Technology and artificial intelligence mark a new era of irrigated agriculture

Technology, automation and intelligent machines. Connected systems that work independently, without the need for human intervention. Equipment that talks to each other and makes decisions according to each need. These ideas were considered part of a distant future, but the truth may surprise you: in the irrigated agriculture sector, the future has already arrived.  

To understand this new reality, just take a look at the technological innovations that have been driving the segment. The equipment that makes up modern irrigation systems is equipped with solutions aimed at automation, facilitating the producer's daily life and transforming the field into a scenario marked by technology.  

Worth highlighting, for example, are products that already make use of technologies such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT, or Internet of Things) – which enable the creation of products that not only include, but go beyond monitoring or remote control of irrigation equipment.  

At Valmont Irrigation, a company in the precision irrigation services sector, owner of the Valley center pivot brand, this type of projects has already led to the launch of several products.  

Almost three years ago, the company announced a global partnership with Prospera Technologies, an Israeli company specialized in data collection and development of artificial intelligence solutions. Now, with the completion of the acquisition of Prospera technologies, the process has already generated US$300 million and is resulting in the creation of solutions that allow us to glimpse what the future of the sector will be like. 

“Valley is transforming the center pivot. It goes from being just an irrigation machine to an autonomous crop management tool,” commented Valmont President and CEO Stephen G. Kaniewski in February 2019.  

From the beginning, the partnership has been guided by the objective of integrating these advanced technologies into Valley irrigation pivots, which at that time already had more than 60 connected devices. 

"The intelligent pivot is already a reality. Thanks to innovations such as Prospera technologies, the last three years have seen many significant advances for Valley and the development of projects that will leave lasting marks and forever transform what we understand as irrigation ", highlights the CEO of Valmont Brasil, Renato Silva. 

Equipped with the largest distribution network on the market, with more than 500 resellers around the world, Valley is a leader in the sector – which is exactly justified by the development of innovative products and services, capable of transforming the future into reality. In Brazil, Valley accounts for around 60% of the market share in the center pivot segment.  

Innovation. With the focus on technology that marks the development of all Valley solutions, some products already bear the mark of the next era of irrigated agriculture. 

Attention is drawn, for example, to Valley 365 – defined as the first migration to Agriculture 5.0, a new era in the sector, marked not only by the presence, but by the leading role of technology and automation in the central pivots.  

With Valley 365, producers have access to all the technologies offered by the Valley brand, in a single product.  

Operating based on cloud data storage, the platform operates in the field 365 days a year, offering information on monitoring and control, forecasting and planning, optimization and application, and information and analysis, integrated with solutions such as Variable Rate Irrigation (VRI ), the irrigation management platform and AgSense – technology that allows remote control of the irrigation system, that is, telemetry. 

Available in some countries and already in the testing phase in Brazil, it is also worth highlighting Valley Insights – an advanced service, based on artificial intelligence and machine learning, which uses aerial images to virtually examine crops, identifying problems related to crop health, water application, among others, generating intelligent reports for better decision making, moving away from other solutions available on the market.  

Among the problems that can be detected by Valley Insights are pivot-related failures and stress caused by weeds, nutritional deficiencies or inappropriate chemical application.