CropX is an AgAnalytics provider whose vision is to revolutionise & automate the farm and the decision-making process by combining above-ground data sets with real-time soil data measured by proprietary in-house-developed soil sensors that transmit the data to a cloud-based platform, and analysed by AI-based algorithms, to provide insights & automations via the CropX app.
Recently CropX and rieggo, Grupo Rotoplas’ new company dedicated to providing smart water services to farming operations in Mexico, announced their partnership to help Mexican agribusinesses reduce water consumption and improve crop yields.
rieggo is a Joint Venture between Renewable Resources Group Mexico and Grupo Rotoplas, that aims to provide smart water solutions and services and increasing agricultural yields in a sustainable fashion through technology. Its target is the high-value crops market at the core of the vibrant and fast-growing export sub-sector of Mexico’s agricultural landscape.
rieggo held pilot tests in Mexico of the sensors and technological solutions offered by CropX, with the objective of demonstrating reductions in water use and manual labour, yield improvement, ease of use and enhanced overall insights. Upon successful conclusion of the pilot tests, rieggo decided to integrate CropX’s technologies as part of its commercial offering and become an official reseller of CropX in Mexico.
“rieggo is enthusiastic and is looking forward to expanding its business by partnering with CropX, an AgAnalytics leader”, said Eduardo Carrillo, CEO of rieggo. He added, “For more than three decades, at Rotoplas we have contributed to improving people’s quality of life by creating solutions that facilitate water access and water management. Therefore partnering with CropX, which has demonstrated significant water savings across many regions and different crop types, was an attractive choice for Rotoplas, as it allows us not only to deliver clean water across the Americas, but also help our customers optimise their water consumption and boost crop yields so they can be more competitive and more environmentally sustainable.”
Matan Rahav, Director of Business Development at CropX said, “Mexico’s agricultural sector has a long history, stretching back thousands of years, but it faces challenges in order to adapt to the climate changes and keep feeding the world in a sustainable manner. Water scarcity in Mexico is severe, and with an ever-increasing demand, combined with the fact that agriculture accounts for almost 78% of water use, certain cities in Mexico risk being void of water.”
“The Mexican irrigation infrastructure has additional opportunities to improve water-use inefficiency and improve soil health. The key objective of this partnership, therefore, is to help the Mexican farming industry address these issues. We’re very excited to have partnered with the leader of water solutions in the Americas to help tackle this important challenge.” Rahav added.
CropX’s Revolutionary Soil Sensors
- Pioneering wireless connectivity by efficiently collecting, packing and transmitting data directly to the cloud even in remote areas, offering satellite, LoRaWan and cellular connectivity.
- CropX’s price point allows it to be the only Affordable solution for all crop types, and there are no setup costs or any other infrastructural limitations.
- Patented spiral geometry allows unprecedented accuracy, preventing biased results due to preferential flow.
- Most sensors entail pricey, lengthy and complex calibration and installation processes, whereas our self-calibrating sensor could be installed by anyone within 5 minutes, allowing simple and scalable deployment over short time periods
Each sensor collects moisture, temperature and electrical conductivity (EC) at multiple depths. Intervals of data measurement and transmission to the CropX cloud can be remotely configured and adjusted to each crop’s unique needs.
All of the data is geo-tagged based on GPS coordinates creating geospatial time series for all measured data.
Moisture: Measurement of volumetric water content (VWC) values via ADR sensors. Moisture values are converted from electric impedance to VWC levels using a proprietary self-calibration method. Moisture values have an accuracy of +/- 0.5% across a range of 0-60% VWC.
Temperature: Temperatures are measured with an accuracy of +/- 0.5°C (max) and an operating range of -10°C to +70°C.
Each unit also measures the internal temperature of the unit above ground, which can help with increasing the precision of weather data.
Electric Conductivity (EC): Measurement in decisiemens/m, with an operating range of 0-5 decisiemens/m (bulk), representing the soil salinity level, which can be used to manage crop salinity regime.
Serving over 1,200 paying customers with almost 8,500 installations since its launch in 2017, CropX has demonstrated over 40% water savings across different crop types, with 10% yield increase. Backed by a world-class syndicate of strategic partners & investors and having raised over US$ 20M in funding rounds including a recent B-round, CropX is determined to continue its global expansion, acting as the Big-Data North star for the entire global AgFood value chain.
