IoT Sensors Helping Farmers Boost Production

Abu Dhabi-based agritech company Silal is teaming up with a Dutch horticultural-software provider Hoogendoorn to deploy IoT sensors across 100 farms this year in an effort to boost agricultural production in the United Arab Emirates.

The project, to be known as the Digital Agronomy Service, aims to help local farmers and advisers make smart decisions when it comes to crop management, fertilization and irrigation and thereby maximize the amount of locally grown produce available for consumption.

The service will deploy a wide range of sensors to measure environmental conditions that can affect the health of the crop, including temperature, humidity, vapor difference, radiation, pH, soil moisture, electric conductivity and more. The sensors will also track crop growth and needs, such as water, energy, CO2, fertilizers and agrichemical applications. 

Silal’s agricultural engineers will then use AI-powered computers to process the data and help the company devise prudent crop-growth plans and projects. The initiative will in turn help farmers improve productivity and quality and increase profits.

“The agricultural sector has undergone several revolutions, perhaps the most transformative of which is the use of agritech,” Silal CEO Salmeen Obaid Alameri said. “We believe that digital transformation is key to enhancing agricultural sustainability practices while empowering local farmers and helping them increase their crop yields.”

Founded in 2020, Silal is tasked with providing food security to the UAE by developing agritech solutions with the R&D sector to increase local production. 

“Local production is becoming increasingly important globally and especially in the Middle East,” Hoogendoorn Growth Management Chief Commercial Officer Martin Helmich said. “We witness enormous interest in technology and knowledge to increase local fresh produce and efficient use of resources and inputs in this region. …We will deploy our IoT technologies, advanced data analytics and crop knowledge to create world-class agronomic decision-support service to support local food production in the UAE.”