世界上的水只有 3% 是可获取的淡水*。美国每人每天将当中的 600 多加仑用于农场灌溉和牲畜使用。监测土壤湿度有助于农户做出有效和明智的灌溉决策。土壤的水分过多会导致区域积水，可能令植物生病或死亡，而水分过少会损害作物生长。
Jurriaan Ruys is the founder of Land Life Company, a nature restoration company with a mission to reforest the world’s two billion hectares of degraded land. The organization develops new technologies to restore habitat in parts of the world where nature cannot come back unaided and has leveraged Semtech’s LoRa® devices and wireless radio frequency technology (LoRa Technology) in its Internet of Things (IoT) solutions for commercial farms. The company currently has teams on three continents and reforestation projects in over 25 countries.
Land Life 在规划阶段利用无人机和卫星图像分析土地。其创新的 Cocoon 生产工艺更有效、更大规模地种植树木。
为确保 Cocoon 提供树木生存所需的合适水量，该公司需要一个能够在全球偏远地区提供数据的精密湿度传感器系统。Ruys 搜索了市面上现有的产品，但找不到合适的实用解决方案。这个方案需要符合无线、远程、易于部署和可扩展等要求。他和他的团队决定亲自构建一个解决方案，Sensoterra 应运而生。
Sensoterra 是一种低成本的无线远程系统，可让农民实时了解作物的土壤水分状况。土壤由不同成分组成，在不同区域保持水分的方式各异。低成本的即插即用探头可以在更多地区的大型农田部署，令数据变得更有价值，从而帮助使用者作出更明智的灌溉决策。
The company utilizes Semtech LoRa-enabled sensors in its probes and a LoRaWAN® infrastructure provided by Senet, a leading provider of global connectivity and IoT network service provider. Sensoterra primarily focuses 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.
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.
能够远程获取土壤湿度数据对于 Land Life Company 来说无疑非常重要，但 Sensoterra 很快发现农业、园艺和景观美化领域也需要此类系统。例如，爱达荷州的马铃薯种植者使用 Sensoterra 的系统来管理枢轴灌溉。农民根据土壤湿度指标减少灌溉次数，从而节省了 30% 的用水量。
Recent drought conditions across north America and Europe, has led to an uptick in city governments looking to monitor water consumption.
There’s a case for these cities. During summer months with low rainfall, costs for irrigation in public parks, golf-courses and other green areas, skyrockets. However, over irrigation is still a concern, with dwindling freshwater resources seen in metropolitan areas across the world. By introducing the Sensoterra solution, cities can reach an estimated reduction in labor costs and recouped system expenses from water savings within three months.
Learn more about how LoRa-based solutions are revolutionizing smart agriculture.
Visit Sensoterra and Senet online.
*U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation
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