Researchers at the Michigan State University Extension have developed new sensors to help farmers understand when to irrigate crops. The idea is to make the sensors low-cost and to ease the effects of climate change on soil.
WKAR’s Melorie spoke with irrigation specialist Younsuk Dong to learn more about the project.
Full Transcript
Melorie Begay: The new sensors are called LOCOMOS (Low-cost monitoring system) and they measure environmental conditions like soil moisture and leaf wetness. Why are those kinds of measurements important to farmers, and what are some of the challenges?
Yousuk Dong: Yeah, because of the climate variability in Michigan, which is mainly driven by climate change, we're seeing heavier precipitation and more erratic precipitation patterns in some areas.
Because of these rainfall patterns, it's difficult to determine how much soil moisture is in the soil after rainfall irrigation. So, knowing this soil moisture is important because that would determine when to turn irrigation on and off.
For leaf wetness, typically we see the leaves wet at night in Michigan because of dew and the irrigation, especially folks who are using sprinkler irrigation system which can impact the leaf wetness. The longer the leaves remain wet, the higher the risk of plant disease.
Begay: The sensors can also help farmers who are grappling with climate change, as you mentioned, which is often unpredictable and can cause extreme temperatures. What do these sensors do to sort of work around this?
Dong: The sensors measure the soil condition, like soil moisture, soil temperature and the micro weather conditions within the field. We can utilize data to determine when to irrigate so that the crop doesn't get under water stress. Some people use [irrigation] for cooling down to mitigate the heat stress. Also, we are monitoring the weather condition of the field to better understand whether there is a high risk of plant disease.
If so, then they can determine when to spray the fungicide application to maximize their resource and use of the chemicals.
Begay: What kind of crops do the sensors work on?
Dong: We've been working on the corn, soybean, potato, apple, blueberries, asparagus, carrots. We've been demonstrating technologies to evaluate their effectiveness on different crops.
Begay: What does the ongoing development and research into these sensors look like?
Dong: We've been continuously developing the sensor units. It's an ongoing process. One of the challenges is communication. Some live in the rural area where it doesn't have good cellular reception. So we’ve been trying to utilize the satellite like SpaceX to communicate our sensor data to the cloud, so that's something we've been working on.
Begay: And ultimately, what do you hope these sensors are able to do for farmers?
Dong: Our goal is to increase technology adoption, so we hope more farmers can utilize the technology or tools to make a decision on when to water and how much to water and when to spray, so that they can maximize their return on investment and use our resources efficiently and responsibly.
Begay: Younsuk Dong is an assistant professor in the MSU Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering. Thanks for joining me. Younsuk.
Dong: Thank you. Bye.
This interview has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
