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Sustainable agriculture powered by smart technologies

A smart solution developed in an EU-funded project could lead to 35% reduction in the use of pesticide and 50% less water consumption in agriculture activities.

Sensors in the field to monitor the crops

Encore Lab

Sensors in the field to monitor the crops

Agriculture accounts for around 70% of water consumption in the world, while up to 58% of pesticides used are unnecessary. In order to reduce these figures and make agriculture more sustainable, it is crucial to know whether the crops need water, fertilisers or pesticides, so that they are used only if and when really needed.

The Spanish SME Encore Lab has developed a solution to this problem. With the help of the Digital Innovation Hub CEA Leti and the European project EuroCPS, they created a low cost device that monitors the crops directly on the field through sensors. Information on air temperature and humidity, soil moisture, and other parameters is collected and sent automatically to a cloud platform where the farmer can access it to make the best decissions. 

Impact

  • Reduction of in the use of pesticide by 35% and water consumption by 50%, enabling more sustainable agriculture.
  • This technology has been successfully integrated in Cesens, Encore Lab’s flagship product. As a result, they expect to increase sales in 10,000 units within five years, boosting revenues and doubling its its staff to 20 people.

For more information about this success story, visit EuroCPS' website