Enterprise IT vendor IBM announced its association with The Flint River Partnership to deploy conservation measures to enhance agricultural efficiency by up to 20 percent.
The Flint River Partnership includes Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and The Nature Conservancy.
As per the agreement, IBM will support farmers in the Lower Flint River Basin of Georgia in making more informed irrigation scheduling decisions to conserve water, improve crop yields and mitigate the impact of future droughts.
The Flint River Partnership is using IBM’s Deep Thunder precision weather forecasting to help farmers conserve water and improve crop yields. The forecasts will be available on mobile devices and farmers will have 24-hour access to critical weather information.
IBM Softlayer will be used for manage data flows and automate irrigation recommendations, allowing farmers to determine how much water a specific crop needs at various stages of its life cycle.
The integration of complex data streams generated by GPS-enabled farm equipment and in-field sensors with IBM’s Deep Thunder weather forecasting technology delivered to mobile devices will provide 72-hours advance notice of weather in the Flint region, allowing farmers to be more prepared to make decisions on when to irrigate, plant, fertilize, and deploy labor resources.
