Dr. Mohammed Amanullah
Janet Kanters writes
Scientists have for decades sought to navigate the challenge of salt water content and agriculture. Around the world, it is widely known that date palm is among the most salt-tolerant crops. In Saudi Arabia, which produces 1.4 million tons of dates annually and in 2019 exported 184,000 tons, could readily available seawater solve the problem of high irrigation requirements of date palm production?
The road to an effective method of irrigating date-palm with saline water came about unexpectedly from energy company Saudi Aramco. A little background: in the oil and gas industry, the most frequent and expensive problem during drilling is loss of circulation, when the viscous drilling “mud” pumped into a well to stabilize it and push out rock chips only partially returns to the surface or doesn’t return at all. Oil and gas companies utilize lost circulation materials, or LCMs, that reinforce porous downhole oil wells by bridging and plugging “thief zones,” the rock formations that can divert expensive circulating fluids and drilling muds, and limit oil recovery. LCMs are made from a range of natural materials such as ground limestone, marble or formica that can strengthen the wellbore formation and prevent loss of circulation. Saudi Aramco has primarily used walnut shells (“nut-plug”) from the United States.
A “eureka moment” in his garden inspired Saudi Aramco’s senior petroleum engineering consultant Dr. Mohammed Amanullah to take date-palm seeds into his lab to study whether the local material could work as effectively and reliably as imported LCMs used by the company. Amanullah’s project on date seeds was an “outside-the-box idea that opened our eyes to their potential as a value-added, ecofriendly product that can be used in oil and gas applications,” he said, emphasizing that the discovery will act as a powerful catalyst in the growth of the date palm industry.
Aramco’s date-palm seed “ARC Plug” is made in ecofriendly ways that produce no harmful wastes or solvent, and Amanullah said it has already replaced walnut shells at Aramco. He posits that in the future, the ARC Plug could be used in the regional and global markets – at least the Middle East because it is more affordable. But whether or not a surplus can be made depends on irrigation – there would have to be an irrigation network to support the growth of date farms within Saudi Arabia.
“As often happens with innovation, demand can outstrip availability,” said Amanullah. “The Kingdom’s date-palm wastes are sufficient for domestic LCMs, but not for regional and global demand. Cultivating more of the trees in the Middle East’s empty deserts might seem an obvious solution, with greater volumes of material for green fluid additives and fruit for global consumption creating a dual catalyst for new revenues, jobs and agricultural industries – except for the water issue. The Arabian Gulf’s lack of freshwater (which comes at high cost) makes a desert planting strategy unviable.”
On the other hand, Amanullah noted the area’s huge salt-water sources mean that with the right crop and water management strategies, the Middle East could be a great proving ground for bio-saline irrigation. Salt-water irrigation would have no detrimental impact on the freshwater market, reserving that precious resource for drinking and domestic uses, a real sustainability boost in a region that experiences roughly two inches of rainfall per year.
“The fact that between 70 to 90 percent of water is used for food production highlights the need for saline water-based alternative farming with emphasis on salt-water tolerant plants, trees and herbs,” said Amanullah.
Date palm trees are highly resistant to drought and heat, and have the further advantage of a relatively high level of salt tolerance. However, if an extreme amount of salt builds near the date palm root, it can lead to a significant drop in crop production and health.
“Personal experience makes me hopeful,” said Amanullah. “My own cursory study on the feasibility of saline irrigation began with cultivating date palms along with salt-tolerant crops like Asian vegetables, sugar cane and papaya, experimenting with the timely removal of the salt-saturated topsoil at an appropriate depth and areal extent to prevent the burning of roots and foliage.”
Date harvesting
In his research, Amanullah said he’s had success in growing date palms using water that has a total dissolved solids (TDS) content of 3350ppm. “To achieve this, I used a method that involves the timely removal of salty topsoil from the vicinity of the tree root to minimize the saline concentration,” he noted. “It is like the dilution technique we use to reduce the effect of salt concentration in salt-contaminated, water-based mud during drilling. In the oil and gas industry, our drilling fluid gets contaminated with salt so we dilute it. In irrigation, if you remove the top layer by around one foot, you remove the salt crystals that have accumulated. You can replace this with clean soil every three to four years.”
Most of the dates come from farms in Al Hasa, which is known for its agricultural production. Yet Saudi Arabia has a lot of spare land, which with the proper irrigation could be used to expand date farming operations.
Amanullah said there is an element involved to processing seawater for irrigation, but it is still more cost-effective than using saline-free water in date palm irrigation. However, overly brackish irrigation water can reduce fruit productivity.
“The key is knowing what level of saltwater is acceptable to support productive date tree farming,” he said, “and I believe the salinity levels with which I have achieved success through my research are conducive to this idea.”
Date palms are very drought tolerant – they prefer hot and dry weather, and need water only every two to three weeks, making them very suited to the local environment in the Middle East. However, depleted groundwater reserves in the region have in some cases resulted in higher soil salinity, due to seepage of seawater into the water table. There has been research into this field to determine which species perform better than others.
“As governments in the region take steps to increase the number of date palms, I anticipate this will become an increasingly important area of research,” said Amanullah. “Oman has used a process known as subsurface drip irrigation to reduce the amount of water required for irrigation, as part of a project to increase the number of its date palms. In the UAE, research has also been carried out into water salinity and date palm irrigation.”
Why not avoid seawater altogether and use desalinated water for date palm production? According to Amanullah, with desalinated water the process is very costly and it generates lots of salt. “The cost of the desalination process is very high. If you used it in date farming it would not be economically viable, due to the amount of energy investment required to power desalination plants.”
To assist with the increase in mass date palm farming in Saudi Arabia, Aramco is currently in the process of planting one million native trees as part of a project launched in 2018. In addition, the company has planted more than two million mangrove trees, a species very effective in removing CO2 from the atmosphere, one of the company’s measures to offset carbon emissions.
“There is a huge amount of land where date farmers could potentially grow more dates and benefit from the commercialization of date seeds – which was previously regarded as a waste product,” said Amanullah. “Farmers now have an incentive to grow more dates, since they are not only supplying the traditional consumer. We have opened a door and it’s up to others to exploit the potential. This can create jobs for the local community, while also having an environmental benefit in terms of CO2 mitigation.
“In fact, the triangle of salt water irrigation, recycling biotechnology, and oil and gas applications for wastes can be a powerful force for economic growth and diversification, innovation and jobs – as well the ability to explore and exploit energy resources without detrimental impact on marine, coastal and terrestrial resources.”
Whole date seed (foreground) surrounded by ARC Plug versions - Photos: Aramco
Chile is a food exporting giant. In 2018 it exported more than US$17 billion in food products. The main sectors are fresh fruit, processed fruit and vegetables, salmon, wine, animal products and dairy. If the forestry sector is included, combined agri-food exports reach US$24 billion.
Chile is the largest fresh fruit exporter from the Southern Hemisphere, with 2019 exports totalling US$6,632 million. In fruit crops, 342,000 hectares are cultivated (see Regional Report).
There is a common factor in the production of fresh fruits, processed food and wine: all are produced under pressurized irrigation. Chile has 1.1 million hectares under irrigation of which 430,000 hectares have pressurized systems: 340,000 hectares are under drip irrigation and 90,000 use sprinkle mechanized systems, mostly centre pivots.
During the last five years, mostly due to a severe drought in central Chile, fruit production has been moved to the south (traditionally colder and wetter) to the Maule, Nuble, La Araucanía, Los Ríos and Los Lagos regions.
All of these trends have contributed to a constant growth of the soluble fertilizer market in Chilean agriculture.
WSF market size by volume The soluble fertilizer market in Chile has both local producers and importers, thus it is not easy to estimate the total volume. However, most pundits agree the local market is in the realm of 190,000 MT. It is a market that uses crystals but there are some producers that use granules. The market grows following the irrigation expansion and increases between 10 and 15 percent each year.
The total fertilizer market is 1.1 million MT, of which WSF represents between 15 and 17 percent.
Fruit crops are the main consumers of WSF in Chile. According to local pundits, 80 percent goes to fruit crops, 15 percent to vegetable and five percent to row crops. In terms of distribution strategies, each company uses its own system, but in general terms 50 percent of the products are sold via the distribution channel and the other half is sold directly to the farms.
Potassium nitrate – the most popular source The main products used in fertigation in Chile are potassium nitrate, calcium nitrate and potassium sulphate – these three products account for 60 percent of the market.
There are three producers of potassium nitrate in Chile, all of them located in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. SQM is the market leader. It is a multinational company that produces and exports potassium, specialty fertilizers (potassium nitrate), iodine, lithium and industrial chemicals. In 2018, SQM sold one million MT of specialty fertilizers, worth US$780 million, to several countries in the world. In Chile, SQM sells its potassium nitrate through Soquimich Comercial, a local sister company.
The second largest producer in Chile is ACF which belongs to the De Urruticoechea family. In Chile, ACF distributes with the local fertilizer company Vitra.
The third potassium nitrate producer is Cosayach which belongs to the Errázuriz family. Cosayach commercializes its potassium nitrate in Chile through different companies, such as CNA, among others. Local market commentators estimate the local potassium nitrate market reaches 60,000 MT annually.
The local potassium sulphate market is estimated at 20,000 MT/year. The great majority of this product comes from China. There has been local production, but it has not been constant because local producers have more profitable alternatives such as lithium. Still, there is some space for the import of "gourmet" products such as Solupotasse.
Imports of calcium nitrate account for 20,000 MT each year, mostly from China.
Other specialty raw materials As the three main sources total roughly 100,000 to 120,000 MT, there are several other sources in the Chilean soluble fertilizer market. One of them is phosphoric acid, with is at 10,000 MT/year, mainly from Mexico. Technical grade monoammonium phosphate (MAP) accounts for 10,000 MT/year. Magnesium sulphate is a very popular source of magnesium and it is estimated that each year the Chilean market consumes 20,000 MT. Potassium chloride (KCL) is produced in Chile, but there are also imports from Bolivia and Canada.
ENAEX (Empresa Nacional de Explosivos), a local explosives manufacturer, produces ammonium nitrate, which is sold by a few local distributors. It is highly demanded for NPKs blends. There are other products such as MKP, zinc and boric acid, which might altogether add 15,000 MT to the portfolio.
In Chile, as in many other countries, urea is used as a fertigation source. In the old days pearled urea was imported which had a higher solubility. Today most of the urea used in fertigation is granular and pundits estimate that at least 30,000 MT of urea is applied this way every year in Chile.
Products consumed as straights According to Claudio Morales, general manager of CNA Chile, 90 percent of the Chilean soluble fertilizers market are straights. “Only 10 percent are NPK soluble blends,” he noted. “Of these blends, 20 percent are line blends that are sold in bags per phenological stages. These products are sold via distributors. Eighty percent of the NPK blends are sold tailor-made to farmers. In this industry, the higher margins and added value can be obtained from tailor-made NPK blends to farmers.”
Another tendency has been the replacement of some commonly used straights by products of better quality. “As water availability is reducing, and there is higher salinity in the fields and irrigation water, especially in the north, potassium chloride has been increasingly replaced by other potassium sources,” said Real. “Something similar has been happening with phosphoric acid, which has been replaced in some areas by monoammonium phosphate and monopotassium phosphate.”
Local market structure Soquimich Comercial is by far the market leader in Chile. This private company has a majority of stakes that belong to SQM but it also has other shareholders. The second largest player is Vitra, which belongs to the Vial family who are the owner of Agrosuper, the largest food company in Chile.
In third place, there is a new player – CNA. In a few years, CNA has emerged to reach 25 percent of the granular fertilizers market in Chile and in 2019 it launched a portfolio of soluble products.
The rest of the market is composed of many companies that are either small or concentrated on importing specific individual products.
Fruit crops are main market "I would say that fruit crops comprise 85 percent of the market, 15 percent goes to vegetables and five percent to row crops,” noted Real. “We in SQM are mostly focused on fruit crops for the export market. There are some extensive crops where farmers applied nitrogen products, some even apply urea. But in terms of balanced formulas, fruit crops and vegetables lead."
In general terms, the most "attractive" crops are table grapes, cherries, avocados, walnuts, apples and blueberries. There are some specific high-tech vegetable production areas such as Arica in northern Chile (at the frontier with Perú) and Quillota in the Aconcagua Valley, that mostly cultivate tomatoes for the local market.
Liquid fertilizer market Pundits estimate the Chilean liquid fertilizer market accounts for 50 million litres each year. Market sources think 50 percent of this market is UAN (urea ammonium nitrate) and 50 percent of NPK liquid blends. Nutrien from Canada, the largest fertilizer company in the world, participates in this market, as well as the local company Quimetal. There are a few other smaller local players such as Ferpac and Fertiamérica, among others.
Circular economy – use of centre pivots growing The most accurate study about pivots in Chile was conducted by Gustavo Roa, an agronomist with the National Irrigation Commission (Comisión Nacional de Riego). By studying satellite images, Roa determined there are 1,600 pivots in Chile, irrigating 85,000 hectares. "The main crops irrigated by pivots where maize from the Biobío Region to the north and sugar beet and grasslands in the south. There is also potato irrigation. In Los Angeles (Biobío province) there are some flowers and strawberry projects irrigated by pivots,” said Roa.
Fertigation exists in drip, micro sprinklers and drip tape irrigation, and in pivots. Iván Vidal is an agronomist from Irritec and Universidad de Concepción, and is specialized in plant nutrition and works with pivots. "Every type of soluble fertilizer can be applied through pivots,” he noted. “We have even applied gypsum here in southern Chile. The kind of fertilizers that we normally apply through pivots are nitrogen, urea, ammonium nitrate, potassium nitrate, ammonium sulphate, magnesium nitrate, calcium nitrate, potassium sulphate, potassium chloride, micronutrients and UAN. If the product has a solubility index higher than 100 grams/litre, it can be applied through pivots.”
SQM has launched a special formula for pivots called Ultrasol Pivote.
SQM’s global experience The main players in the Chilean soluble fertilizer market have their strategies to develop the market. "We at SQM have more than 18 soluble NPK plants all over the world. Our focus has always been having high tech plants that can deliver formulas tailored to the farmer´s specific needs. Based on this strategy we have become world leaders in soluble nutrition. Our focus has been to produce balanced formulas to solve our customer’s needs,” said Real.
“In Chile we have 20 agronomists in the field. They constantly visit the farmers and based on analysis and the crop needs, we give them advice and help them to determine the best formulas for their particular cases. Another advantage of working with SQM is that as we are a global company, we have agronomists in the most dynamic agricultural countries of the world and we can share that knowledge to every farmer,” added Real. “In Chile we have doubled our R&D team and we are strongly investing in development of new products, training of our team and customers, and partnering with experts to deploy new methods to enhance analytics and monitoring of the crops.”
CNA – a new player CNA Chile has rapidly evolved to become an important player in the Chilean fertilizer market. In only a few years, it grew to supply 25 percent of the local granular fertilizer market, trailing consolidated companies such as Anagra and Vitra.
CNA Chile belongs to the Mexican entrepreneur Alejandro Flores and has a commercial partnership with Nitron from the United States. In 2019 CNA Chile started to commercialize soluble NPKs and in April 2020 it inaugurated a soluble fertilizer blending plant in Chile. It will supply tailor-made formulas for farmers and also line-bagged products per phenological stage and crops.
"Our new soluble fertilizers line that we have launched is called Nascent,” said Morales. “We hope to grow fast and become the third actor in the local market this year, hopefully reaching 20,000 MT. We see that in the tailor-made formulas we can add value to our customers.”
Promising future The soluble fertilizer market in Chile has an important share of the national fertilizer market. And it continues to grow fast, following the expansion of pressurized irrigation and new areas for fruit production. The appearance of new players will incorporate more dynamism to the market and so will be the new strategies deployed by consolidated actors.
Growth will be larger in southern Chile where the expansion of nut crops, cherries, apples and blueberries is underway. Northern Chile has been facing severe droughts and table grape farms are either diminishing in area or replacing crops and expanding into citrus. Central Chile continues to be one of the most intensive and sophisticated fruit and wine production areas in the world, and companies are buying land and expanding southwards.
This local dynamism goes hand in hand with a sophisticated local irrigation industry and a local fertilizer industry with global experience. Drought has been a constant menace and farmers are getting used to deliver more crop per drop and fertilizer unit, thus enhancing nutrient use efficiency.
Michigan State University (MSU) is developing an international irrigation and water management partnership with the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) in Australia, thanks in large part to Australian Ph.D. candidate Michael Scobie.
More than 9,000 miles from his home, Scobie spent the last half of 2019 at MSU developing his international project leadership skills along with the desire to formalize a partnership between the two universities.
The senior research engineer in Irrigation and Water Engineering at USQ became connected to MSU through his late mentor Steve Raine, former executive director of the Institute for Agriculture and the Environment at USQ, and MSU Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering (BAE) chairperson Darrell Donahue who invited Scobie to spend a semester at MSU working with irrigation and water management specialists.
MSU and USQ are in the final stages of signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to establish future partnerships around faculty and student exchanges and collaborations on international grants and contracts, Donahue said.
Scobie’s research is focused on mobile technology to support agricultural decision-making and comparing adoption rates between farmers in developed and developing nations. Much of his research is centered on agricultural technology adoption rates and access in southern and southeast Asia – Myanmar, Vietnam, India, Nepal and Bangladesh. He is focused on educating farmers on the benefits of using technology to improve farming and breaking down barriers to access.
“About 50 percent of my work is around digital technology and how farmers can use those tools for better water management decisions,” Scobie said. “And the other half of my work is in developing countries helping farmers improve their water management. So, I go from one end of the spectrum to the other, from very high-tech to very low-tech.”
Scobie worked with MSU irrigation specialist Steve Miller and irrigation researcher Younsuk Dong, both in the department of BAE, during his time in East Lansing. Dong and Miller have developed a low-cost soil moisture sensor for farmers. Scobie is helping them commercialize the sensor and software to eventually create an app that farmers can use to monitor fields remotely. They are currently looking for potential funding. The technology is primarily focused on Michigan and U.S. farmers, but Scobie said it is highly adaptable and relevant for farmers in developing nations.
According to Scobie, adoption rates depend on the utility of the technology, and so he is looking to address what technological advances will improve adoption rates in developed and developing nations. “If we can identify what the drivers and barriers are to people deciding to use these things or not use these things, then we can design better tools,” he said.
Scobie plans to continue his research and outreach programs in southern Asia as he works to complete his Ph.D.
Scobie's irrigation work focuses on incorporating technology to assist with water usage and planning. Photo: MSU
The Egyptian government has embarked on a project to upgrade irrigation systems in the north of the country. The aim is to reduce water consumption while including renewable energy in agriculture.
As reported at afrik21.africa, the Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation stated the aim of the project is to change the surface irrigation systems – currently in use – to drip irrigation, which consumes less water.
The current project will cover a total area of 3,140 hectares of plantations in Upper Egypt. The government will invest a total of 183.7 million Egyptian pounds, or $11.6 million. The funding will also equip the irrigation systems with solar systems to improve their electricity supply.
The project is part of the Egyptian government’s new policy to reduce water consumption by agriculture. Within this strategy, unconventional water resources are given priority.
Since August 2019, the Egyptian government has put in place restrictions on the cultivation of food crops such as rice, sugar cane, bananas and all crops with a high-water content in the Nile basin. This new measure is aimed at saving the waters of this river already impacted by major infrastructure projects such as the Renaissance Dam in Ethiopia.
According to the Egyptian government, the country suffers from a water deficit of 30 billion m³. Egypt needs at least 90 billion m³ of water annually to cover the needs of its more than 104 million inhabitants. Egypt currently has only 60 billion m³, of which 55.5 billion m³ comes from the Nile and half a billion m³ from non-renewable groundwater spread over several parts of the desert.
The amount of farmland around the world that will need to be irrigated in order to feed an estimated global population of nine billion people by 2050 could be up to several billion acres, far higher than scientists currently project, according to new research. The result would be a far greater strain on aquifers, as well as the likely expansion of agriculture into natural ecosystems as farmers search for water.
Existing irrigation models – which are widely used to define policies on water and food security, environmental sustainability, and climate change – suggest that the amount of agricultural land requiring irrigation could extend between 240 million and 450 million hectares (590 million to 1.1 billion acres) during the next 30 years.
According to researchers from Princeton University, the University of Reading in the United Kingdom and the University of Bergen in Norway, those projections likely underestimate population growth and too confidently assume how much land and water will be available for agriculture without having to find new sources.
The amount of irrigated land could in fact increase to as high as 1.8 billion hectares (4.4 billion acres), the study authors reported in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. First author Arnald Puy, a postdoctoral researcher in ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton, said that an expansion of irrigation of this magnitude would have dramatic effects on the environment and other sectors of society. Puy, who is affiliated with the Center for BioComplexity administered by the Princeton Environmental Institute (PEI), worked with co-authors Samuele Lo Piano of the University of Reading and Andrea Saltelli of the University of Bergen.
Irrigation is currently responsible for about 70 percent of freshwater withdrawals worldwide. About 90 percent of water taken for residential and industrial uses eventually returns to the aquifer, but only about one-half of the water used for irrigation is reusable. Evaporation, evapotranspiration from plants, and delivery losses such as from leaky pipes forever remove the rest from the water cycle.
“Much larger irrigated areas might mean extending agricultural land toward new ecosystems or non-cultivated areas with the consequent loss of biodiversity, which might also be larger than expected,” Puy said. “At the same time, needing more water for irrigation means less water for other sectors and therefore more stress on water resources than expected.”
New research suggests the amount of farmland that will need to be irrigated to feed the global population by 2050 could be up to several billion acres, far higher than scientists currently project. Photo: Wynand Uys, Upsplash
There also could be a much higher amplification of climate change, which current climate models do not account for, Puy said. Previous research has shown that irrigation may influence climate by altering surface temperatures and the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere, both of which are critical components of climate modeling. These factors have an impact on cloud formation and the amount of solar radiation that is either contained within the atmosphere or reflected back into space.
The climate effects of irrigation also include greenhouse gases released through producing and operating irrigation machinery. The most common modern equipment consists of centre-pivot systems consisting of wheeled tubes outfitted with spray guns or dripping faucet heads that rotate around a central water source.
“Much larger irrigated areas means that predictions of agricultural gas emissions might also be much lower than they will be in reality,” Puy said. “More irrigated areas means investing on irrigation machinery and energy consumption, leading to the consumption of fossil-energy reservoirs and the release of CO2.”
Finally, irrigated agriculture also increases soil total nitrogen and carbon due to the addition of fertilizers and manure. Nitrate leaching can taint groundwater and ammonia can be volatilized from fertilizers, limiting the availability of potable water, Puy said.
By drawing attention to the underestimation of irrigated land by current models, Puy, Lo Piano and Saltelli hoped to increase the accuracy of all studies that rely on those estimates to project how the climate and environment could be affected by the very real challenge of feeding everyone on Earth – and how the state of the environment could shape the outcome of that effort.
Agriculture, which accounts for 90 percent of global water use, is the largest driver of water scarcity worldwide. In a recent study published in Science Advances, UC Berkeley environmental science, policy and management professor Paolo D’Odorico and PhD candidate Lorenzo Rosa investigate water scarcity over global agricultural lands, assessing various geographical factors and presenting the data in high resolution maps.
Using data intensive computer models, the researchers quantify the water currently provided to crops. They determine the optimal amount of water needed to grow these crops under normal conditions with ample water. Then using hydrological models, the authors compare water demand with availability, to measure scarcity and determine the regions of the world where additional water could be made available through expanded irrigation.
The findings suggest there is enough locally available water to expand irrigation over 140 million hectares of agricultural lands. However, for socio-economic reasons, irrigation infrastructure is not currently available for much of this cropland, and such irrigation expansion could have significant implications in a changing climate.
The authors also find that two-thirds of land suitable for irrigation expansion is located in sub-Saharan Africa, East Europe, and Central Asia. In these regions, the expansion of sustainable irrigation could boost food production and feed an additional 800 million people.
The study was conducted in collaboration with a team of scientists from Politecnico di Milano and University of Amsterdam.
Plants, just like humans, have circadian clocks that allow them to tell the time. Indeed, plants are so dependent on daylight that circadian clocks are even more influential, regulating the rate of photosynthesis, gas exchange and transpiration.
Now, researchers with the John Innes Centre (UK) have discovered these biological clocks play a critical role in the consumption of water, allowing plants to use this precious resource more efficiently.
Researchers carried out a series of experiments with model laboratory plants in which the genes encoding circadian rhythms had been changed. Some changes made plants use more water in relation to growth but, unexpectedly, the experiments revealed that some of these changes to circadian rhythms allowed plants to grow strong and healthily while using less water. The study reveals that it is the whole circadian system that affects water use efficiency not just a specific part.
The study reveals that the altered circadian clock genes affect water use efficiency through a variety of ways. Along with adjusting the process of transpiration, the altered clock influences how big leaves grow which effects how much water the plant uses. These changes together with others account for the improvements in water use efficiency the researchers observed.
The next steps of the study will be to discover the cellular mechanisms that explain how circadian rhythms regulate plant water loss and establish the importance of the findings in key crops, using the knowledge from the model plants used in this study. Further work could involve investigating the role of temperature in how the clock affects water use efficiency.
Valley Irrigation and Prospera Technologies are expanding their artificial intelligence-based crop monitoring and detection service, Valley Insights, to commercial growers in select areas of Washington, Texas, Nebraska and Idaho, quadrupling the coverage area in 2020. The companies are also beginning U.S.-based tests of new anomaly detections and continuing trials of the industry’s first sensor-equipped irrigation machines, the next step in their roadmap to turn existing irrigation infrastructure into autonomous connected machines.
Powered by Prospera’s computer vision and A.I. technology, Valley Insights acquires and analyzes data from imagery to pinpoint areas of fields that may have anomalies. The system can detect irrigation machine issues, over- or under-watered areas and other issues. Valley Insights then alerts growers to the problem areas so they can take crop-saving action.
Trials of additional capabilities, including weed and nutrient detection, will take place in certain areas of Washington, Texas, Nebraska and Idaho this spring.
In addition to expanding commercial availability of their Valley Insights service, Valley and Prospera are conducting field tests of close-proximity data collection in Washington, Idaho, Nebraska and Kansas, using sensors mounted on Valley irrigation machines. Located just a few metres from the plants, the sensors collect very high-resolution images day and night – capturing significantly greater detail than drone, aerial or satellite imagery can provide.
The on-pivot sensors are a key step in the companies’ combined vision to transform existing large-scale equipment into autonomous connected machines that independently acquire and analyze plant data and take action to address irregularities at the plant level.
