A sensor to reduce the amount of water consumed in agriculture and fight the drought

In spite of the recent rainfall, most of the Iberian Peninsula, especially eastern Spain, is still suffering from a drought. The need to reduce water consumption is causing many to turn to the countryside, as agricultural irrigation accounts for 80% of all the water consumed in Spain. However, there is still a lot of room for improvement, and a significant portion of this consumption could be reduced by using more efficient irrigation systems.

This was the challenge addressed by two Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) students, María Martínez (from the Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration and Management), and Fernando Carrasco (from the Bachelor's Degree in Computer Engineering), who are originally from Murcia but are now based in Sweden. They created Agrodit, a technological solution that seeks to make it easier to monitor crops and implement hyper-efficient irrigation in agriculture in order to save costs and resources. Agrodit won the jury prize in this year's SpinUOC entrepreneurship programme, coordinated by the Hubbik platform.

Agrodit presentation at the SpinUOC 2023

The impact of agriculture and water consumption

The Spanish National Institute of Statistics' most recent data indicate that 2.5% of Spain's gross domestic product (GDP) comes from agriculture. This is almost twice as much as the average for the European Union, where Spain is one of the countries in which agriculture accounts for the greatest proportion of GDP. In fact, according to the Valencian Institute of Economic Research, taking the agri-food sector as a whole, which means including food preparation, processing and transformation, raises this figure to 9.2% of the Spanish economy. This sector is also key to the country's employment, as it accounts for 3.8% of its active workforce.

In many ways, Spain is the garden of Europe: in 2021, the country exported over €60 billion worth of agri-food and fisheries products (according to data provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food). The high economic and employment figures have enabled the agricultural sector to grow almost constantly in the last few years, mostly in activities relating to irrigated crops. According to the Spanish Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, the agricultural sector's water consumption currently accounts for 80.5% of Spain's total demand for water.

The drought and the new future scenarios that can be expected as a result of climate change (with increasingly scarce and irregular rainfall in the Mediterranean area) have made it crucial to ration the use of water and apply more efficient processes in agriculture. "This is particularly true considering that, according to the World Bank, inefficient systems are currently responsible for the wastage of about half the water used in crop irrigation," said María Martínez. "A lot of this water evaporates due to the challenges involved in managing irrigation, and some of the rest is used inefficiently."

A sensor to mitigate the impact of drought

Drought is a natural component of the Mediterranean climate. However, as noted in the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it has become more serious and widespread as a result of climate change, and this will only continue to get worse in the short term. This places the economies of the region in a delicate situation, having to adapt their water consumption to the availability of a resource that is becoming increasingly scarce. Technologies such as Agrodit's can be great partners when it comes to tackling this issue.

"Using soil moisture and temperature sensors in agriculture improves irrigation by providing accurate information on crops' water conditions," said María Martínez. "Thanks to our sensors, farmers can measure soil moisture in real time, thus ensuring they don't over-irrigate. They also help them identify excessively dry areas so that they can provide the exact amount of additional water required and prevent soil wear and damage to its structure. Depending on the type of crop concerned, our technology can save up to 50% of the water used in irrigation, watering crops only when and to the extent needed."

The technology developed by the two UOC students is based on humidity and temperature sensors that work autonomously and are powered by solar energy, which means they do not need to be recharged. They are connected to an application that shows the data collected and the weather forecast for the area and provides remote irrigation control. The technological solution, which has been developed in collaboration with farmers in order to tailor it to their actual needs, has already been tested in two pilot projects: one in an outdoor parsnip field, and one in a greenhouse growing cherry tomatoes.

"For the tomato crop, we collected multiple measurements throughout the facility and connected the irrigation system in order to automate it. This resulted in 25% fewer working hours for the farmer. Furthermore, the resulting tomatoes were found to be of higher quality and could therefore be sold for 20% more than the previous year", added the cofounder of Agrodit. The start-up has already acquired over 15 business customers, including the companies involved in the pilot, who were so satisfied with the solution that they are repeating the experience.

"Efficient irrigation minimizes the amount of water wasted and uses the right amount at the right time, which helps mitigate the impact of drought by conserving this resource and promoting a healthy growth for crops. This helps ensure the sustainability of agriculture and food security in water scarcity-affected regions," concluded María Martínez. "Our technology is designed to empower farmers, increasing their independence in the implementation of efficient irrigation practices and optimizing the resulting crops."

This entrepreneurial project supports United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2, 6 and 12: Zero Hunger; Clean Water and Sanitation; and Responsible Production and Consumption.

Contacte per a premsa

Rubén Permuy
rpermuy@uoc.edu
+34 659 05 42 39

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