Two years ago, Chilean civil engineers Francisco Salinas, Cristián Torres and Andrés Olivares from the Universidad de la Frontera embarked on a project to give growers prompt indications about how they ought to irrigate their farms, and when the development of agricultural diseases was likely. At www.freshfruitportal.com, we caught up with Salinas to discuss how the initiative "ReinSystem" helps bring about high quality production, without the need to apply excessive or preventative agrochemicals.

"In January, 2012, we started investigations into the possibility of doing this project, studying the technology that was available for agriculture, and then later in August of the same year, the opportunity came to travel to Silicon Valley for three months to validate the business model and create productive partnerships," Salinas said.

In those three months the young men managed to sign an agreement with U.S. microprocessor company Zilog.

"They make hardware and have financed US$90,000 to create the devices. They have been a fundamental pillar in the project's development, because they helped us develop all the technology there is behind the system.

"Zilog invested in us to reduce the costs of the technology, so that the system would be accessible for small- and medium-sized growers."

In 2013, the three competed in an incubator project from Chile's Universidad Católica, where they were among the winners in the 'High Tech Program' contest. Currently they are financed as well by Chilean government agency Corfo.

How it works

"The system we have implemented has micro meteorological stations that look at the sector's environmental measurements," Salinas explained.

"We measure the plant's conditions. Generally, farmers and people who work with these statations install them away from the crop. What we do is measure the plant's conditions above and below the soil, in the foliage."

He said this technique was used to establish different representative points in a given orchard.

"We prefer to install every 10 hectares, so that we can have greater precision in the results...to be more exact in the issue of soil humidity, we prefer to install in representative areas. But they could still be installed every 50, 20 hectares without any problem."

"The wireless system delivers information in real time, so that the farmer can see the state of their crop from any part of the world.

"We take these measurements with a network of sensors that we later send to a server. There, with formulas and algorithms, we process this data and then deliver the processed information in real time."

The collected data is available on a web platform through the ReinSystem website (in Spanish). With an account and password, farmers can view the information in real time.

Currently, Salinas and his team are working with berries such as blueberries and raspberries, as well as apples.

"We are internalizing the subject of apples, seeing predictions for apple scab."

But how precise is ReinSystem's  early detection of disease?

"The models we use already existed in the market. What we are doing is validating those models and adjusting them to the zone we are monitoring. There are models from the U.S. that are very general, and what we are doing is adjusting those models for farmers," Salinas replied.

The testing area is Temuco in the southern Araucanía region, but Salinas has plans to expand into other parts of the country for different crops in the long term.

"Currently we are working with INIA (Agricultural Research Institute) Carrillanca, where we are validating some models and are monitoring two points in the Araucanía region, he says.

"This year we started prospecting in Rancagua (O'Higgins region), where we interviewed some growers and they were interested.

"Because of a matter of resources, we have just started recently. Reaching another region will cost a bit. We started with berries, now we are doing it with apples, but the idea is to take on a greater part of the fruit sector."

In terms of costs, the business model would be based on monthly payments.

"We bring all the technology, and we put the sensors and stations in," Salinas said.

"The price of the service is variable depending on the amount of sensors and stations. The form of payment is monthly for a monitoring service where the price includes the technology.

"Prices for stations are between CLP35,000 (US$63) and CLP64,000 (US$82), along with coordinating station that is installed in the orchard for a monthly price of CLP35,000 (US$63).

Salinas added an additional benefit of the system was the possibility to observe the evolution of crops over prolonged periods, while also allowing for access to direct information and the ability to intervene in the case of emergency.

www.freshfruitportal.com