AI Tool Could Help Farmers Efficiently and Sustainably Water Crops

Artificial intelligence will start helping farmers water their crops under a new University of Hawai?i project.

An AI irrigation management system called CropManage will be connected to 14 participating farms.

The software will access data from weather stations and combine it with information about the farms, such as crop types, farm size and location, to determine how much water they need.

“Preliminary results show that CropManage could reduce the amount of irrigation water by 35%, or even sometimes 40%, and enhance crop yields by 20% or even more. So, CropManage lowers farmers’ cost of water and labor through fewer irrigation events,” said Sayed Bateni, the project’s principal investigator.

Bateni is a professor at UH Manoa’s Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering and Water Resources Research Center.

The project's goal is to help farmers grow their crops efficiently while also conserving water.