Intelligent irrigation system
‚‚When I saw the cost of the sensors, I was a little hesitant because the price is not the lowest. However, in one summer season, the cost of the sensors returned to me in the form of saved water, energy and labor.’’
Martin Halmeš, agronomistWe have two companies: Agro SEMA, which has less than 900 hectares, and SEMA has 1200 hectares – in total we manage 2100 hectares. SEMA is an ecological company where we do not use any chemicals, including fertilizers and sprays. On one plot we have 3 pieces of irrigation equipment (pivots), which we use mainly for crops such as corn for seed. We have to irrigate when the plants do not get enough water. If we don’t give the corn enough water, the yields would be much lower.
”Normally, we would have started the irrigation sooner, but the sensor showed us that there was still enough water in the soil, so we skipped the irrigation. We only released it when the sensor showed us that there was not enough water in the soil. It turned out that the corn was healthy both qualitatively and economically ‘‘.
“The cost of one cubic meter of water is € 0.13. On 30 hectares, at a 10 mm dose, it is a total of 2970 m³ of water. Other costs are associated with electricity and labor (approx. €65.00). So one irrigation cycle costs me 450 €. Sometimes it is necessary to turn on the irrigation twice => that comes to a total of €900 ‘‘. “ If I omit one irrigation, following the actual measured data from the sensors, I can save € 450 per irrigation cycle ”.
