Woo Soo Kim did not expect to dedicate his career to sensing the health of plants.
For years, the professor at Simon Fraser University’s School of Mechatronic Systems Engineering had worked in biomedical tech, developing 3D-printed devices and healthcare robots that could track physiological data. But then five years ago, as the world faced growing drought and food insecurity as a result of climate change, he made the leap to agriculture.
“In summer, much less precipitation is happening, and this is a trend,” says Woo. “So we need to shift from simply finding more water to use in summer to using every drop more intelligently.”
It’s a shift that’s rapidly gaining traction. As drier summers become the new normal, a growing number of B.C. farmers are turning to precision irrigation—that is, using everything from soil moisture probes to drain water sensors to ensure plants get just the right amount of water at just the right time, rather than watering on a fixed schedule.
But there’s also a new wave of tech entering the field: AI systems are translating moisture sensor data into watering recommendations; drones are scanning large swaths of crops and identify dry spots or irrigation leaks; robots roam the rows collecting data and images; and satellites are measuring water evaporation and pinpointing areas of plant stress. Some platforms integrate weather data by feeding it into irrigation software that determines where and how much to water.
For his part, Woo is working directly with farmers and developing 3D-printed sensors that can collect data directly from plants by tracking electrolytes, rather than relying on more general data from the soil or surrounding environment. (He compares the technology to an electrocardiogram for the heart.) From there, a robot gathers the data from individual plants and feeds it into an AI system that can factor in other conditions such as weather and recommend the optimal course of action—and even trigger a water pump or valve.
Meanwhile UBC researcher Thorsten Knipfer, assistant professor in UBC’s Faculty of Land and Food Systems, is measuring the tension of water inside plants to monitor plant stress in response to available water, as well as using sensors to measure broad-based evapotranspiration—the amount of water that evaporates across an entire field—to more precisely determine how much water the plants require.
UBC Farm is also playing host to the Smart Agriculture Living Lab, where companies can test the latest agritech on research-focused plots that come with LTE and 5G connectivity.
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In terms of water use, technologies such as these could be a game changer. Woo studied 100 tomato plants over the last two years, and the water savings were dramatic. “More than 30 percent of water was saved during the season by using AI-based precision irrigation, compared with drip irrigation based on habit and the calendar,” he says.
Water-saving tech can’t come soon enough. In B.C. this year, some northern and higher-elevation watersheds experienced a higher-than-normal snowpack, but much of Southern British Columbia and mid-elevations have been well below normal, with some areas at record lows.
As of June 1, snow basins on the South Coast were just 14 percent of normal; the Lower Fraser and South Thompson regions were sitting at just 9 percent of normal; the Okanagan was an alarming 2 percent of normal; and the Boundary region and Vancouver Island were at zero.
Regions from Vancouver Island to Metro Vancouver to the Southern Interior introduced Stage 3 watering restrictions weeks earlier than normal because of the low snow levels coupled with warmer, dryer weather, which led to early drought conditions.
According to a United National Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), agriculture is responsible for 72 percent of freshwater withdrawals globally. In the Okanagan Valley, an estimated 70 percent of the region’s average annual water demand goes to agriculture. (In comparison, the next highest usage was outdoor residential at just 12 percent.) In the Lower Fraser Valley, agriculture accounts for roughly half of all groundwater withdrawals.
Pashak Sachdeva, executive director of the Irrigation Industry Association of British Columbia (IIABC), says the conversation around B.C.’s irrigation industry has changed dramatically over the last decade.
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“Ten years ago, many discussions were about irrigation equipment. Now it’s more about information, data, monitoring, efficiency and optimization. That’s a very significant shift,” he says, adding that growers are increasingly moving away from calendar-based watering and moving into data-driven irrigation and remote management tools.
Especially in regions like the Okanagan—where agriculture, population growth, tourism and drought are all putting unprecedented pressure on the water supply, and where stricter limits on water used are being introduced—growers want technologies that are based on actual conditions, not assumptions.
“We are at the point where precision agriculture is becoming mainstream, and AI-powered agriculture is moving from early adoption toward broader implementation.”
Fraser Valley berry producers are adopting monitoring and water management tools that directly affect the yield and quality of the fruit, says Sachdeva, while greenhouse operations are using sensors, machine learning and environmental monitoring to make precise decisions about irrigation and nutrient management.
But while precision irrigation technology is rapidly evolving, and the need to reduce water use is becoming more urgent, B.C. growers aren’t yet adopting the new tech en masse—in part because for many crops, irrigation hadn’t been necessary until the recent drought trends descended.
It also comes with costs that Sachdeva describes as “enormously high.” At the lower end, soil moisture sensors can run $100 or more, while weather stations and smart irrigation controllers are in the thousands. Robotic weeders and autonomous irrigators can represent six-figure investments.
Government subsidies have brought the costs down by 65 percent or more, but it still takes a bite out of farmers’ bottom lines, and at a time when they’re already experiencing other headwinds.
What’s more, those costs don’t necessarily end when the equipment is purchased, says Sean Smuckler, director of the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at UBC Farm. Some agritech companies are also moving toward subscription-based models for their platforms, and there’s a learning curve that comes with the equipment, which means even more time and a heftier price tag. And because the systems are new, many aren’t yet well-validated.
At the same time there aren’t yet clear returns in terms of crop yields to offset those costs, says Smuckler. As a result, until farmers are paying for water in a way that clearly gets offset by high-tech precision irrigation, it’s going to be a hard sell. The key, he says, will be platforms that integrate information from a range of sources, from small soil monitors to big weather data.
“Right now probably the main driver of adoption is ease of use,” says Smuckler. “I think farmers are looking forward to being able to manage large extents of land remotely, and I think that’s a clear cost-benefit analysis that they’ve done in their heads.”
Still, Sachdeva says that according to one survey, 84 percent of Western Canadian farmers have adopted at least one precision agriculture technology, and 93 percent of those users reported that the technologies were useful.
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It boils down to trust, he adds. “Growers often ask, ‘Can I trust this recommendation? Is the sensor accurate, or is my own personal experience for 10, 15, 20 years something I should be trusting? Agriculture is high risk. One bad decision can affect the entire season, so that’s why many producers adopt gradually.”
But as summer drought becomes the norm, and water restrictions become more severe, irrigation has gone from an operational issue to a strategic one.
“Think of it like a driver driving a vehicle. Fifty years ago, you might have more driven mostly by instinct. Today, you have a speedometer and GPS,” says Sachdeva.
“Growers still rely on experience, but they are increasingly using better information to make decisions,” he says. The future of irrigation isn’t just about applying water, he adds; it’s about using data to make sure no water goes to waste.
“Drought isn’t creating the technology adoption by itself, but it’s accelerating. When water becomes less predictable, growers want better tools to manage risk and make more precise decisions,” he says. “That’s why data has become one of the most valuable tools for the farm. The more uncertainty there is around water availability, the more valuable good information becomes.”
