Wired Crops Transmit Wealth Of Information

Wired Crops Transmit Wealth Of Information AG WORLD Ag World 6-3-20 You might soon begin irrigating and harvesting your crops according to data gathered by electrodes wired to a few plants in every field. Pecan and cotton crops at the University of Arizona are already "wired" and sending reports to researchers 20 miles away. Electrical engineer Dr. William Gensler inserts thin electrodes into plants and wires them to a central control device nearby. The box contains electronic circuity that takes readings every 15 minutes around the clock, registering environmental conditions such as sunlight, temperature, humidity, growth, and water needs. The information is radioed via a small, solar-powered transmitter to a mountain-top repeater station several miles away. It is then automatically relayed into a receiver in Gensler's campus office. There, the numbers flash on a TV-like computer as the data are punched into paper tape for analysis. Cotton plants show, for example, a definite electrical reaction to irrigation. "There are also preliminary indications that I can tell from the signals when the cotton is ready for harvest," says Gensler. So far, monitoring has shown most plant growth occurs at night and that the higher the plant's electrical out-put, the more rapid its growth. The sensors can predict several days ahead, for example, when pecan trees will bud. A farmer would probably have to invest about $750 per 100 acres to install the system, and then group with other farmers to jointly buy some $30,000 worth of computer technology for the central terminal. Each participating farmer would have a computer in his home or office connected by phone to the central station. Current data would flash on his computer TV screen. That data could be consolidated with data from other farmers and sent anywhere in the world. "On any given day," says Gensler, "I'd like the Board of Trade in Chicago to be able to tell exactly how the corn is doing in Iowa." Gensler hopes to have his system ready for commercial production by 1983. For more information, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Dr. William Gensler, Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Arizona, Tuscon, Ariz.

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