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Thirsty crops may soon issue high-tech calls for help

[align=left]A tiny sensor being developed for corn and potato crops may allow farmers to monitor them more accurately and save money on water, its developers predict.

The device, invented at the University of Colorado at Boulder, clips on to leaves and measures their thickness and corresponding need for water. This information could then be sent wirelessly to irrigation systems, said Hans-Dieter Seelig, a research associate at the university's BioServe Space Technology Centre. "This device is very precise, and will allow a plant to receive just the right amount of water," Seelig said in a news release. "If a plant can tell a water valve when to open and when to close, farmers are going to save a lot of money."

AgriHouse Inc., a Colorado high-tech company, has exclusive rights to negotiate a licence for the technology in the next year.

Richard Stoner, AgriHouse founder and president, said existing technologies such as soil moisture sensors used to assess the need for water do not always provide accurate information.

"What we are developing is a non-intrusive device that gently rests on the plants and lets them interface with the digital world," he said. "Basically, this is a device that will allow plants to talk to humans and communicate their needs, like when to water and apply fertiliser." "Farmers today rely on standard practices that include a good eye and a green thumb," Stoner said. "But this new system can tell a farmer precisely when a plant's water uptake potential is at its peak, which could conceivably decrease the number of watering days for certain crops by up to a day or two each week."

The sensor is about one-tenth the size of a stamp and contains an integrated circuit chip.[/align]
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