Remote Sensing based Irrigation Intelligence with Manna Software

Manna offers irrigation intelligence solutions to help growers decide when and how much to irrigate.

Precision Farming to Smart Farming

Increasing population and abrupt weather fluctuations around the world has put huge pressure on agricultural food products for quality and sustainable food production. In 2050, our planet will need to provide food for an estimated 9 to 10 billion people. In order to produce anything like that figure, we’re going to need a lot of water. Achieving food security in the future while using water resources in a sustainable manner is a major challenge for this and for next generations. The big question is: how can we increase water productivity so that we can grow per drop more crops.

Precision Farming is defined as managing variations in the field accurately for higher productivity with fewer resources thereby reducing input and production costs. By increasing water use efficiency, we can increase the amount of crops grown with the same amount of water and can provide food for a larger population. The advent of Micro Irrigation Systems has enabled precision in application of water and fertilizers at the right place and in a right way. Whereas Smart Farming is an emerging concept that refers to managing farms using modern Information and Communication Technologies to increase the quantity and quality of products while optimizing the resources. Today’s growing challenges in agriculture, urges shift from precision farming to smart farming in order to maximize food production while reducing the resources invested.

MANNA IRRIGATION: The Concept of Intelligence Software

The challenge facing all humanity: maximizing food production while reducing the resources invested. Manna seeks to meet this challenge, by striving to develop a solution that contributes to efficient water usage in field of irrigation.

Irrigation Decision Support from Outer Space -MANNA IRRIGATION, a system in particular is recognized where irrigation is critical to crop development, and water availability is declining due to climate changes.

Manna Irrigation is a leading Israeli company & is backed by Rivulis Irrigation, which is one of world’s leading Micro Irrigation Company. Manna Irrigation offers Irrigation Intelligence Software to Individual farmers using Remote Sensing Techniques & Agronomy. Manna offers irrigation intelligence solutions to help growers decide when and how much to irrigate.

Manna Irrigation with its sensor-free, software-only approach, leverages high-resolution, frequently updated satellite data and hyper-local weather information to deliver highly affordable and accessible site-specific irrigation recommendations.

In other words, it includes software only, without sensors or hardware in the field, and therefore is easily adopted by users. Its goal is to support the farmer's decisions: when and how much to irrigate, without the need for physical contact with the soil or the plant.

The system relies on satellite imagery analysis combined with precise meteorological data and agronomy model. Satellite images are received from three different satellite systems every day; Manna system analyzes the satellite data to determine the exact and current crop conditions vegetation vigor, water potential and more.

Weather data is based on a virtual- station, hyper-local weather service that provides historic, current and forecast conditions at the farm level. The agronomy models are adapted to each crop (currently supporting about 50 crops) and geographic location. The system combines all these factors in parameters of the soil and irrigation system, and provides precise and dynamic irrigation recommendations (daily/weekly).

The software enables individual farmer, receive recommendations through Web / Mobile includes:

(a) Daily/Weekly Irrigation Recommendation

(b) Real time Crop Monitoring Maps/Images

(c) Daily weather Forecast

Benefits of software

• By using, actionable information by Manna Intelligence Software, farmers are able to effectively manage Irrigation Scheduling Decisions with below benefits:

• Real time, daily reliable estimate of water requirement of the crop on helps in applying accurate amount of water

• Real time hyper-local weather data (on daily basis) including reference evapotranspiration helps grower/farmer in taking decision like Irrigation scheduling and Irrigation planning

• Daily satellite images helps farmer in analyzing different portions of his farm area for crop uniformity & take suitable decisions

• Sensor free & easy to use accurate solution helping farmers to access his farm from anywhere and anytime i.e. Real time & dynamic

Two major impacts of using such a tool and achieved in major crops of India are:

• Significant amount of water & electricity saved

• Increase in Yield & Water Use Efficiency

Manna's accessibility

Every grower in the world has direct access to personalized and affordable irrigation intelligence on the smart phone which they can use daily for optimized and confident irrigation decisions.

Way Forward

Agriculture production is experiencing a modern revolution and has involved the use of communication and information technology. Use of modern agricultural technologies is must. This can be a powerful tool for farmers for the efficient use of resources and real-time management.

Manna software computes the amount of water lost to evapotranspiration that should be provided by irrigation systems with input on crop data and planting date information. Using remote sensing satellite data, soil moisture level at the root zone level is estimated, without deploying any physical sensors in the farm. The assimilation of high resolution weather data from meteorological station provides customized precise calculations on water application to every farm. Without any doubt, smart farming is helpful for farming community with real-time alerts thereby assisting the grower in farm management with precise use of agricultural resources for sustainable food production. Such an inexpensive, effective and innovative technology which has outreach anywhere in the country can enable growers adapt to smart farming even with limited knowledge and skills.

Manna software is way forward for transformation from Precision farming with Micro Irrigation to Smart and Digital farming.

- Dr Sangita Ladha, Business Director, Rivulis Irrigation India Pvt Ltd.