The alliance will enable Auravant users to synchronize their METOS^® sensors and therefore simplify their processes in an open and free way.

The alliance of METOS^® and Auravant will offer solutions in irrigation and disease management in various areas of Spain, with an emphasis on crops such as almond trees, olive groves and grapevines.

METOS^®, as a leading company in IoT technology for agriculture, and Auravant, a digital agriculture platform that seeks to improve precision agriculture, will cooperate in a way of combining their tools.

METOS^® IoT solutions and sensors, which measure precipitation, air and soil temperature, humidity etc., offer cost-effective and real-time monitoring, therefore all the data necessary for more efficient and pro-active farming.

Agustín Michlig, Product Manager at Auravant, said:“The combination of both systems allows users to improve the decision-making process based on very highly reliable localized data for better crop irrigation management, disease prediction and interpretation of climatic variables. Everything translates, for example, into a decision if the application of a phytosanitary product is needed or not. The tools, related to images and precision agriculture, are integrated and have a synergistic effect with the functionalities of Auravant.”

About the METOS^® and Auravant collaboration

METOS^® weather station has already been installed in the Spanish town of Dos Hermanas, a few kilometers away from Seville, on a farm that produces carrots, olive groves and almond trees. It measures climatic data (rainfall, temperature, relative humidity…) and many other parameters, for example dew point, global radiation, wind speed and leaf wetness. They allow the farmer to monitor when the plant is active or when is the best time to carry out a specific treatment. The station is also connected to a soil sensor that allows the farmer to see the evolution and dynamics of the water throughout the soil profiles.

“Soil sensor has such a resolution that we are able to actually see the root depth and how deep the irrigation reaches. We can therefore adjust the supply of water only to the layers where the roots are,« highlighted Velazco Gutiérrez, Country manager of METOS^® Iberia. And he added: »Of course, if we talk about water, we must also talk about fertilization.”

For pest detection, METOS^® offers an insect trap that attracts insects by pheromones. In the upper part, the sensor contains a camera that provides photographs on a daily basis which you can see later on the Fieldclimate platform. The AI then indicates the type of the insect and the number of insects, so the farmer is able to always access the information needed – in the Fieldclimate platform or in his mobile phone app. “Also, all the sensors have alarm systems that can be configured with the desired limits, both for water and for disease warning,” continued Gutiérrez.

Fast and intuitive solution

“It goes hand in hand with our vision of what the Agtech ecosystem is: solutions that are open and collaborative. At the end of the day, the one who ends up interpreting all this data is the farmer. What we do is to simplify the experience, automating it and avoiding having to visit different interfaces to make a decision,” Michlig highlighted.

Velazco Gutiérrez, for his part, added, “Our common clients were demanding a joint solution from us. There were things that we didn’t offer that Auravant did, and vice versa. We can’t be good at everything: when we get to these points, it’s best to make a strategic alliance. And what we did with Auravant, we did with an extraordinary result.”

“In Europe, a lot is being done about the issue of the water footprint and the reduction of the use of phytosanitary products and fertilizers by 2030. All this means that, in one way or another, we have to implement precision agriculture, because if we don’t, how will we achieve those goals? This is already very noticeable in the market, there are very large machinery or input companies that are strongly demanding these products and all the technology is looking at that horizon,” concluded Velazco Gutiérrez.