iPhone Feature Assists with Irrigation
June 30, 2009 Zach Sheely, 27, is excited about the family farming business now that a California-based irrigation software company, PureSense, lets him and other farmers check on their crops using an iPhone.
The iPhone application allows them to access information from underground sensors that detect moisture levels near the roots of crops.
The underground sensors aren’t cheap. Each sensor station, consisting of multiple sensors in a field, costs $5,000, and the family currently has 20 of them. They’ve helped shorten watering times, stressing the plants just enough so they produce healthy fruit.
“We don’t want to put too much on,” says Sheely. “The plants go dormant with too much water, and it can slow growth. And if you put too little on, it also slows the growth. So we want to stay right in that sweet spot of growth.”
California farmers grow most of the nation’s fruit, nuts and vegetables. They’re also discovering ways to adapt as California heads into another year of drought.
Growing Pains
Growers in California’s largest farm belt, the Central Valley, have idled thousands of acres of crops this year. That’s due, in part, to a historically low federal water allotment.
Some farmers have switched from water-thirsty crops like cotton, sugar beets and alfalfa to wheat, safflower and seasonal vegetables. They’re also turning to drip irrigation and advanced sprinkler systems that lessen evaporation and wind drift.
The battle for water has helped underground sensors gain attention. Farmers can access information from the sensors by computer and adjust watering times accordingly.
The Sheelys farm 10,000 acres, mostly pistachios, almonds and tomatoes. They’ve yanked out acres of cotton and converted most of their fields to row crops fed by drip irrigation.
The iPhone application allows Zach Sheely to check his crops from anywhere, so he can pursue his other career as an opera singer. He’s gone on the road to perform in San Francisco and China with the California Opera Association.
During a recent singing lesson, still in his farm work boots, Sheely perched his iPhone on the grand piano. He takes a break at one point to check on his fields. He clicks on the “charts” tab for information on the soil moisture content of his plants.
“We just turned on the water today,” he says. “Looks good, just like we wanted it to.” Relieved, Sheely returns to his lesson.
The underground sensors have helped him increase the family’s tomato yields, he says. In some cases he’s doubled them, using less water.
California farmers are more efficient than they were 20 years ago, says Peter Gleick, co-founder of the Pacific Institute, but they’re not nearly as efficient as they could be.
“The agriculture of the 20th century isn’t the agricultural community we’ll want in the 21st century,” says Gleick. “And those farmers that are innovative and flexible and smart and efficient are the ones that are going to survive. And the other farmers are going to suffer, and they’re going to moan, and they’re going to potentially go out of business.”
Sasha Khokha reports for member station KQED in San Francisco.
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