Is your farm ready for an upgrade? 5 Signs your farm is ready for a Smart Irrigation System

A blog post by Nosetdotsa (Pty) Ltd t/a Nosetsa 

Introduction

There are multiple types of irrigation automation systems available on the market, each one catering to a specific problem that the farmer encounters. Irrigation scheduling, the process of using in-field data that is available on the farm to optimize on resource use, is also a practice that has been in effect for some time as well. In the former, equipment such as center pivots, pumps, valves, pipes and emitters (sprinklers) are often used and set to timing schedules that may or may not be informed a rule of thumb, a specification from an agriculturalist (e.g. irrigation scheduling expert); while in the latter, information about the soil, the crop, and climate are established using one or more methods prescribed by various agencies and practiced by experts to advise.

In either case, there is a use of irrigation technology, some of which may be inherited for one reason or another; and these two technologies, irrigation automation and irrigation scheduling, can be amplified with the power of digital technology that brings smart irrigation systems within reach.

Our reflection as Nosetsa about the process of identifying what makes a farm ready for a digital upgrade.

Read to the last sign for a bonus sign!

What is Nosetsa?

Nosetsa is an AgTech startup based in Polokwane. It was founded by the author of this blog post. For some years now, at Nosetsa we have been exploring ways to help farmers who are concerned about accurately hydrating crops during irrigation scheduling, and struggle to optimize resources like energy, soil and costs.

We have, and continue to, speak with farmers about what some of the challenges in the process of irrigation scheduling are. For instance, we have uncovered that there are key markers that make a farm ready for a digital technology upgrade for a smart irrigation system, and these can be upgraded using already available technology, and irrigation scheduling can be made more precise with Nosetsa’s Digital Brain™ software. Through farm visits, a little bit of reading about irrigation scheduling from leaders in the practice and periodicals, as well as studying some content in agriculture, we have made steps to find support from organisations like the Water Research Commission and Technology Innovation Agency to find practical ways to help farmers with the concern of accurate plant hydration during irrigation scheduling; ways that are real-time data backed. The following markers show that a farm is ready for an upgrade to a digital smart irrigation system:

Sign # 1 - Your farm has ‘things’ that have to do with Water

It sounds basic for an answer, or a first sign. It's not only an element, a resource, but it is something that is quite important in the practice of farming. Already, as a farmer you’re quite aware of the use of water in your work, and how that also affects other users of water, including the community around you, neighbouring industries, or even the animals, and plants around where you may be farming. It needs to be managed well, while also ensuring crops that are produced from the farming are actually the correct quality for the specific target markets including locally, and abroad. It needs to also be managed such that the costs to pump it, deliver it to the plants where it is used, and the costs to keep the soil usable are taken into consideration based on what has been allocated.

The first ‘thing’ that shows your farm is ready for an upgrade is having access to a water supply. Farmers we work with typically have a place where they get water like a river, lake, dam or borehole, and a place where they store water like a storage tank, a bladder sack, or even a dam. Sometimes these can be the same thing as in the case where a dam is both a water source and a storage facility for the water. What is important about this feature is that as a farmer, for compliance and best practice, the water rights you're allocated annually can be optimized so that with accurate plant watering in one season, this can mean a chance to produce more with less. Another ‘thing’ is having pumps, valves, pipes and/or pivots. The only catch is to substitute them with devices that can communicate wirelessly with the internet, software and computers so that the current irrigation system can have technology compatible with smart irrigation systems. The technology is available, and there are ways to integrate wireless technologies into already existing equipment.

 This is where the integrating methods like Re-Trofit™  that Nosetsa has developed become useful, to bridge that gap. The Digital Brain™ ensures that data is validated for use, and the farmer know how many litres got used for their irrigation scheduling.

Sign # 2 - The things that work with water, also work with energy, and make a higher energy cost

It sounds too basic and simple to say it like that. But here is a thought: If water is pumped from a dam or storage tank, and pumped to the plants through pipes, doesn’t that pumping use energy in some way? When water is pumped using an electrically powered pump, or even a fuel powered one, that means if there is a cost that is paid more on the electricity, in addition to the cost of water that is used in the irrigation scheduling, regardless of whether the water is used accurately or not. A farm can benefit from knowing how much is saved during irrigation scheduling with a more precise, smart irrigation system. In some cases, irrigation scheduling has been shown to save water and energy.

The Digital Brain™ solves this by presenting the usage stats of these information points and calculate the best time to irrigate to optimise costs.

Sign # 3 - You have one of three ways (or use all at different sites on your farm) of growing your crops

Your farm may produce one type of crop, or may produce different types of crops, depending on the market opportunities you have identified. These can be grown in the open field, under shade netting or in greenhouses. The important thing is that you get to supply a market consistently when you harvest, after growing plants under one or more of these conditions. The environmental data given by the type of treatment the plants get during their cultivation provides climate data that is useful in providing precise irrigation scheduling support. This data can be used together with other information like soil moisture, as well as the crop information to calculate the best time to irrigate in real-time.

The Precise Autonomy™ feature supports this because the soil moisture content and the availability of sun influence Evapotranspiration at the soil and crop level, so having real-time sensing provides inputs for the Precise Autonomy™ to calculate the best time to provide irrigation scheduling.

Sign # 4 - You have equipment that moves or vibrates on your farm that has access to telecommunications

The presence of equipment like pumps, valves and even pivots. However, didn’t we talk about these in the first sign? We did, and here is how they are the fourth sign:

Remember these can be manually operated? In the case of valves, the timings of irrigation can be slightly off if scheduling is for 5:00AM to cut-off irrigation during a run, but what happens if that is not performed at the actual time?  How about the pumping unit, which could be manually operated to run at 6:00PM until 5:30AM, but rain fell between midnight and 3:00AM? Or what about the pivot that is on a slope and it runs only making the downstream side of the slope wetter and wetter while the upstream face of the slope is almost dry even though irrigation is scheduled to run over several hours to even out water distribution? This last point also causes challenges like pivots getting stuck and affecting the irrigation process. With Smart Irrigation Systems, these challenges can be solved such that when irrigation should take place, and when it should be regulated, this can happen without compromising crop yield while increasing optimum use of resources. The equipment that can track digital information and make valves and pumps communicate wirelessly are available and are easy to use, and can integrate across various software platforms with the correct infrastructure like electricity on site and a mobile network carrier access for telemetry support.

There are methods that Nosetsa has access to that enable digital technologies to communicate wirelessly with each other to deliver the benefit of having devices work remotely.

Sign # 5 - You have Water Use Licence Agreement

Water is a shared resource, and as such, everyone who uses it gets a certain amount per day for all their needs. The same applies to farms. If anything, the amount that is allocated annually via a Water Use Licence Agreement serves as a baseline to report on how much water is given to a farm. With some software, information about how much is used and how much is spared, can give clarity and can improve how resources are managed on a farming operation so that if it took less to water one plot, then the surplus can be scheduled for an extra plot, which can increase yields. The information from a WULA authorization becomes useful because it gives a reference point to start measuring and calculating how much resources get used and how they get optimised. 

This kind of information is useful to indicate where a farm was when counting how much water is being used, and Digital Brain™ software communicates this type of information while Precise Autonomy™ uses it for autonomous irrigation scheduling.

Bonus Sign: Sign # 6 - You have soil moisture sensors fitted on your farm

Yes, you read right! Bonus sign # 6 is important because in the upgrade process, it is these equipment that are not easy to get for many farmers, for multiple reasons including a lack of awareness about the benefit of using capacitance based soil moisture measuring devices. Also, these instruments have data collection points that can be used in real-time and have devices run autonomously based on their information, in addition to how these instruments are currently used for decision support. Decision support simply means that the decision that the farmer has to make about when to irrigate is informed by the data the technology extracts from the ground provides to the farmer using a computer, or a smart phone or tablet.

Future services Nosetsa will have include easier terms to acquire hardware and to protect equipment from harm or damage, or anything else (this is South Africa!)

Are these all the signs?

Of course, these signs are not exhaustive and there are likely other signs that can be an indication of the need to use digital technology to upgrade to a smart irrigation system. We will continue to keep in touch with farmers about the best ways to relieve concerns about accurately hydrating plants and optimising resources like energy, soil and crops. 

So, what is next?

Nosetsa is looking to engage more with the farming community and would love to get in touch with you, the farmer, to find out more how best to help with the concerns of water use and resource optimization.

This is a blog post by Pontsho Moletsane. Pontsho is the founder of Nosetdotsa (Pty) Ltd t/a Nosetsa an AgTech Startup launched by Yellow Beast (Pty) Ltd

22nd October 2025