Instead of applying water and inputs uniformly, sensors let a farm treat every square metre according to what it actually needs.
moisture(t+1) = moisture(t) + rain - ET + irrigation(sensor)
yield ~ f(moisture)
- Field grid size — number of management zones the field is divided into for site-specific control.
- Sensor coverage — share of zones with live soil-moisture/yield sensors feeding the irrigation controller.
- Rainfall variability — how erratic incoming rainfall is across the season.
- Variable-rate irrigation — how aggressively the controller compensates dry zones using sensor data.
Precision agriculture cuts water and fertiliser use by 15-30% in field trials simply by treating each zone according to its own sensor readings instead of the field average.