Why AECI partnered with SupPlant

Irrigation farmers are under pressure to protect their scarce water resources as the water crisis in South Africa resulted from a combination over several years of severe drought, global warming, El Nino effects, urban planning problems and more.  They have to find technology that will enable them to use less water and produce more produce on the same farm.  Just imagine a fruit tree with the ability to open the taps, start the pumps and irrigate itself with exactly enough water and then switch off the pump and close the taps once it had enough without the producer’s interference. 

AECI Plant Health partnered with Supplant, an Israeli company that cracked this code and developed a unique artificial intelligence system named Growth Based Irrigation (GBI).  GBI is the first commercial irrigation system that is fully autonomous and reactive to a plant’s exact needs in real time.

How are the two companies working together and what are they trying to achieve in assisting South African farmers?

AECI Plant health has a good footprint is SA with 187 Crop Advisors and 35 scientists that service and assist farmers on their farms.Supplant has dedicated scientists that monitor the Supplant farms and communicate directly with AECI and the farmers.The easiest way to explain GBI is to think of a person in ICU, connected to many monitors that give data to a team of doctors who evaluate and compare the data every 10 min and make decisions on how to treat the person every 30 min, 24/7, 365 days of the year.Supplant collect data from the tree and feed the data to an algorithm, which is the heart beat of the GBI system. 

Fruit sensors measure fruit growth and size from development till picking.A Dentrometer measures the daily swelling and shrinking of the trunk which is a measurement of the plant’s stress.Soil moisture sensors measure water content at different depths and a weather station measures rainfall, temperature, humidity, wind etc.All the data is send to the cloud every 10 min where the Supplant algorithms compare and evaluate all the data, measuring the plant’s reaction to the current climatic- and soil conditions, calculating irrigation requirements and making decisions every 30 min.  The GBI system focus on the plant’s health to minimize stress and maximize growth and will irrigate accordingly.  The signal to irrigate will be sent from the Supplant algorithms to the controller on the farm, which will start the irrigation pump and open the necessary valves to irrigate.  The plant’s reaction on the irrigation is measured and another signal will be send by the algorithms once the plant had enough water to switch off the pump. 

I understand the two companies have been working together for the past three years. In the three years where has the app been tested and what were the results in terms of cost and water savings?

AECI Plant Health has commercialised Supplant in South Africa in the last 3 years and is ready to expand to all the irrigation areas.  Supplant managed to save 39% water on an Apple farm in the Cape while keeping the yield the same as the control.  Supplant also managed to increase the yield by 21% on a Macadamia orchard in the first year in Limpopo and 64% on Citrus in the second year in the Cape

When was the Decision Support System app launched?

Supplant has developed a new product called “Decision Support System” which was launched in June 2020.  It is the same as GBI but without the automatization and the farmer will have control over his irrigation, pump house and valves.  All the data and irrigation commands are sent to an App on the producers’ phone and he can switch the pumps on and off.  The new Supplant DSS app provides:

• Water use efficiency guideline
• Irrigation, plant sensing, weather and agronomic insights
• Real time and forecasted growth patterns of the trunk and fruit
• Irrigation recommendations for today and the week ahead
• Continuous monitoring of plant stress
• Current & forecasted climatic data specific to your plots
• Allows you to monitor your water budget during the season
• Advance notice and recommendation for dealing with extreme weather conditions.

Can the system be linked to other systems to collaborate with similar technologies that are trying to solve  the same challenges the two companies are trying to solves?

Picture 1 below show a set of sensors used by die GBI system.  The data from these sensors and the weather station is send to the Supplant Algorithm for processing.  Supplant can link up to other soil sensors or weather stations that the farmer use on his farm.  The irrigation demands can also be send to controllers or other other automatisation equipment that the farmer might have on his farm.  The focus will remain to solve the pain points that a farmer has and Supplant will collaborate with other technoliges to acheive this goal.

 Picture 1. Set of sensors used by the GBI systems A= Soil moisture sensor; B= Fruit growth sensor; C= Stem diameter; D= Trunk dendrometer.

Can the data be used to give an overview of what has happened with climatic conditions or water situation in a particular area to assist the industry since water challenges are a national issue?

The Supplant algorithm evaluates the plant’s reaction (fruit or stem growth, plant stress) to changing weather and soil water conditions every 30 min.  The reaction will be differ between cultivars, mutority of the orchard,  shade cloth vs open fields or slopes facing different directions.  Supplant is much more than just and irrigation scheduling tool and the data collected can be used by other farmers in the area.  Figure 1 is a comparison between a farmer irrigation strategy and the GBI strategy.  There is a immediate water saving and will have a huge effect on the water challenge in an area if all the farmers use the same data and change their irrigation regime according to what the plant needs.

Fig. 1.  Comparison between farmer irrigation strategy and Growth Based Irrigation strategy (GBI) and the resulting crop coefficient and trunk growth behavior (orange and blue lines) in two evaluated trees.

Supplant:  Decisions made by plants

Just imagine a fruit tree with the ability to open the taps, start the pumps and irrigate itself with exactly enough water and then switch off the pump and close the taps once it had enough without the producer’s interference.  AECI Plant Health partnered with Supplant, an Israeli company that cracked this code and developed a unique artificial intelligence system named Growth Based Irrigation (GBI).  GBI is the first commercial irrigation system that is fully autonomous and reactive to a plant’s exact needs in real time. 

The easiest way to explain GBI is to think of a person in ICU, connected to many monitors that give data to a team of doctors who evaluate and compare the data every 10 min and  make decisions on how to treat the person every 30 min, 24/7, 365 days of the year.  Supplant collect data from the tree and feed the data to an algorithm, which is the heart beat of the GBI system.  Fruit sensors measure fruit growth and size from development till picking.  A Dentrometer measures the daily swelling and shrinking of the trunk which is a measurement of the plant’s stress.  Soil moisture sensors measure water content at different depths and a weather station measures rainfall, temperature, humidity, wind etc.  All the data is sent to the cloud every 10 min where the Supplant algorithms compare and evaluate all the data, measuring the plant’s reaction to the current climatic- and soil conditions, calculating irrigation requirements and making decisions every 30 min.  The GBI system focus on the plant’s health to minimise stress and maximise growth and will irrigate accordingly.  The signal to irrigate will be sent from the Supplant algorithms to the controller on the farm, which will start the irrigation pump and open the necessary valves to irrigate.  The plant’s reaction on the irrigation is measured and another signal will be sent by the algorithms once the plant had enough water to switch off the pump. 

Supplant has developed a second product called Decision Support System (DSS) which is the same as GBI but without the automatization.  All the data and irrigation commands will be send to an App on the producer’s phone and he can switch the pumps on and off.  He will receive all the alerts and will see which blocks are under stress and which blocks to irrigate next and how much water to apply.

AECI Plant Health has commercialised Supplant in South Africa in the last 3 years and is ready to expand to all the irrigation areas.  Supplant managed to save 39% water on an Apple farm in the Cape while keeping the yield the same as the control.  Supplant also managed to increase the yield by 21% on a Macadamia orchard in the first year in Limpopo and 64% on Citrus in the 2 nd year in the Cape. 

 Picture 1. Set of sensors used by the GBI systems A= Soil moisture sensor; B= Fruit growth sensor; C= Stem diameter; D= Trunk dendrometer.

Fig. 1.  Comparison between farmer irrigation strategy and Growth Based Irrigation strategy (GBI) and the resulting crop coefficient and trunk growth behavior (orange and blue lines) in two evaluated trees.

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