The SMARTOM Supra-regional Operational Group, led by SOLTEL, has demonstrated that it is possible to increase the profitability of this crop thanks to continuous monitoring using innovative technology.

The SMARTOM Operational Group held a field demonstration day on July 28th to showcase the project's results. The chosen venue was the Acopaex pilot farm in Medellín, Badajoz, where demonstrations of the various technologies developed over the past two years of research were given. Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, attendance was very limited and the event was primarily geared towards members of the media.

First of all ITG and Cartogalicia the showcased their technology for autonomous drone flights and low-cost, low-power autonomous communication systems adapted to tomato cultivation. The Technological Institute of Galicia (ITG) demonstrated the operation of its autonomous hangar To provide field monitoring with a solution using unattended drones, which fly autonomously and return to the hangar to transmit data and recharge their batteries, Cartogalicia then conducted a monitoring flight over the plot using a Matrice 600 drone equipped with a multispectral camera.

Ambling He carried out a demonstration on the usefulness of the hyperspectral images taken in the field, at the foot of the crop, in which agrochemical values ​​of the soil and plants can be identified immediately and non-destructively, without having to collect samples or carry out laboratory analysis.

For their part CTAEX, the coordinator of the Operational Group was in charge of describing the different essays carried out in the project's pilot plots during the two campaigns, and how the different sectors of each plot have been configured to compare the results obtained following different irrigation and fertilization strategies, taking into account the information provided by the sensors deployed in both plots.

Finally, from Soltel we have shown how the software platform that integrates All the data supplied by the different monitoring systems is processed and presented to farmers in a simple, intuitive, and efficient way. The system displays, through dashboards the evolution and current state of the most relevant parameters, alarms in case any value falls outside the recommended ranges, and even a forecast of the productive potential of the plot.

The following day another demonstration day was held, this time online, with the institutional participation of Isabel Bombal, the Director General of Rural Development, Innovation and Agri-food Training at MAPA. The Ministry representative highlighted the work carried out by the members of the group, even from the initial drafting of the project, which was approved in the first call for Operational Groups in 2018 and obtained 92 points out of 100 in the evaluation, occupying the sixth place out of a total of 22 approved projects.

The meeting was also attended by Pablo García, Director General of Digital Agenda of the Regional Government of Extremadura, who has stated that the commitment to the digitalization of our agribusiness is fundamental, especially in the case of tomatoes, where our region produces 70% nationally.

The SMARTOM platform allows for the collection of specific data and information about the crop, which can be accessed easily and in real time. For example, at the very moment of data collection, it is possible to identify a deficiency of a particular product on the farm and act promptly, or to adjust irrigation in each sector of the farm. All of this allows for a sound decision making and based on objective criteria, resulting in a higher profitability for the farmer through increased production and reduced inputs.

The Group's intention is to continue refining the detection and prediction algorithms in order to begin marketing the service in the upcoming campaigns.

If you missed the conference and want to learn more about the project, don't miss the following videos:

Project presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPxE5tfBd6U

Results presentation day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_Y_C-KWKrg

Field day report: https://youtu.be/AmtMsofJnsE