Significant successes were achieved quickly. It was found that cover cropping on farmland over the winter can store up to 50 liters of water per square meter in the soil.
In the following year, the Austrian Chamber of Agriculture expanded its sensor network with additional matric potential sensors, soil moisture profil probe and weather stations at various test sites. The sensors automatically measure and transmit data every 10 minutes.
This allowed for direct determination of the water tension at the roots. These data were supplemented with rainfall amounts, air temperature, and other weather data, proving that cover cropping the previous year was successful and provided farmers with up to a 15% yield increase.
This year, the Austrian Chamber of Agriculture reported an impressive water savings of up to 50%.
Thanks to the easy installation of the sensors, an increasing number of agricultural chambers and universities are joining Leaf AI to conduct joint research and share their findings, along with the corresponding sensors, with farmers through Leaf-MyGrow.