Is it possible to save on water but at the same time have a successful water irrigation system that supports your crops?
The system consists of a series of sensors that measure soil water content
It is perfectly possible according to an EU-financed project in Malta named WaterBee which designed a prototype irrigation system operated by a web-based interface and wireless networked sensors.
There is a pressing need and excellent commercial opportunity for such a system in agriculture, the largest industry in the world and, according to the WWF, wastes 60 per cent of the 2,500 trillion litres of water it uses each year. This amounts to 70 per cent of the world’s accessible water and constitutes a huge threat to the environment. A major culprit is inefficient water irrigation systems. In Europe, irrigated agriculture is the biggest water consumer – over 60 per cent – in the Mediterranean where drought is an increasing problem.
The successful WaterBee Research for SMEs project has researched, developed and proved the concept of the WaterBee prototype to provide a unique scientific soil-moisture model that automatically adapts to each installation and crop with a distributed web-based wireless sensor networked smart irrigation system to optimise water use efficiency in irrigation.
WaterBee is an intelligent ZigBee-enabled agricultural irrigation system, which greatly enhances the efficiency of existing irrigation systems.
The system consists of a series of sensors that measure soil water content (or potential), environmental parameters that influence ‘evapotranspiration’, and indicators of crop development or physiological status. The data gathered from these sensors is sent across a low-cost, low-power consumption ZigBee wireless sensor network. These sensors are effectively distributed over the cultivated area, given that different areas of the field, or fields, have different water requirements.
The sensors monitor these parameters and send readings across a ZigBee mesh network to a GPRS gateway (the same used in mobile phones) which sends all of this data to a central web service which uses an intelligent software application to automatically analyse the data and act upon it by selectively activating irrigation nodes only in the areas required. This data is fed into an intelligent software package that uses intelligent agents to act upon the information received from the sensors. The outputs and irrigation recommendations are presented to the user on a smartphone app or web browser.
The Maltese partner in this project is Saviour Gauci of Chadwick Mushrooms. Established in 1974 it is one of the leading local mushroom production enterprises. In 1985, a Dutch system of cultivation was introduced, and in 1988 a computer system for the control of temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide was installed. Since then, the company has always upgraded to keep up with the times. Now it has installed a demonstration site for the WaterBee system.
There are plans to scale-up the WaterBee system to a full reliable operational field prototype service, that will be demonstrated and validated over a 15-month period with complete growing cycles of various crops in six contrasting sites across Europe, namely Estonia, Italy, Malta, Sweden, Spain and the UK. This will also try to quantify profitable operation of the WaterBee service for growers, with water savings of 40 per cent while enhancing crop quality in each site.
This project is part-financed by the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme of funding for research projects.
Last month the Commission launched the final and largest ever set of calls for proposals for research under its FP7. In total, €8.1 billion will support projects and ideas that will boost Europe’s competitiveness and tackle issues such as human health, protecting the environment and finding new solutions to growing challenges linked to urbanisation and managing waste.
The Malta Council for Science and Technology, as the national contact point organisation for FP7 in Malta, assists researchers to tap into these funds. The FP7 Unit within the council offers free, tailored consultations to address specific needs and requirements through one-to-one meetings to ensure that beneficiaries tap into the right funding scheme to maximise the benefits.
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