Crop Advisor: Your Solution to Irrigation Uncertainty
Flooding in Brazil and Texas, a brutal heat wave throughout the Philippines, record temperature in Africa and India, and that’s just in one month! Extreme weather has devastating effects around the world, and guess who usually gets hit the hardest? Farmers!
How do we know it works?
Well, we’ve been doing this for a very long time. Behind Crop Advisor is Netafim’s legacy of pioneering agricultural innovation and decades of experience in both agronomy and irrigation. Crop Advisor’s recommendations are grounded in innovative crop models developed by Netafim's leading agronomists and honed over close to 60 years of global irrigation experience.
When we developed Crop Advisor, we conducted validation trials for each crop to test, validate, and calibrate the crop model. These trials also assessed the system's complementary methods and monitoring capabilities, to build comprehensive crop models for each crop. To validate the effectiveness of the model, a local best practice irrigation method was chosen as a control treatment for the GrowSphere crop models. Over 30 field trials and observations were conducted to assess the performance and reliability of the models.
Why potato farmers in Vietnam like Crop Advisor
Farmers around the world are starting to reap the benefits of Crop Advisor. For example, PepsiCo, a multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation, has been expanding its potato cultivation project to the Central Highlands (Tay Nguyen) and North Vietnam. On one of its 6-hectare potato farms, PepsiCo has recently implemented GrowSphere™ along with Crop Advisor. The decision to adopt GrowSphere's technology was primarily driven by the need to optimize irrigation by helping farmers know when and how much to irrigate.
Cuong Doan, a Netafim agronomist who has led the Crop Advisor implementation on this farm, explains, “Farmers here appreciate Crop Advisor because it's easy to receive recommendations on a daily basis directly from their mobile app. They use Netafim’s irrigation and fertigation protocols and apply minor adjustments based on their crop variety and weather conditions.”
The impact of using GrowSphere™ on productivity is still being evaluated. However, the immediate advantage of daily, accurate irrigation guidance has been clear, “This tool significantly enhances operational efficiency. It helps us make smart decisions involving our operations. Even small adjustments can lead to substantial improvements in farm management,” added Doan.
What’s next for Crop Advisor?
As the head of digital agronomy, I understand that the successful implementation of any digital tool relies heavily on users experiencing its benefits firsthand. Just a few weeks ago, we held two GrowSphere™ seminars in Mexico and Brazil, which brought together the agronomic and digital farming teams from across Latin America including Colombia, Costa Rica, Brazil, Mexico Argentina, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, and Guatemala. The seminar spanned three days and included teaching sessions, hands-on experience, and practical training, as well as a field day with a customer who has implemented the GrowSphere system. The opportunity for hands-on experience and knowledge sharing proved invaluable.
Looking ahead, we are already forging new collaborations with leading sensor companies and broadening our integration with diverse platforms and monitoring devices. Our roadmap includes expanding our fertilizer models and harnessing the power of AI and machine learning to enhance location-specific crop modeling.
There's so much more on the horizon for Crop Advisor. This is just the beginning of an exciting journey toward a more efficient and productive future in farming.
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