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Finapp: save water to save the planet
project summaryThe latest technology will make it easier for farmers to analyze real-time data on the area they are using, making farming more efficient. With a donation of CHF 100 you can help.
Background
By 2050 world’s population will reach 9 billion with demand of food expected to rise by 50%. Agriculture production must increase then, but without depleting natural resources such as the water. About 70% of the world’s water is used in agriculture, mainly for irrigation. The goal is to achieve maximum efficiency of irrigation water use. Using soil moisture sensors help to meet this challenge. However accurate measurement of soil moisture requires a large number of punctual sensors, which increase costs and disturb on filed activities. Cosmic ray neutron sensing – CRNS measures soils moisture at large scale (several hectares), in depth (about 50cm), with a single probe installed 2m above the ground without disturbing operations on the filed. This technology has been known for more than 20 years and has been validated in the last 10 years by numerous scientific publications. According to FAO, this is the best technology for practicing smart agriculture. Here a short explanatory video.
However, CRNS probes are expensive, bulky and heavy and do not supply real time data. These limitations have severely limited the use of this technology in agriculture.
Read moreHowever, CRNS probes are expensive, bulky and heavy and do not supply real time data. These limitations have severely limited the use of this technology in agriculture.
Idea
Finapp has revolutionized the hardware of CRNS probes, making them light and compact, they work off the grid thanks to their very low power consumption, they are made of recyclable materials and, most importantly, they provide data in real time. From the union of CRNS technology and Finapp's innovative hardware, we are sure that the technology transfer from the world of research to that of agriculture can finally be accomplished.
Read moreImplementation
Finapp probes are already a reality, they have been extensively tested by universities of physics, agriculture and they really work!
But this is not enough, it takes time and money to introduce our probe to farmers, to allow the integration of our soil moisture data into third party irrigation management software. This is why we are here, we ask you to give us a contribution.
More in details, we need to improve our main board: we have to integrate a GPS system that allows us to precisely know where a neutron counting was performed. This is not such a big task, but the goal is to not increase the power consumption of the probe (below 0.5W now). To do this, we need to further miniaturize some component of the electronic board and optimize some noise rejection algorithm.
Sure, you would help a company that still needs profits to survive, but in a broader vision you would help your children and everyone's children, to have a better future, in which fighting hunger in the world can and must coexist with safeguarding of natural resources and with the abatement of greenhouse gases. You may never have thought of it, but irrigation requires energy and often this energy does not come from renewable sources. Irrigating for less time, in addition to saving water, also produces less CO2. And the key to irrigating less and producing more is only one: knowledge. Only knowledge and technological innovation can save the world.
Read moreBut this is not enough, it takes time and money to introduce our probe to farmers, to allow the integration of our soil moisture data into third party irrigation management software. This is why we are here, we ask you to give us a contribution.
More in details, we need to improve our main board: we have to integrate a GPS system that allows us to precisely know where a neutron counting was performed. This is not such a big task, but the goal is to not increase the power consumption of the probe (below 0.5W now). To do this, we need to further miniaturize some component of the electronic board and optimize some noise rejection algorithm.
Sure, you would help a company that still needs profits to survive, but in a broader vision you would help your children and everyone's children, to have a better future, in which fighting hunger in the world can and must coexist with safeguarding of natural resources and with the abatement of greenhouse gases. You may never have thought of it, but irrigation requires energy and often this energy does not come from renewable sources. Irrigating for less time, in addition to saving water, also produces less CO2. And the key to irrigating less and producing more is only one: knowledge. Only knowledge and technological innovation can save the world.
Initiators
There are no updates available
There are no donations available.
Currently, there are still no project partners if you are interested, please contact us via info@there-for-you.com.
Status of the project
We will send the donation receipt (for Switzerland) in January of the following year.
Primary Partners
