Smart Irrigation: FarmHQ’s Solution for Farmers
by Katie Bishop, Head of Research for FarmHQ
Read below to gain a deeper understanding of smart agriculture, precision agriculture, and smart irrigation.
What is Smart Farming?
Growers are facing a number of challenges, including rising production costs, climate change, and water scarcity. According to the previously linked article, to meet these challenges farmers will have to invest in new opportunities. Smart farming and precision agriculture technology are prime examples.
Smart farming is a broad term that refers to the use of digital technologies to improve agricultural productivity and sustainability. For example, using a variety of technologies to monitor field conditions and manage those remotely. Alternatively, precision agriculture is a term that refers to the use of sensors and data to optimize farm management.
How to Use Smart Irrigation
One of the most important areas to apply smart and precision agriculture is irrigation. In smart irrigation, sensors can be used to monitor water usage (including pressure, speed, and total volume). Then, cloud applications send this data to growers. With this information, growers can create automated irrigation schedules, turn pumps off remotely, and reduce water usage. A recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that smart irrigation has the potential to save farmers significant amounts of water and energy. Additionally, the GAO report also found that these technologies can help farmers improve crop yields and reduce costs.
FarmHQ is an irrigation monitoring and control company that provides farmers with a smart irrigation solution. FarmHQ’s system can help farmers save up to 25% on labor and increase water efficiency by up to 30%. This can lead to significant input savings, which are becoming especially important as other costs continue to rise.
