Yara Water Solution
The Yara Water Solution enables farmers to irrigate on-demand and to save 20-30% of water. The Yara Water-Sensor assesses the water status of the crop by measuring the pressure of the leaf, and the irrigation recommendations are accessible via the Premium Engagement portal for Yara – MyYara.
Yara’s R&D departments carry out ongoing trial work to improve the current crop specific calibrations and to develop the technology for other crops.
The result? Water and energy savings, reduced tree maintenance, and sustained maximum yield.
How Does the Yara Water Solution Work?
With increased water scarcity and agriculture consuming 70% of the global freshwater resources, the demand for new agricultural solutions keeps growing. Precision agriculture / crop sensing technology increases nutrient and water use efficiency.
Yara has developed a continuous, non-destructive and remote measurement of plant water status in real time via the Internet. That allows you to apply water on demand to optimize the resources, while maintaining production quality and quantity.
The Yara Water Solution measures the relative changes in the leaf’s turgor pressure – or “water” / “blood” pressure of the plant - together with microclimate parameters.
As the turgor pressure is the driving force for plant growth and fruit production, proper water management is important. If a plant is not able to access enough water, it cannot maintain turgor pressure and it will begin to wilt. Turgor pressure is the pressure caused by fluid pushing against the cell wall of plant cells. It is needed to keep the plant’s rigidness to stand straight and continue normal cellular functions.
The Yara Water-Sensor measures changes in leaf turgor pressure in real time. The turgor pressure in the leaf patch is opposed to the magnetic pressure, which is kept constant during the measurements. The Yara Water-Sensor measures the difference between magnetic pressure and turgor.
The Yara Water Solution uses a minimum of 10 Yara Water-Sensors, distributed across 5 trees in the sector, for safety and representativeness; this ensures continuous measurements reflecting the reality of the sector. The Yara Water Solution also includes sensors to measure the microclimate parameters used to complete the evaluation and irrigation recommendation for the sector, keeping the user informed of the environmental situation at all times.
The data are sent wirelessly in real-time to Yara’s premium engagement portal, MyYara. Based on the actual Yara Water-Sensor readings and our calibration trials the crop water status and the crop-specific irrigation recommendation are now accessible via desktop, laptop, or smart phone using a standard web browser.
Basic Set
The Basic Set is aimed at monitoring uniform irrigation plot up to 15 ha.
The Basic Set includes:
- 10 x Yara Water-Sensors
- 5 x Transmitters
- 1 Temperature-Sensor
- 1 Humidity-Sensor
- 1 Soil Moisture-Sensor
- 1 Base Station
Crop coverage
The Yara Water Solution is currently calibrated for:
- Olives
- Citrus
The irrigation recommendation given by the system is crop specific and validated. Work is ongoing for calibrations of additional crops such as:
- Grapes
- Pome Fruits
- Stone Fruits
Benefits
- Savings in water consumption up to 20%
- Save energy
- Reductions in tree maintenance
- Boost yield up to 15%
- Improve crop quality
