Project AbstractProject is in collaboration with Ensemble Scientific and University of BC center for sustainable food systems. Alberta is known as the capital of irrigation in Canada with 500,000 Ha irrigated on more than 2,100 farms in the province. Crucially, >95% of Alberta's irrigation water comes from off-farm sources. Given this distinction, our proposal to integrate smart-sensor irrigation technology with data-driven decision models is particularly powerful. Our approach has the potential to increase farm productivity, reduce water usage, and provide higher quality agricultural products. We propose to develop, deploy, and assess an automated, sensor-integrated open-source system to provide continually updated irrigation prescription maps for variable rate irrigation systems with our farm partner in Alberta. We will combine real-time sensor-based assessments of soil moisture and precipitation in the field with data analytics of crop calendars and farm-level weather data. These near real-time, data-driven updates to irrigation prescription maps provide a key component to unlocking the improvements in irrigation efficiency that are possible with variable rate irrigation systems, yet are largely unused in Canada. This central feature will be combined with other valuable readings and data sources into powerful visualizations on the LiteFarm platform so that farmers can understand the state of their farm in real-time and over time. Since LiteFarm is open-sourced public good, these scientific advancements in farm productivity can be spread widely throughout Alberta and the world. |
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Project Objectives
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Our 2021-2022 project objective is to develop a full-stack smart irrigation system that will be developed, assessed, and demonstrated on a farm in the Lethbridge area. The system will provide near real-time data visualizations to farmers so they can understand the evolving irrigation situation in their fields. The long-term goal of the partnership is to develop and implement precision irrigation solutions that align with and support the Government of Alberta's 2020 announced investment in increasing irrigated areas in the province. By the end of the project, we commit to delivering: |
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Methods |
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The pivot field will be sectioned into 8 "slices", with 3 of the 8 slices randomly assigned to the precision irrigation treatment. All slices will use static VRI prescriptions in 2021, with dynamic irrigation prescriptions implemented in 2022. We will also compare full-stack precision irrigation results against the Alberta Irrigation Management Model (AIMM) and IRRI-Cast irrigation decision support system. |
Measurements
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Results
For the 2022 growing season in Alberta, we were able to install more than 100 in-ground soil sensors in 17 locations at multiple depths across a VRI irrigated field on a seed farm near Enchant, AB. The producer grew dry peas for the season.
The soil sensors collected soil water potential readings every 10 minutes. Based on these readings as well as soil texture data (from core samples), weather forecast, evapotranspiration (ET) projections, and producer expertise we were able to generate irrigation prescriptions (visualisation shown below) for 17 zones generated using Thiessen polygons based on sensor location.
For half of these zones, we used the application depth suggested by our modelled and ground truthed approach and for the others we used a static depth (per irrigation event) assigned by the producer. This allowed for a comparison between areas of the field irrigated based on our system to areas of the field irrigated without the aid of sensors and real-time prescriptions.
We were able to generate the prescription in the file format used by Zimmatic VRI modules. That allowed for our modelled and ground truthed irrigation prescription to be directly uploaded by the producer to the irrigation controller on the pivot in the field and run. In each case where we generated a prescription, the producer reviewed and determined the irrigation plan was appropriate for the field.
Work continues on analysing sensor data and comparing those regions of the field irrigated with support from real-time soil information and VRI recommendations to those areas irrigated with uniform rates selected by the producer. The LiteFarm team continues to automate the end-to-end process from receiving sensor readings, to visualising them, to generating and scheduling irrigation prescriptions in line with producer wishes.
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| Figure 1: An irrigation prescription from the variable rate irrigation project. |
Recommendations
We're excited about what we were able to accomplish in the short span of this project and have some thoughts on work to build on this initial scope.
- A continuation of this project with expansion to more locations covering a broader range of environments, weather conditions, and crops. RDAR has already funded a good portion of the R&D costs to explore this concept, and we'd now like to operationalize at a larger scale to understand how the technology behaves in different environments.
- A focus on low elevation portions of fields and attempting to reclaim productivity in those spots using in-ground sensors and variable rate prescriptions. This is a common entry point for producers into VRI technology, and this system would provide the tools to make meaningful progress in reclaiming marginal lands, as well as helping to even out production across the entire area covered by the pivot system.
- Our approach uses real-time sensor data as an input into a model for generating variable rate irrigation prescriptions. We'd like to build a more resilient system that is more accurate, includes a fall-back model-based approach in the event of a sensor or telemetry issue, and can be successfully deployed in a range of environments and irrigation systems.
Media
Check out our playlist on this exciting project!
Popular Press Articles |
Articles
Soon, irrigation could see hands-off technology entering the market in southern Alberta.
Together, with UBC's LiteFarm & Ensemble Scientific, we are working towards building a community-driven, open-source irrigation system to benefit farmers around the globe.
Lewis Baarda, Farming Smarter Field Tested Manager, sits down with project partners Kevin Cussen and Mark Johnson to outline the project and the challenges it plans to address for water efficiencies under irrigation.
It's spring in southern Alberta! A new research year has begun! At Farming Smarter, we're out in the field and getting our hands dirty. We have seeds in the ground and plans in motion. Our ultra early seeding trials were planted in mid-March, but..
Producers could stay thoroughly connected to their field moisture if a system developed by Ensemble Scientific and LiteFarm proves itself in Farming Smarter fields...