The production and quality of the crop has been increased and a 30% saving in water and energy used for irrigation has been achieved

Campotec is a company located on the west coast of Portugal and founded in 1994. It is dedicated to the purchase and sale of fruit, potatoes and pre-packed agricultural products. Its goal is the production of the highest quality.

Industry: Prepackaged fruits, potatoes and produce.

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Compared to other similar companies, they have more experience and the results obtained more than vouch for their technology.

Mr. João Freire, Agronomist Engineer at Campotec

Usando los dispositivos de BrioAgro en CampoTec han sido capaces de aumentar la producción y la calidad, a la vez que reducir el consumo de agua y el gasto eléctrico para el riego en una finca con una prueba comparativa en dos sectores que históricamente tenían muchas calvas.

Goals and challenges

  • Increase production in problematic sectors (there are usually bald spots).
  • Increase quality in problematic areas
  • Perform irrigation without having to activate it by hand.
  • Minimize the risk of irrigation failures (breakage, power outages, etc.)
  • Reduce irrigation water consumption
  • Reduce the use of electrical energy for irrigation.
campotec-segunda-imagen
campotec-tercera-imagen

Step 1

First, BrioAgro performed a soil characterization of its Baby leaf arugula plantations. With this data, the BrioAgro calibration algorithm for irrigation optimization performed in step 2 was adjusted.

Step 2

We carried out a comparative irrigation test (A/B) dividing the assigned plot into two sectors (A and B) to see if it improved what Campotec technicians were already achieving with manual irrigation. For this purpose, two BrioAgro ViTA7 devices with drip meters were installed to collect data from sectors A and B, and a BrioAgro AquaPower in sector A, carrying out automatic irrigation from 09/06/2021 to 01/07/2021, as shown in the following diagram:

Results

Sector A, irrigated automatically with BrioAgro, outperformed sector B, irrigated manually by Campotec. In particular:

  1. Production: Sector A, which produced on average 50% less than other sectors, went on to have 10% more production than the best sectors on the farm, outperforming the production of sector B by an extraordinary margin.
  2. Quality: The quality, size and strength of the rocket obtained from sector A was visibly better than that of sector B.
  3. Convenience: The automatic irrigation in sector A provided the convenience of not having to irrigate manually every day, as was done in sector B.
  4. Peace of mind: Thanks to the possibility to monitor the actual irrigation with the BrioAgro app, Sector A could be monitored from anywhere.
  5. Water savings: 30% less water was consumed in sector A than in sector B.

Energy savings: 30% less electricity was consumed in sector A to power the irrigation motor than in sector B.

The image on the right shows the results of sector B without BrioAgro (first image) and the results of sector A with BrioAgro (second image).

The production and quality of the crop has been increased and a 30% saving in water and energy used for irrigation has been achieved