ALBANY, Ga., April 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The Flint River
Partnership and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a collaboration to
deploy innovative conservation measures to enhance agricultural
efficiency by up to 20 percent.
The Flint River Partnership (which includes the Flint River Soil
and Water Conservation District, USDA's Natural Resources
Conservation Service and The Nature Conservancy) together with the
University of Georgia and IBM will
support farmers in the Lower Flint River Basin of Georgia in making more informed irrigation
scheduling decisions to conserve water, improve crop yields and
mitigate the impact of future droughts.
The Lower Flint River Basin is one of the most diverse and
ecologically rich river systems in the southeastern United States. The area is also the epicenter
of agriculture in Georgia with its
27 counties contributing more than $2
billion in farm-based revenue annually to the region's
economy. Irrigation is central to production and because of the
area's unique hydrogeology, maximizing water conservation helps
support sensitive habitat systems.
Building upon a successful irrigation model and other water
conservation measures already in place, the Flint River Partnership
is using IBM's Deep Thunder precision weather forecasting to help
farmers conserve water and improve crop yields. Because the
forecasts will be available on mobile devices, farmers will have
24-hour access to critical weather information in conjunction with
other relevant field data. The Partnership is also leveraging IBM
Softlayer to manage data flows and automate irrigation
recommendations, allowing farmers to determine how much water a
specific crop needs at various stages of its life cycle.
"Our job is to help farmers conserve water. Irrigation
scheduling based on highly accurate weather forecasts and real-time
field data will optimize decision making and consequently reduce
resource use," said Marty McLendon,
chairman of the Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District.
"Having access to such forecasts and field data on a mobile
platform makes the data relevant, so that we can make proactive
irrigation scheduling decisions on the fly."
Innovative Resource Conservation for Agricultural Production
Systems
The integration of complex data streams generated by GPS-enabled
farm equipment and in-field sensors with IBM's Deep Thunder weather
forecasting technology delivered to mobile devices will provide
72-hours advance notice of weather in the Flint region, allowing
farmers to be more prepared to make decisions on when to irrigate,
plant, fertilize, and deploy labor resources.
"Farming operations are highly sensitive to weather. In the US,
that sensitivity is about $15 billion
per year. For example, the USDA estimates that 90 percent of crop
losses are due to weather. In addition, improving efficiency in
irrigation will reduce the impact in areas with limited water
supplies. By better understanding and then predicting these weather
effects, we can help mitigate these impacts," said Lloyd Treinish, Distinguished Engineer &
Chief Scientist, IBM Research. "Innovators like the Flint River
Partnership are showing how they can leverage IBM's advanced
modeling and analytics to increase crop yields. When we consider
the need to increase food availability to a growing population,
their leadership is helping to create a more sustainable approach
to agriculture."
About IBM Big Data and Analytics
IBM has completed more than 30,000 analytics client engagements
and projects $20 billion in business
analytics and big data revenue by 2015. IBM has established the
world's deepest portfolio of analytics solutions, deploys 9,000
business analytics consultants and 400 researchers, and has
acquired more than 30 companies since 2005 to build targeted
expertise in this area. IBM secures hundreds of patents a year in
big data and analytics, and converts this deep intellectual capital
into breakthrough capabilities, including Watson-like cognitive
systems. The company has established a global network of nine
analytics solutions centers and goes to market with more than
27,000 IBM business partners. For more information about IBM Big
Data & Analytics, visit www.ibmbigdatahub.com.
Follow IBM Big Data & Analytics on Twitter: @IBMbigdata and
@IBMAnalytics.
About SoftLayer, an IBM Company
SoftLayer, an IBM Company, operates a global cloud
infrastructure platform built for Internet scale. With 100,000
devices under management, 13 data centers in the United States, Asia and Europe and a global footprint of network
points of presence, SoftLayer provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service
to leading-edge customers ranging from Web startups to global
enterprises. SoftLayer's modular architecture provides unparalleled
performance and control, with a full-featured API and sophisticated
automation controlling a flexible unified platform that seamlessly
spans physical and virtual devices, and a worldwide network for
secure, low-latency communications. For more information, please
visit softlayer.com.
About the Flint River Partnership
Conservation powered by innovation is the next step in the
long-term preservation of our natural resource base. Agricultural
producers are stewards of the land, and their adoption of
technology-driven conservation practices is opening new frontiers
in precision agriculture. Our team is geographically based in the
Lower Flint River Basin of southwest Georgia and led by the Flint River Soil and
Water Conservation District, USDA's Natural Resources Conservation
Service, and The Nature Conservancy in cooperation with an all–star
team of agricultural producers and researchers. Our mission is to
design, develop and deploy accurate and user–friendly conservation
measures to enhance farm efficiency, reduce natural resource use,
and generate forward momentum toward a new iteration of data–driven
agriculture. Since 2004, our conservation team has worked with
agricultural producers to deploy new and innovative conservation
measures on more than 200,000 acres. Measures include the
low-pressure drop nozzle retrofit with end gun shut off, advanced
irrigation scheduling, and GPS-driven variable rate irrigation. Our
shared objective is to reduce water use by more than 20% across a
diverse cross–section of irrigated agricultural landscapes in
Georgia.
CONTACT:
Dana Anastasi
857-259-0866
danastasi@us.ibm.com
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SOURCE IBM