Jain announced that its Water Management Services, where Jain consultants deliver weekly irrigation schedules to growers based on satellite imagery, hyperlocal weather, and machine learning analysis of soil moisture content and water infiltration properties, has won the Irrigation Association 2021 New Product Contest Award in the Specialty Agriculture Irrigation category.

This year’s contest was a hybrid event combining virtual and live elements. Products were evaluated based on innovation, design quality, increased water/resource-use efficiency, ease of use, and product life expectancy. Contest judges are experienced professionals with technical knowledge and industry expertise. Official judging was conducted via Zoom Nov. 17-18, with winners announced live on the Irrigation Show floor on December 9.

Winning in the Specialty Agriculture Irrigation category, JAIN Water Management Services was honored for its highly integrated offering of agtech software, hardware, and consulting services that generate intelligent irrigation schedules; featuring the first-of-its-kind utilization of high-resolution satellite imaging for ETc (crop water consumption), real-time local weather and soil moisture sensing in the field, bundled together with Machine Learning toward providing unprecedented precision in the management of when and how long each crop irrigation event needs to last.

Accepting the award, Jeff Tuel, Executive Vice President of Jain Irrigation and head of Water Management Services, said,

“Growers today are facing environmental challenges the likes we’ve never seen before, in addition to incredible labor shortages. We developed JAIN Water Management Services to remove the hesitancy in deploying new technologies that can meet these problems head-on. While the tools may be complex, the process is quite simple and relies on tried-and-true soil, plant, and water relationships. The growers get this, and it’s remarkable to see how quickly over the course of the program they’re able to pick up the technology and start producing their own irrigation schedules.”

“The New Product Contest award is a great validation by the Irrigation Association and the members of our industry of the importance JAIN Water Management Services is having. Modern technology makes it easier to manage water than any time before in history, but agtech companies need to meet an even higher bar before farmers are willing to change how they operate and we have to be able to adapt along with them, too. Our ability to train and support customers to become power users of JAIN Logic software, to understand their problems, provides a low cost, the low-risk trial of the leading technology available today,”

said Aric Olson, President of Jain Irrigation.

The post Jain Wins New Product Contest Award at the 2021 Irrigation Show appeared first on North America FarmQuip Magazine.

The International Forum for Agricultural Robotics (FIRA), now in its fifth year, is set to go virtual Dec. 8-10, 2020 with a theme of “Agricultural Robotics: Part of the New Deal?“

More than 3,000 participants from around the globe—including robotics manufacturers, agri-food companies, agribusinesses, producers, researchers, investors, media, and solutions providers—are expected to join this year’s online edition, building on the 850 ag and technological professionals who attended last year’s in-person event in Toulouse, France.

Conference sessions and roundtable discussions will be available both live online and “on-demand” immediately after they are completed to allow participation from anywhere in the world, regardless of the time zone.

From the U.S., scheduled presenters include Seana Day, Better Food Ventures & The Mixing Bowl, who will join a roundtable discussion entitled “From Lab to Success Story: What Business Model?“

U.S.-based exhibitors include Easton Robotics and Ztractor. Farmwise will present during a workshop on agricultural robotics for fruits and vegetables.

The RobAgri Scientific Workshop, now in its second year, will be held in a dedicated “room,” providing presentations and posters of technical and scientific research projects.

And new for 2020: All robotics manufacturers will offer live demos in real conditions—a FIRA exclusive.

The post Global Ag Robotics Conference goes virtual in December appeared first on North America FarmQuip Magazine.