About 2 years ago, I took a look at the water bill of our 7-acre Temecula farm for the first time. Upon viewing the records for the past year and researching other farms, I was shocked at both how much money and water were spent on farms, even one as small as ours. As I was researching the most common methods of irrigation, I compared them with our farm and found a scary similarity: despite modern advancements, many farms utilize archaic methodologies that were never built for the volume of modern resource consumption. After pondering the implications of this trend, I concluded that an absurd amount of water must be wasted every single day by farms across the globe. While the exact figure isn’t known, it is generally agreed upon that a frightening figure of nearly 50% of farm water is wasted. In a world where approximately 70% of freshwater withdrawals stem from agricultural use (UNESCO), the potential consequences of this wastage are enormous. I realized that there had to be a solution that cuts down this wastage while still maintaining the farm yield. For answers, I decided to go to the primary source of information for every 21st-century teenager: Google.

 

The process of finding a solution was tedious but hugely fruitful; scouring research papers from Google Scholar and examining historical trends from JSTOR provided ample confirmation that I was correct about the existence of a more sustainable and profitable approach to farming. As I looked through all of these sources, there was one phrase that seemed to be omnipresent–Precision Agriculture.

 

The widely held modern academic definition of precision agriculture–often called smart farming or smart irrigation–is the use of analytics and data to optimize farming and resource management at large (Taylor, 2016). While contemporary advancement of technology is actively changing the meaning of the phrase, precision agriculture has been around since ancient societies, where the definition was simply the optimization of farming practices. In fact, the Ancient Greeks often emphasized intense farming on a small plot of land, ideals that broadly align with the modern goals of smart farming. 

 

As I explored the real meaning behind smart irrigation and the practical applications of said practice, I discovered that it might be exactly what I was looking for on my farm. Despite now knowing what it was, I still didn’t know how to get it, what it cost, or if it was even applicable to a small-scale farm like mine, since a lot of my research mainly discussed its implementation into larger farms. After researching countless avenues and companies, I finally found one called Irriot, a Swedish-based company that makes precision agriculture available to everyone. I decided to take a leap of faith and email the company asking for information and potentially a call to learn more. To my surprise, they said yes, and we set up a date for the coming weekend.

 

The meeting with Irriot was probably one of the most eye-opening experiences of my life. During the course of the Zoom meeting, they gave me the specifics on their company, explaining how the products work, the costs of the system, and the societal benefits of the technology at large. The most surprising thing was likely when they told me that some of the largest barriers to entry for farmers to precision agriculture are a lack of knowledge and a resistance to change. At first, as a 14-year-old whose knowledge of climate change was limited to Antarctica and polar bears, my mindset was something along the lines of: “If it’s good for the environment, what is there to learn. Farmers should just do it if they want to save the environment.” However, after some experience with precision agriculture, I realized that there were many more factors at play, namely costs, return on investment (ROI), and the fact that the farmers' families are relying on the farm to live. As I started to understand the factors at play, I wanted to conduct some type of experiment to test out the true viability of precision agriculture on a global scale.

 

Consequently, I set up a second call with the employees at Irriot and told them about my plan. Together, we worked to customize a system that would best fit my goals and the conditions of my farm. My family, who knew next to nothing about precision agriculture, decided to trust my passion about the topic and make an investment in the farm. The system we purchased from Irriot–a base controller, solenoids, valves, and soil moisture sensors–totaled $4,624.02. A hefty sum, yes, but with huge upside if it panned out the way I thought it would.

 

With my dad’s help, we installed the full system in less than two days, which includes installing our own solar panel and wiring everything up ourselves. The portability and ease of installation of precision agriculture amazed me, as I had always thought a system like this would take multiple weeks of work to get up and running. I clicked the on button and of course, it didn’t work. But after a few minutes of checking connections, my phone dinged with readings from the soil moisture sensor, and water started to spray out of the sprinklers. Suddenly, at the click of a button, I could shut off or turn on any water system on the entire farm in an instant. 

 

After the initial excitement wore off, I started configuring the system to turn on depending on the weather and if the soil moisture dipped below a certain percentage. Before conducting my experiment, I also wanted to conduct a soil test to see if better watering practices would lead to an increase in soil health. After sending the soil test out, all that was left to do was wait for a year so I could compare the year-over-year results.

 

After excitedly waiting for 12 months, the results of my study were outstanding. Comparing September and October of 2023 with the same two months of 2024, the precision agriculture system saved  $195.53 (62.22 HCF) on average. Extrapolating this to larger time periods, the savings are astronomical. Over a year, our farm would theoretically save $2,346.36 (747 HCF). Over two years, our farm would save $4,692.72 (1,493.28 HCF). This means that we would break even in just under two years (23.65 months to be exact), which we are currently on track to do. For farmers who plan to spend the rest of their lives, or at least a good portion of it, farming, two years is next to nothing to recover the initial investment. While yes, the initial system cost is expensive, in the grand scheme of things, precision agriculture seems to be undeniably worth it with projected 10-year savings of $23,463.60. It is imperative to remember that these savings are based on a small, 7-acre farm. On a larger farm, even with a larger initial investment, the savings and ROI should be astronomically larger depending on the actual size of the farm. 

 

Furthermore, the soil test results showed exactly what we expected. After implementing the precision agriculture system, our water monitoring and use improved so drastically that we solved key issues like waterlogging, which led to an overall increase in our soil quality. The benefits to the soil manifested themselves in the health of our avocado trees, which correspondingly looked much better and produced significantly more fruit. 

 

Implementing precision agriculture was one of the best things that we could have ever done for our farm. Post-installation, we saw countless economic and qualitative benefits that we didn’t think we could achieve before. In the wake of a changing world where climate change is leaving farmers confused about what’s next, precision agriculture could be exactly what they need to counteract resource issues. Barriers to entry, such as a lack of knowledge, high initial costs, and a resistance to change, attempt to hinder precision agriculture’s spread, but it truly could be the solution to many of the resource issues we face today. As a society, it’s time to come together and rid agriculture of old-fashioned technologies resistant to modern developments and encourage farmers to take part in a smarter, cleaner, and healthier world.

Taylor, James A. “Precision Agriculture - an Overview | ScienceDirect Topics.” Sciencedirect.com, 2016, www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/precision-agriculture.

UNESCO. “UN World Water Development Report.” Unesco.org, 26 Feb. 2024, www.unesco.org/reports/wwdr/en/2024/s.