Smart Irrigation

Made In Italy Technology for Agriculture

Across the grey, hazy industrial city, Marcovaldo, bent over the handlebars of his scooter, bundled up in the hood of his raincoat, with his nose protruding out of it, totters with his seedling in search of the rain-laden clouds. Hearing the tick-tock, Marcovaldo rejoices: the rain continues and nourishes the plant, pushing sap along the slender stalks. With the greed of the glutton, the poor worker goes on relentlessly shuttling between streets, squares, riverbanks, and bridges. The seedling is strained in impetuous effort and grows, grows, until, exhausted, at the hour of vespers its leaves turn yellow, then orange, red, blue, violet, and finally yellow again before breaking off and flying away with the wind.

Marcovaldo‘s amusing misadventures highlight two fundamental themes of Calvino’s book, Marcovaldo ovvero le stagioni in città (1966): the impossibility of a return to the past, to a bucolic life in a rural society where there was a real and constant relationship between man and nature; and the paradox of industrial bourgeois society, dominated by the constant desire for economic growth and environmental sustainability. If we cannot turn back to the rediscovery of an idyllic society, it is equally certain that we cannot remain where we are, twirling around with a seedling in hand in search of rain amid the fumes of incinerators and the smell of concrete. Any solution presupposes an awareness and change in our lifestyles. In the meantime, scientific and technological research can help us resume communication with the plant kingdom, monitor its health, and understand its needs.

Smart Irrigation: Why is it important?

Technologies serving agriculture are a clear example of how innovations can facilitate communication between man and nature. It was precisely these technologies that were discussed at Fieragricola Tech in Verona, held Feb. 1 and 2, 2023, where 520 exhibitors gathered to showcase Made in Italy technological marvels in the agricultural sector.

Smart irrigation technologies and some possible solutions to mitigate the current water crisis were presented during the fair. Climate change, indeed, concentrates rainfall in the autumn periods leaving us “dry” during the rest of the year, returning little of the irrigation needs to field crops. In addition, the Italian agricultural sector absorbs 60 percent of the country’s entire water demand, but it is plagued by chaotic management and very old infrastructure that causes the loss of more than 42 percent of the water fed into distribution networks. About 80 percent of Made in Italy agribusiness is produced from irrigated crops; therefore, we cannot disregard the proper use of water.

The Smart Irrigation Technologies

The fundamental contribution of smart irrigation is related to predicting rainfall contributions to arrive at efficient water management. Understanding whether you should irrigate your field and what the irrigation volume is are the fundamental questions that need to be answered. Smart irrigation includes different types of instruments – usually called sensors – that can collect but also read data, helping farmers understand what is happening in the field. These tools can provide a snapshot of actual water needs. According to Gioele Chiari, a Cer-Anbi researcher, the use of sensors is facilitated by the construction of on-farm networks: digital systems that help bring together field sensors referring to weather, leaf wetness, and soil data.

Another evolving area is crop management software. The real evolution, Chiari says, is the usability of these programs, which are now available even to less tech-savvy farmers thanks to computer interfaces. Among them is the cloud-based Manna Irrigation Intelligence service, which uses satellite data and through simple images provides farmers with irrigation guidance, crop observation maps, and irrigation planning tools. The farmer can easily access it anywhere, anytime via the interface on the Web or the mobile app.

Future Challenges

What is still missing from our technology? Sensors capable not only of reading and understanding water needs but also of predicting them. These tools are being defined: drones, electromagnetic devices for soil analysis, and sensors that analyze root activity. For example, prediction of xylem transport – that is, the flow of water from roots to leaves – can be accomplished through sensors that identify daily and nightly water extraction, thus determining the working capacity of roots. According to Gioele Chiari, the future is all about that: reading xylem and phloem flows, root system functionality, and all the other physiological parameters that can prevent a problem. These technologies are already being developed at Italian research centers such as Acqua Campus, a reality of reclamation consortia that assists farmers in making the best choice for their crops.

Giorgio Siegfried Paris

A graduate in Chinese Studies (Unibg and Unimc), he is currently pursuing a degree in Environmental Humanities at Ca’ Foscari University. He is a teacher of Italian in a public school in Beijing. He believes in the importance of environmental justice.