Rice Crops water management solution
Project Summary
Argentinian rice fields have suffered from bad water management practices for years leading to reduced harvest and increased water losses. A new, innovative solution was needed, both cost-efficient and easy to deploy. Horatech turned to the LoRaWAN® technology and RAKwireless to develop a solution to help Argentinian agriculture thrive.
Company Profile
Horatech is an Argentinian-based company that tackles IoT solutions using the latest technologies and efficient designs, working closely with partners and providers to ensure real solutions. Horatech has developed several solutions in the IoT field and in agriculture like silobag sensors and cattle trackers. They have been working with several institutions like INTA Manantiales, INTECH Chascomús, and CESPI from the National University of La Plata to understand the agronomic basics of Argentina´s agriculture needs.
The Challenge
Water management is a worldwide problem and the rice crops in Argentina are largely affected by it since rice is a very water-demanding plant. Proper distribution and management of the water for agriculture is a very complex task, and manual measurement methods always supported it. This is the main problem that many companies have and is the base limiter of their rice production. By sustaining efficient management of water usage, they can both increase their production and lower their ambient impact.
The Solution
These kinds of network deployments require equipment that can adapt to different contexts. Energy and network connectivity are trivial in Argentina´s rural areas. This is why a new approach was needed. LoRaWAN gives its users the flexibility to develop their own hardware reducing costs on devices and components.
A device with a sensor was built and put inside a water buoy and set to measure the water height in every lot of the crop field.
A LoRaWAN gateway was placed in every field. They cover around 15 km having a density of 500 devices per gateway.
Then, a software layer was built in order to integrate sensor data with existing software from the clients, so they can relate this information with their water management tools.
For network deployment, they used WisGate Edge Max (RAK7249) gateways and the WisDM platform for managing these deployments easily and remotely.
The WisBlock kit was used for prototyping in the product development stage where it is essential to have an easy-to-build and configure device. With the modular approach of WisBlock, the option for easy modifications speeds up the process immensely.
LoRaWAN is very well suited for rural environments, it gives a very long range of coverage and exceptional network topology for working with data and technology deployments. RAKwireless gateways offer carrier-grade antennas maxing out LoRaWAN capacity in range and scalability.
Using RAK products, Horatech were able to set up a LoRaWAN network much faster than the competition, nevertheless, it gives them enough flexibility to deploy their own LoRaWAN solution on the software side and seamlessly integrate it with the hardware network.
Outcome
This project was developed for the rice crop fields in Corrientes province, Argentina near the Parana River and the Paraguay border. Its success, however, renders it suitable for deployment in other regions as well. The combination of RAK hardware for developing the network, WisDM for remote monitoring, WisBlock for sensor building from prototyping to mass production, and Horatech’s know-how and data visualization platform, all tailored to the specific use case, proves very effective.
The software division was able to provide real water level data to assist in field work significantly reducing water dry outs in the crops and increasing rice production with earnings far beyond the project costs.
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