AI-powered decision-support tool simplifies water reporting and irrigation scheduling

FRESNO, Calif. (AgPR) Dec. 10, 2024 - The California Energy Commission (CEC) recently published the project report by AgMonitor Inc. (AgMonitor) on "Programmable Irrigation and Fertigation to Increase Energy Efficiency and Grid Stability in Disadvantaged Agricultural Communities." The AI-powered platform integrates multiple data sets and domain expertise to boil down complex processes, such as scheduling irrigation or maintaining solar panels, into simple answers in English or Spanish across farming operations.

Since 2020, farms in California have faced increases in their cost for water, labor, electricity and fertilizer. Finding cost-effective solutions to help farms remain productive and competitive is vital for California's continued growth and success. Farm sites that participated in the AgMonitor project from 2019 to 2023 improved precision in irrigation from 70% on average to over 90%.

"This EPIC demonstration project is a win for both the agricultural and electricity sectors. AgMonitor exemplifies how public clean energy research funds can support the innovation of new tools with the potential to unlock tremendous energy and non-energy benefits when deployed at scale. Using advanced data analysis to improve energy, water, and fertilizer efficiency not only lowers costs and resource consumption, but also creates new revenue streams for farmers through load flexibility," summarized Jonah Steinbuck, Director of Energy Research and Development Division at the California Energy Commission.

AgMonitor discovered that the precision acquired by the farming operation could be leveraged to irrigate consistently off-peak and save up to 30% on their electricity bills. Peak penalties to operate large appliances from 4pm to 9pm in the summer have increased as the California grid integrates more renewable energy and maintains operation during fire season. AgMonitor received follow-on funding from the CEC to help with the heat wave in 2022 and shaved over 10 Megawatts.

Olam Farming Inc. deployed the solution at multiple ranches in San Joaquin Valley. "We like working with AgMonitor because they understand agriculture," explained Zac Ellis, Director of Agronomy at Olam Farming Inc. "They provided options to irrigate off-peak at a ranch part of the Permanent Load Shifting (PLS) program. The results speak for themselves: we saved $100,000 in one summer."

This is the second time that AgMonitor leads a group of technology vendors and academic universities to transfer at scale new technologies to farming communities. The work done under previous EPIC grants from 2015 to 2018 has been used by multiple agencies including the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). Recently, the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) increased the number of accepted methods to measure groundwater extraction, following a three-month review of the work of AgMonitor and its university partners that was published by the CEC.

"This is excellent news that will provide all growers with a low-cost, accurate way to measure their water use and provide water accounting for SGMA (Sustainable Groundwater Management Act) purposes," said Don Cameron of Terranova Ranch and President of CDFA. Terranova Ranch pioneered on-farm groundwater recharge to make groundwater basins sustainable. The company deployed the AgMonitor platform to quantify water reduction during dry years and recharge during wet years. "Data is great but getting the answer is really what matters." Power meters and satellite images provide a low-cost alternative when installing flow meters is expensive or not physically possible.

Redundancy in data was key for the groundwater recharge project of Don Cameron in 2023. He was able to document over 18,000 acre-feet banked underground to erase a 20-feet drop in the aquifer during the drought from 2020 to 2022. "It is important to give tools to growers to save money (operational efficiency) while they transition to renewable sources of energy and balance water resources (resource efficiency)," explained Olivier Jerphagnon, Founder and CEO at AgMonitor.

About Agmonitor Inc. (AgMonitor)
Agmonitor Inc. (https://agmonitor.com) provides a Software-as-a-Service to assist leading growers and food processors in their daily operations to increase yield while reducing energy, fertilizer and water inputs. The company has offices in San Mateo and Fresno to bridge the gap between Silicon Valley and Central Valley. Unlike other vendors that require the installation of new hardware, we provide value on day one using existing public and private data on our platform backed by six patents. AgMonitor enables farms to evaluate the financial and environmental impact of new projects thanks to historical benchmarks and track the return on investment. It is perfectly suited for growers who want to increase their profit margins and pass a sustainable farm onto the next generation.

About the California Energy Commission
The California Energy Commission is the state's primary energy policy and planning agency. The agency was established by the California Legislature through the Warren-Alquist Act in 1974. It has seven core responsibilities: advancing state energy policy, encouraging energy efficiency, certifying thermal power plants, investing in energy innovation, developing renewable energy, transforming transportation, and preparing for energy emergencies.