FRESNO, Calif., Sept. 6, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- GroGuru demonstrates its next generation wireless underground sensor technology at the Irrigation Innovation Consortium research demo and meeting today. Earlier this year, the Consortium, which is composed of five universities and five industry partners, was awarded $5 million collectively to launch a research program to increase water and energy efficiency. Fresno State and other consortium partners have also matched the grant with an additional $5 million donation to bring the total investment to $10 million over five years.
"We are faced with a global crisis where there are already 800 million chronically undernourished people in the world today, and we need to increase our food production by 70 percent by the year 2050 just to keep pace with population growth," said Patrick Henry, president and CEO of GroGuru. "With 70 percent of the world's fresh water supply already being used for agriculture irrigation, we need new technologies to allow farmers to more efficiently use water, increase crop yields, and do so in a more sustainable way, while still staying in business. Initiatives like the Irrigation Innovation Consortium, innovative technologies from companies like GroGuru, and our forward-thinking farming community are essential for addressing this critical global issue."
GroGuru's 100% wireless solution includes soil sensors that can transmit wirelessly when buried in the soil. This results in 'permanent' installs of soil sensors, where they have battery life of five to ten years. There is no need to remove the soil sensors at the time of harvest and put them back later. There is also no need for farmers to modify their cultivation operations to work around the soil sensors. All of this is very desirable especially for the broad acre row crops.
"We expect this collaboration of university and industry researchers will help producers and the irrigation community to continue to be more efficient in food production and water management — something the Central Valley prides itself on in being a leader nationally," says Dr. David Zoldoske, project manager for Fresno State. "Our campus water and energy technology researchers and facilities can provide critical leadership in the areas of field and laboratory testing, materials, proof of concept, prototype development and value engineering. We are very excited to have GroGuru participate in our event and demonstrate their innovative technology for precision irrigation monitoring."
About GroGuru
GroGuru, Inc. is a privately held company based in San Diego, CA focused on enabling farmers to optimally use water and fertilizer with an innovative hardware-enabled Software as a Service (Saas) solution. The GroGuru solution is analogous to giving growers X-Ray vision to the water in the ground. For more information, visit the GroGuru website at http://www.groguru.com.
About Irrigation Innovation Consortium
The consortium prioritizes remote sensing and big data applications for improving water management, irrigation technology acceleration and technology transfer. The universities included in the partnership are California State University, Fresno; Colorado State University; Kansas State University; University of Nebraska and Texas A&M University. The five industry partners include Jain Irrigation, Rubicon Water, the Irrigation Association, Lindsay Corporation and the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District.
SOURCE GroGuru
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