"New innovative technologies enable us to check what happens in the fields also via mobile devices, to monitor the soil, distinguish the life cycles of plants and understand when to irrigate," reports Mario, a partner and developer of 4.0 agricultural solutions for terraSmart, a start-up in Basilicata that has just installed two devices.
"They are the first two installations of this kind in the region. The first case history is a complete 4.0 monitoring solution for the soil (sandy), plants and agrometereology in a bell pepper crop. The second installation is a 4.0 monitoring solution for the soil (clayey) and agrometereology in an apple orchard."
"Sensors placed at different depths monitor the temperature, conductivity, electricity, irrigation, fertilization and conditions for plant growth in real time."
"The installation in the pepper field also includes the plant monitoring part. Evolved high-tech sensors are useful for leaf growth and micro-variations of stem diameter. Applied on plants, these sensors enable the checking of the growth and vegetative activity by monitoring lymphatic flow, leaf transpiration and branch/fruit growth."
"The temperature and leaf wetting sensor enables the determining of wetting conditions of the leaf surfaces exposed to the weather, detecting the condensation of water particles in case of rain, dew or fog, i.e. conditions not detectable with traditional pluviometers."
"Leaf growth sensors provide information on stress caused by water deficits, measuring the drop in leaf turgidity when dehydration starts. Early diagnoses can be used as an input parameter to check the precision of irrigation and verify the vegetative condition of plants at the varying of irrigation and environmental conditions."
All the data is gathered in our terraWeb platform, on which users can see data in real time and visualize daily and historic charts. In addition to providing a series of calculations, this platform can supply detection alerts and activate the most popular agronomic predictive models to prevent plant disease."
"Our installations are entirely independent from an energetic point of view and are supplied by solar panels. All our systems can function using 2/3/4G, standard WiFi and LoRaWan connections and we are also getting equipped for Narrow Band (NB), which is important for remote rural areas where connectivity is slow."
"In addition to the conventions and meetings with various growers, we are looking for support from all associations, which are important to promote a concept of 4.0 agriculture which will revolutionize how the land is used, leading to economic and sustainable benefits throughout the chain."
Contacts:
terraSmart
Val D'Agri (Potenza)
Email: terrasmart.it@gmail.com
Tel.: (+39) 393/9286494
Website: terrasmart.it