Learn how Agsight helped 5 California citrus and avocado farmers overcome saltwater intrusion using satellite imagery to increase their yield by an average of 12%.
Helping citrus and avocado farmers fight saltwater intrusion by providing them the tools to track soil health and irrigation.
12%
increase in yield
16%
decrease in water use
32%
fewer crop stress events
The problem
For many orchards in southeastern California, irrigation runoff from the Coachella and Imperial Valleys has caused soil salinity to exceed ocean salinity by >50%. High salt concentrations create osmotic stress that forces plants to expend energy excluding salts rather than absorbing water, causing leaf burn, reduced fruit quality, and yield losses of up to 30%. Organic farmers face additional challenges because salinity disrupts microbial communities that decompose compost and mineralize nutrients, which complicates efforts to maintain soil fertility without synthetic fertilizers.
The goal
While the current solution (drip irrigation) is effective in conserving water, it causes other salinity issues by having salts to accumulate in the root zone. The objective of Agsight was to increase the yield of 5 farms in southeast California by at least 10% over the next 2 growing seasons. This would be achieved by monitoring and adjusting irrigation schedules through near real time machine learning algorithms that predicted optimal water conservation strategies to reduce soil salinity.
01
Decomposing the problem.
We worked with farmers in the San Bernardino, Riverside, San Diego, and Imperial counties to understand their struggles with drip irrigation and salinity. By interviewing 10 farmers from 5 representative farms, we identified where irrigation systems failed to translate data into actionable decisions.
How do you currently manage irrigation?
How do you deal with high soil salinity levels?
How do you receive weather forecasts?
What features do you find useful in your current irrigation tools?
How do you interpret data from sensors?
How easy is it for you to understand and act on salinity data?
How do you currently manage irrigation?
How do you deal with high soil salinity levels?
How do you receive weather forecasts?
What features do you find useful in your current irrigation tools?
How do you interpret data from sensors?
How easy is it for you to understand and act on salinity data?
What kind of personalized recommendations would you find most helpful?
How do you currently monitor salinity levels?
What information do you need to better manage soil salinity?
What methods have you tried to mitigate salinity in your soil?
How do you determine when to apply soil amendments to combat salinity?
How do you test your soil?
What kind of personalized recommendations would you find most helpful?
How do you currently monitor salinity levels?
What information do you need to better manage soil salinity?
What methods have you tried to mitigate salinity in your soil?
How do you determine when to apply soil amendments to combat salinity?
We created a salinity management system that combines all 3 insights in a way that optimizes irrigation and soil fertility to sustainably increase yield.
Treat salinization using machine learning
Salinity
See when, where, and how to irrigate your crops
Irrigation
Get things done based on climate and growing season
Never stress about stress again with personalized irrigation schedules.
Smart, sensor-free irrigation schedules are personalized to each plot and prioritize the zones that need water most by factoring in salinity, climate, and crop conditions.
Sync your sprinklers with irrrigation schedules
New
Always be in the know on your crops' water needs.
We send you simple, timely alerts so you can apply soil amendments to high-salinity areas, crop rotation schedules that include salt-tolerant crops to break salinity cycles, and optimal times for leaching.
Irrigation, made easy.
Our machine learning models calculates precisely when, where, and how to water your crops based on their needs, conditions, and salinity.
04
Impacting real farmers on real issues.
To validate our solution, we conducted field trials across our 5 farms. Farms were equipped with sensors and traditional irrigation practices (control group) and Agsight (experimental group).
Experimental
treated with Agsight
"Agsight's satellite data showed me salinity building up in my south avocado block two weeks before the trees showed any leaf burn. It told me exactly how much water to apply for leaching just in that zone, so I wasn't wasting water on areas that didn't need it. That warning saved me from losing about 14% of my crop."
Domenick Bianco
Anthony Vineyards
Control
treated with existing agtech
“Before Agsight, I was basically guessing when and where to irrigate during the hotter months. Since using their schedules, I’ve cut my water use by almost 20% and my strawberries are looking healthier than last season. It even caught a salt issue in one of my lower plots before I saw any damage."
Silvia Jackson
Brodasi Organic Farms
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