Farmer’s Tech Boosts Tomato Water Efficiency

Ray Yeung, a Yolo County Farmer, was interviewed recently by Ag Alert. He has successfully implemented new technology on his farm to improve water efficiency and maintain the health of his tomato plants during the transplanting process.
Yeung uses a system developed by Gradient Crop Yield Solutions, an affiliate company of California tomato processor Morning Star. This system uses and algorithm that relies on infra-red readings of the crop canopy, along with other sensor data, to understand plant transpiration and crop stress, with the goal of optimizing irrigation to the specific crop needs.
"It’s a total game changer", Yeung says, "because a lot of times when you use a moisture meter, it may say the soil is wet, but the plants still need water. This thing is amazing because it goes in the soil, and it has a camera that takes a picture of the plant, and it figures out whether the plant needs water. It’s unbelievable because we have fields that we haven’t given a drop of water.”

Sources: California Farm Bureau, Ag Alert, Morning Star