Alliance brings IoT-enabled water solutions to farmers

Farmbot Monitoring Solutions — a leading provider of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions to the agricultural industry — has entered an agreement with mobile satellite companies Inmarsat and Pivotel to bring IoT-enabled water management solutions to farmers across Australia.

The agreement will ensure that farmers anywhere in Australia are able to use the next generation of Farmbot’s solutions to remotely monitor water tanks, dams and reservoirs and activate pumps and other machinery in real time, as and when required, resulting in a more sustainable and productive future for the sector.

An Australian provider of mobile satellite services, Pivotel has been working with Farmbot since 2015 and will continue to provide support as part of the new alliance.

With 2019 recorded as the driest year in Australia, water management is a critical issue. Australia has over 430,000 rural water tanks storing water essential to agriculture and over 1 million dams, reservoirs and other bodies of water — very few of which are monitored in real time.

Most water storage facilities have pumps moving water to troughs and other locations for irrigation, but without real-time visibility and analytics, the management of water is time-consuming and inefficient. The cost of managing water is also growing, with many farmers having to travel hundreds of kilometres a day to manually monitor their portfolio of water storage facilities.

The alliance will provide greater functionality to Farmbot’s customers, allowing farmers to monitor their water storage facilities in real time and operate pumps when they are needed. This approach will lead to cost savings, a reduction in unnecessary travel and a more sustainable approach to water management.

The Farmbot platform will also gain the ability to activate machinery, cameras, gates and a wide variety of equipment remotely, offering savings of millions of dollars to the industry while also reducing carbon footprint and improving safety.

From a connectivity standpoint, the solution will employ global satellite communications provider Inmarsat’s IsatData Pro (IDP) service — a two-way messaging service provided in a compact, robust housing, which is ideal for the tough conditions found in remote areas in Australia. Inmarsat’s global connectivity services are underpinned by a reliable satellite communications network, which is the backbone of maritime, aviation and land safety services throughout the world.

The agreement between the companies also recognises the potential for Farmbot to leverage Inmarsat’s satellite connectivity and expertise to help provide remote and precision agricultural monitoring for the global agricultural industry.

“There is an increasing global awareness over the need to better manage our water supplies to achieve more sustainable outcomes,” Inmarsat Director of Sector Development Steven Tompkins said.

“Already operating in 2800 locations across Australia, and growing at around 200 per month, Farmbot is leading the way in deploying innovative technologies to help solve these issues for a more sustainable and productive future for the agriculture sector. With our 40 years of heritage and expertise in providing critical connectivity services across different industries, we are excited to bring this experience and help Farmbot develop real-time, IoT-based water monitoring solutions for Australian farmers.

“Farmbot has developed a simple, user-friendly remote water monitoring solution that provides real-time visibility of agricultural water supplies to farming operations across Australia. In addition to the ability to remotely monitor water levels, trends and alerts, the solution will also give farmers the functionality to remotely operate pumps and other machinery, enhancing an operation’s productivity and sustainability.

“A key barrier to unlocking the power of this technology is connectivity, as many of Australia’s remote communities only have access to terrestrial networks. Inmarsat’s globally available connectivity services, such as our IsatData Pro (IDP) service, offer two-way messaging, making it particularly suitable for supporting Farmbot’s applications that need remote control capability or where updates must be installed remotely.”

Farmbot Managing Director Andrew Coppin said, “Although Australian farmers are some of the most innovative in the world, adoption of technology on farms has been hamstrung by cellular network connectivity issues. We are really excited about the opportunities that Inmarsat’s real-time, two-way communications will bring to rural Australia and other regions.

“Affordable satellite-controlled pumps and machinery is a first for the Australian agriculture industry. This partnership has the potential to significantly improve the management of critical water resources for rural farmers worldwide, resulting in tangible productivity gains.

“The development of on-demand operation of pumps, cameras and machinery for farmers has significant and far-reaching benefits spanning individual farm profitability, carbon reduction and ultimately more sustainable outcomes.”

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