Developing a Sensor System to Inform Automation of Greenhouses

Darren Allison of Millennium Relief and Development Services has recently been engaged by the AC4D team to develop a sensor system for our greenhouses that can track air temp, humidity, and soil moisture.  The system will inform the hardware that he is developing to ventilate, water and fertigate our protected trials. 

Currently information is being generated by a series of sensors that connects wirelessly with a base station which makes the data gathered accessible for use in decision making.  It is no stretch to envision a few months from now allowing our automated hardware and algorithm to water greenhouses according to real time soil and air moisture data in order to minimize plant stress from over or under watering and excessive greenhouse temps.  Overwatering is a common cause for root rot, cold season mold infestation, and oxygen deficiency in the root zone.  Underwatering causes plant stress and severely curbs fruit production.  Finding the right balance is the key to strong harvests and low levels of crop disease.

Darren wiring up the base station for our data acquisition system

The hardware implemented thus far has cost only $226 USD making it easily accessible to local smallholder farmers. 
    

2016/17 Season Update

This season we are able to receive much lower salinity (higher pH) irrigation water which has significantly improved our early season growth.  I would also expect it to boost yields pretty significantly.  Roughly 30% of the farm is in eggplant this year which is showing excellent early season growth.  Corn is responding well and zuchinni will round out our fall offering.

Month old eggplant starting to bear fruit

X3R & Intruder not yet forked

We are trialing a new quick maturing pepper variety called "Ace" against Monsantos X3R and Intruder varieties.  Ace is much less expensive and is already flowering while the X3R and Intruders are developing stem and leaf matter much more quickly.  Only time will tell which strategy will yield better under our conditions.


 The hydroponic system is now planted.  The vast majority, 14 of 15 rows across 3 hoop houses, are planted in Deafness tomatoes.  This week representatives from EcoConsult are coming to the farm to help us troubleshoot fertilizer dosing.  The trial that was originally conceived as a cucumber/tomato system contrasting both fresh and brackish water yield has been simplified to a single (more salt tolerant) crop, tomato.  The 2 independent pumping systems have been simplified into a single fertigation system due to early stage technical difficulty.  The whole trial will now be brackish water because we are unable to obtain the quantity of fresh water needed to run all 3 houses.  No matter how well laid the plans are, the Jordan Valley will throw you a curve ball. Over 3400 Deafness tomato plants are now taking root in their perlite containers. 

  

3 of 9 storage tanks for hydroponic system - 1m3 each

Storage tanks covered to avoid algae growth - Note the two return valves to stir fertilizers in holding tanks

Lined canals allow drainage water from perlite bags to be recaptured in a closed system. 

Simple, Doable, Cheap Stuff that Farmers Can Benefit From

We have recently been focusing on building a hydroponics trial whose watering is automated.  A timer controls when water is turned on and off in each greenhouse.  Automation of the watering system is one of the necessary components of a "large" scale hydroponic system and it is probably the most daunting aspect of utilizing the technology for Jordan Valley farmers.  Pictured below is our automation system.  It cost us $110.  A rainbird timer, three electrical plugs for clean connections, and two relays to start and stop 2 independent pumps which water 3, 250m2,  greenhouses.  This is no great feat of engineering but going through the process of putting it together (thank you Darren) showed our team that even "simple" interventions need clear instructions if they are really going to be adoptable.

A Rainbird timer and two relays, one for independent control of each watering system

Simple / Doable / Inexpensive / Reproducible / Locally Sourced / Effective / Proven

These words are the hallmarks of our smallholder farmer engagement program.  Hydroponics is shown the world over to reduce the need for chemical treatment of crops, to enhance production volume and produce uniformity, to reduce labor costs, to end the need for physical and chemical soil preparation, to REDUCE the quantity of synthetic fertilizer required, and to save a very significant amount of water.  We believe that with simplification and clear communication hydroponics can be a profitable and environmentally positive intervention even in a developing world market.  We believe that it can be a feasible tool for smallholders to reduce costs, enhance productivity, and increase crop quality to command higher market prices.  

We will keep readers up to date with specific production numbers and costs as the season progresses.        

Genetically Modified Crops

Have a look at this very well done report from Bangladesh by Al Jazeera to understand the AC4D teams position on the use of GMO varieties.

http://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2016/gmo-eggplants-aubergines-bangladesh/index.html#2220


GMOs are a tool that can be used to fight pests, salinity, poor soil quality, extreme temps, and a lack of water.  They make marginal land more productive, one of the main barriers to production in the developing world.  It is myopic for activists in the US and Europe to attempt to deny smallholders valuable tools for food production.    

Looking Back & Looking Forward

Looking back at last season AC4D produced over 125 metric tons of vegetables, all of which went to feed Syrian refugees, Iraqi refugees, and impoverished Jordanians.  We held farmer field days to build community in our region.  We learned a great deal about on-farm water and salinity management and we worked to share that knowledge with other farmers in our area.

Looking forward to this season we are:

• delivering 140 tons of high quality produce to feed over 70,000 people from 3 to 4 different distribution points across northern Jordan 
• building a new farm in the Karak Region to facilitate year round food production for our refugee feeding program
• pioneering the use of hydroponics in our area to increase crop volume, quality, and revenue per drop of water utilized
• spreading a wheat production process that will enhance staple crop yields in Jordan, Iraq, and Syria
• partnering with others to develop a network of ag. extension and production centers across Northern Iraq 
• planning to integrate a small ruminant production / grazing management component to our Jordan activities

  

Hydroponics

Over the last few years a lot has been said about the potential of hydroponic and aquaponic production systems.  In my own view, to this point, they have not shown themselves to be price competitive when compared with other, simpler, production systems for the developing world. 

However, there is a tipping point when new techniques and technologies become well established enough to move beyond proof of concept and begin to compete on a crop-per-dollar level.  I believe that we may have reached that point with hydroponic production in Jordan.  This is primarily because local system designs have begun to take advantage of local materials and expertise bringing down the cost of conversion to those systems very significantly.  As a result the AC4D farm will begin work on converting two of our existing traditional greenhouses into hydroponic greenhouses to be planted this September with the rest of the crops.  These houses will provide roughly 1000 square meters of test beds for soil less production. 

Calculated risk on behalf of smallholders who must mitigate their own risk is right.  This concept is at the core of all of our trials.  I will be highlighting and reflecting upon the steps in our conversion process this summer in order to facilitate local adoption.  A consultant engineer working under contract with USAID will be our technical advisor as we plan and implement the project in the next few months.


Why use a technology that facilitates the use of far less water when saving water is not the ultimate goal of smallholder farmers?    

Aquaponics allows us to farm the same "ground" year after year without increasing soil salinity to the point where cultivation is not profitable. 

In open field systems "active deferment" measures like plowing before the rainy season to leach salt from fields and the use of barley to pull salt up into a plant that can be carried off property are effective means of lowering salinity and increasing soil health.  With greenhouse production deferment is not a good option as too much is invested in the greenhouses to defer their use.  Something has to be done to solve this issue.  Hydroponics delivers a long term solution without having to move greenhouses every few years.

Our trial will show us, and local farmers, whether the additional quality and quantity of produce supplied by a hydroponic system substantiates its additional startup and operational costs.   

5 rows per 9 meter wide greenhouse

Drain water collection and fresh water mixing tanks set in ground to facilitate gravity drainage

Tuff is used for rooting material and locally made drip line and grow bags bring down costs significantly

Simple materials and designs for drainage and waste water recovery

    

Sow Food Security, Harvest Peace

A future farmer from Ghouta, Syria.  His family is one of the thousands of recipients of AC4Ds refugee feeding program.  As goes his ability to return to his family's farm in Ghouta and rebuild a life, so goes Syria's hope for rebuilding a future. 

The following statements are taken from a website called, "The Hill" in an article by Jose Graziano da Silva, the director of the Food and Agriculture Organization.   

Consider Syria. More than two-thirds of the population now require humanitarian assistance, including 8.7 million people who do not have enough food. About 4.8 million Syrians are refugees, and even more are internally displaced. Most have been uprooted because their livelihoods have been destroyed – sometimes by unaffordable food rather than direct violence.
 
We have found that US $200 in support enables a Syrian farmer to produce two tonnes of wheat, enough to feed a family of six for a year and provide seeds for future planting. That is a fraction of the economic cost of food aid, not to mention the dramatic human costs.

Interventions to ensure food security and protect and rehabilitate the agricultural sector have a large and often unnoticed contribution to make, as beyond their obvious role in addressing hunger, they can also help mitigate and even prevent conflicts. Peace and food security are often mutually reinforcing.

Farming is the primary activity of the world’s rural poor, who are also the most vulnerable to the consequences of civil strife, which nowadays is the most common form of armed conflict. Fostering broad-based agricultural prosperity can enhance social cohesion, reduce tensions over rival claims to natural resources and, by creating rural jobs, undercut the recruiting base of violent extremism around the world.

Increasing evidence shows that timely and robust food security interventions can enable individuals and communities to build resilience to conflict and hasten their recovery from it.


As important as direct food aid is during a time of conflict, it is the rebuilding and steady development of the agricultural sector that will create the food prices and rural incomes necessary for sustained peace.
 

Take Away Genetic Modification and the Poorest People Will Suffer the Most

I have to re-post the Ag. section of this Forbes article by Dr. Robert Fraley because it is too important a concept not to echo.

"The Real Cost of Eliminating GMOs"

"Consider the economic consequences if the critics of genetic modification were to have their way and eliminate this technology, in spite of the overwhelming scientific consensus in its favor. PG Economics, a British agricultural economics consulting firm, calculated that in 2013 farmers worldwide realized a net economic benefit of 20.5 billion from planting GMO crops.  Farmers in the developing world, many of them poor and working small plots, actually get a higher return on each dollar invested in GMO seeds than their counterparts in the developed world, PG found. 

Meanwhile, in 2014 researchers at the University of California Berkley published a study examining the impact of genetic modification on food prices.  They calculated that in 2010, the adoption of genetic modification lowered corn prices by 13 percent and cotton prices by 18 percent.  One of the researhces, David Zilberman, professor of agriculture and resource economics, estimated that without bioengineered crops, the price of food would be 5 to 10% higher than it is now - especially for meat, poultry, eggs, milk, and processed food.  Also important is the impact that GMO crops can have on the amount of time small holder farmers and their families spend controlling insects and hand weeding their fields.  In many African countries, as much as 90% of the farm work is done by women and children.  In these societies, therefore GMOs offer kids a chance to go to school instead - and thereby escape generational poverty traps.  Take away genetic modification, Zilberman noted, and "The poorest people will suffer the most." 

Supporting Research:
Technology's Role in the 21st Century

The Economics of Sustainable Development

Water Cocktail and a Delivery Truck

Thanks to the creativity of our farm foreman and an abundance of canal water from early season rains our trial and demo farm is able to reduce by half or more the amount of salt that we are putting on crops via irrigation water.  This demo is crucial for our, and local farmers, success in both reducing the amount of salt put on fields over the course of the season and in our ability to flush soils toward the end of the rainy season by applying extra water to rows.  Reducing salt loads strengthens plant health, reduces disease, immediately improves productivity, and allows plants to reach their full size potential.   

Brainstorming with the Oregon farmers has also led us to the conclusion that we should slit old irrigation pipes and apply a great deal of low salinity water to greenhouses after spring production is finished.  In doing so, fresh water will dissolve salt locked in the root zone and carry it down out of the area where plants can take it up. 

Early cold weather this season has slowed down production dramatically, we have produced roughly half the number of food packages that we had produced at this point last year.  We are expanding our planted area during January by an additional 3000 square meters in a bid to get late winter and spring production up. December yielded only 850 8-10kg food parcels.  Much lower than expected. 

In better news we have received a donation for a much needed delivery truck.  This generous and far sighted donation by Cattle for Christ International will allow us to deliver up to 350 food parcels at a time - several days per week.  This much needed expansion in our ability to deliver will make a huge difference starting in February when production picks up due to warmer weather and better plant maturity.  We cannot thank our partners with Cattle for Christ enough.  

First Month of Production & Oregon Farmers

Resident Grain Crop Advisers with our Jordan Valley Foreman

The first two weeks of production has been relatively weak with a total of only 442 boxes delivered through our refugee feeding program.  This is largely as a result of unseasonably cold weather.  Zuchinni trials are showing us the value of extra investment in a high quality variety (Shorouk) and early yield for Monsantos X3R bell peppers has been excellent with Gormand, Intruder, and Sweet Sunrise lagging behind significantly in both plant development and early yield.  Time will tell how each of the varieties stack up across the season. 

Syrian & Iraqi Refugees que to receive food aid.  Market value for a box of our produce currently stands at 11 US dollars - a significant help to families struggling to feed large families without any legal source of income in Jordan. 

We continue to fight our annual battle with pests.  AC4D project director is spraying for spider mites in each of our 5 greenhouses between picking days. 

We will gather farmers for our early season farmer field day this week.  More pictures from that event to come.  One of the great advantages of hosting visiting farmers at our trial facility has been to hear their perspective on our major issues, namely soil quality and pest management.  One of the most helpful suggestions generated so far has been a plan to soil flush our greenhouses after each season with approximately an acre foot of water.  Our calculations show strong value for money invested in a slug of fresh water through enhanced productivity the following season.  More to come as we carry our the trial at the end of the season and replant for 2015/2016.