

The brutal reality is that 2022 has been a challenging year for cotton growers. And while we can’t make it rain, AquaSpy technology supports cotton farming in three key ways that help with crop management and increase farm profitability: monitoring soil temperature and salinity, as well as helping to minimize the amount of water applied to the crop and making sure it’s utilizing the water it gets.

Soil Temperature and Cotton

At the start of the season, cotton growers have to be diligent about not planting too early; if the seeds are put into soil that is too cold the seedlings can be vulnerable to chilling injury. The entire crop can suffer in quality and quality. Growers need accurate data for soil temperature at planting depth over many contiguous days in order to make the decision to plant. This can require many trips to the field to make manual measurements at multiple depths and locations or relying on locally published data. As there is no crop in the ground, if the soil has already been prepared (burn-down, pest control, tillage etc.), then it can be difficult to make the trip worthwhile, and the one thing in the world a grower can never waste is time. AquaSpy below-ground technology can help tell growers exactly when the right time is to plant cotton seeds.

Soil Salinity

For many cotton growers, especially in places like Texas, which leads the nation in cotton production, soil salinity is becoming an issue. Though cotton is relatively salt tolerant as crops go, when a field is irrigated with diverted river water or well water, if that water is high in salt then the water eventually evaporates away and leaves an increasing concentration of salt. Cotton is relatively resistant to salinity, but like every other crop, its ability to absorb moisture from the soil will be impacted when the salt balance reaches a certain point. Growers need to be aware of the issue when soil salinity starts to rise, particularly in years when droughts don’t bring soil cleansing rain. AquaSpy technology can give growers soil salinity insights, layer by layer beneath the soil, so they can be alert to the fact before it harms the plants.

Optimize Water Application and Consumption

As the drought deepens in the South and West, many cotton growers who are dryland cotton farming have experienced crop loss. For those who are irrigating, especially when the daytime temperatures are high, being able to know when the crop needs water, and how much water it’s consuming is critical, and that’s another insight that AquaSpy technology can bring.

Today’s cotton grower has many data needs that begin well before planting, and little time to waste at the start of the season and throughout. The intelligent, wireless system offered by AquaSpy places sensors in the soil and connects them via the Cloud to the grower’s mobile device or desktop. The grower gets accurate temperature, salinity and soil moisture data throughout the day, without needing to visit the field, enabling them to make informed choices that save time, minimizes inputs, and maximizes profitability for cotton farming. Easy to install, affordable and adaptable to a variety of crops, Crophesy by AquaSpy has a unique, pay as you grow service subscription. Crophesy offers a unique flexible subscription plan that gives growers the flexibility and peace of mind to manage the service according to their unique growing environment, crop rotation, and seasonality.

Monitoring soil EC can be a valuable part of your toolkit for sustaining crop production in drought stricken or arid regions. Soil is an electrical conductor. The soil EC is a measure of how easily an electric current flows through the soil. Soil EC responds to the amount of salt in the soil as well as indicates the soil’s composition—the amount of sand, clay, organic matter, and water content.

Why is it important to monitor Soil EC?

Soil electrical conductivity, or soil EC, is a measure of the bulk soil ability to carry electric current, which is mostly dictated by the chemistry of and amount of soil water. The factors that affect soil EC include water content, porosity, soil texture and salinity level.

Salinity level influences the growth and development of a plant and fruit quality. A higher, or “bad”, EC is unacceptable for certain crops health and leads to lower crop production.

How soil salinity affects crops

Soil salinity that develops with irrigation in dry areas is a severe constraint for most crops. Salinity provokes an osmotic stress with adverse short-term effect on leaf expansion. High soil salinity reduces the plant’s ability to take up water, and the plant may even take up some of the salts which damages tissues and causes other issues, such as smaller fruit size, leaf burn or defoliation. In severe cases it can cause the plants to die.

Salt sensitive crops: Beans, carrot, okra, onion, strawberry, red clover, pear, apple, orange, plums, cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots and almonds

Moderately sensitive crops: Broccoli, cauliflower, celery, eggplant, lettuce, muskmelon, pea, pepper, potato

If you have salt sensitive crops you want to be sure to monitor them continuously. Use wireless technology installed in the field to see early warning signs EC levels and challenges with water consumption.

What are ways to measure soil EC?

There are a number of ways to measure EC in the field, and farmers may find it useful to incorporate a number of methods since salinity may vary by soil layer or during the season in response to changes in temperature or drought. Research shows that soil EC changes as soil-water content changes, but the patterns of a soil EC map stay unchanged from year to year. Research shows that sandy soils with low organic matter have low EC, silts have medium EC, and clays have higher EC. A soil EC map is helpful because it identifies areas in a field that have different soil compositions which may benefit from different management strategies.

However, a soil EC map doesn’t provide seasonal or crop specific insights. In regions with an arid, semi-arid, or coastal climate, such as California, soil salinity varies by season. Late summer fog and ocean salt spray result in high EC values. Winter rains leach salt away, decreasing salinity, and in early spring salinity is at a low level. With much of the west in a prolonged drought, salinity levels are rising throughout the season and crops are impacted. Many of the most salt sensitive crops we mentioned are those that typically thrive in these regions, but with the drought and water restrictions, closely monitoring these crops is more important than ever.

AquaSpy’s approach to measuring soil EC

AquaSpy looks layer by layer into the soil and can see what’s occurring at the active root zone. This insight is critical for deep rooted trees which need to have water provided where and when it’s needed most.

Patented multi-sensor probes measure soil moisture, salinity, temperature and root zone activity independently at 4-inch intervals all the way down to 48 inches. Proprietary algorithms give yield-optimizing insights for ideal irrigation at critical growth stages such as bud development that impact the outcome of fruit and nut tree yields. The powerful AgSpy system provides analysis and actionable insights so growers can easily understand what is going on without having to visit the orchard or farm.