Sensoterra | Revolutionary Precision Farming using LoRAWAN

Only 3% of the world’s water is accessible freshwater. Of that, 70% of the freshwater consumed is used in the agricultural industry – the largest consumer of water globally. Monitoring soil moisture levels helps farmers to make effective and smart irrigation decisions. Too much water in the soil leads to waterlogged areas and anpotential for plant illness or death, while too little water will harm crop growth.

Here is the Solution !!

Sensoterra: more crop per drop. Making it easy and affordable to measure soil moisture and produce more food for less. 

Our climate is changing; freshwater supplies are dwindling and droughts, flash floods and failed crops are more and more common. This makes our global food production unstable while our population continues to grow.

Agriculture consumes 70% of the world’s water supply to provide food for 7.5 billion people, yet agriculture is far behind when it comes to embracing digital solutions to solve problems of efficiency and quality in the production of food. Less than 1% of all farmers use sensors to understand their crops condition and needs. As a result, almost all farmers over-irrigate their crops by up to 60%, wasting money, precious water and damaging healthy soils.  

That’s where Sensoterra soil moisture measurement system comes in picture. A low cost and user-friendly tool for farmers that will make the agriculture sector more sustainable and efficient. The Sensoterra Multi Depth Probe will lower water use and increase yields in the agriculture sector, bringing agriculture professionals extensive insight into soil condition. 

The Sensoterra mission is to tackle water waste in agriculture and help farmers increase yield and decrease costs. In short; producing more food for less.

Sensoterra is a low-cost, wireless and remote system that offers farmers real-time insight into the soil moisture condition of their crops. Soil is not homogenous – it holds moisture differently in various areas. With low-cost, plug and play probes that can be deployed across a large field in more areas, the

data becomes more valuable and results in smarter irrigation decisions. 

How it Works ?

  

 

The step-by-step process of Sensoterra’s LoRa-enabled solution

 The company utilizes Semtech LoRa-enabled sensors in its probes and a LoRaWAN™ network that enables the IoT connectivity, Sensoterra primarily focused on the North America and European agriculture markets and has deployed over 4,000 sensors and achieved over 720,000 data points since the product launch in 2016. Sensoterra’s solutions are now being deployed in Australia, South America and other parts of the world. In Dec 2018, IoTVigyan enquired and found that right now Sensoterra's probe do not support Indian LoRAWAN frequency, but if there is attractive business case from India, they can think about the same.

 Current Projects of Sensoterra

USP of Sensoterra

Ease of installation is a key feature of Sensoterra’s soil moisture system. LoRa-enabled multi-depth probe sensors can be installed in a matter of minutes and data is viewable online within an

hour after installation. A free app is available for download and can operate on a laptop, tablet or mobile phone. Users have the ability to manage their installations through an easy to use dashboard and an open API is available for data integration.

Technical Details

Sensoterra probe

• Economic pricing
• Two-minute installation 
• Fully wireless and remote 
• Lifetime of 3-10 years 
• Compatible with all soil types 
• Free Data 
• Wireless range up to 4 km 
• Measure at different soil depths
• Probes retail at USD 110 

 

The system consists of probes, a solar-powered gateway and the stand-alone cloud-system “SoilWare”. Varying probe lengths (15, 30, 60 and 90 centimeters), allow measurement at different soil depths directly at the root of the plant.

Soil moisture data is sent to the cloud through the gateway, the user can access soil moisture data from any location and at any time.

The Sensoterra SoilWare system provides the farmer insight in real-time soil moisture percentage data per measurement point, per crop and stores all data securely stored in the cloud.  Farmers can compare soil moisture distribution per day, week or even year and access all data through PC, smartphone or tablet.

 How Sensoterra can be market differentiator ?

The soil moisture sensor market is dated and prices are high, ranging between 500-1,000 USD per sensor. As a result, typically only 1 sensor is used in a field covering as much as 50 hectares. Using only 1 data point is a high risk for irrigation management, especially considering differences in soil and crop type.

Boasting completely wireless sensors with the most intuitive UX and user friendly design, our sensors are offered at a fraction of the costs of competition, averaging 110 USD per sensor.

Besides the significantly lower retail price for Sensoterra, virtually every competitor is using a subscription model for data use. Sensoterra provides data for free, and charges no fees for the app or any other hidden cost.

For more information reach:https://www.sensoterra.com/

This article Sensoterra | Revolutionary Precision Farming using LoRAWAN is first time published on IoTVigyan , for any query or suggestion, feel free to reach on iotvigyan@gmail.com.

Reference : Internet