Liquid Telecom is today celebrating the partnership with Twiga Foods to increase agricultural productivity through precision farming. This partnership is opening up a new world of opportunities, enabled by Kenya’s rapidly expanding Internet of Things (IoT) network.
Liquid Telecom has deployed a complete precision agriculture IoT system to improve farm productivity at Twiga’s Takuwa farm. The system includes four different types of agriculture sensors: a comprehensive weather station, soil moisture and temperature probes, borehole water meters, and sensors for measuring irrigation water acidity and salinity. The system takes advantage of Liquid Telecom’s extensive low-power wide area IoT network technology.
These sensors provide critical information to the Twiga agronomy team. The smart weather station provides real time data that helps farm managers deploy the most effective farming methods for irrigation and application of pesticides. Furthermore, the water quality sensors provide specific metrics that help the team to optimize their fertilizer application. Additional data gathered and monitored on a real time basis include temperature, humidity, rainfall and wind speed.
The soil probes installed at Twiga’s Takuwa farm measures moisture levels and temperature at 6 different depths into the soil, giving precise information of soil quality and irrigation needs at the roots of specific crops. This is set to directly increase yield and productivity and will benefit Twiga’s food security efforts during and beyond COVID-19.
IoT clearly has the potential to dramatically transform agricultural productivity, leading to greater food security and improved farmer incomes in Kenya.
