Semtech Corporation, a large supplier of high performance analog and mixed-signal semiconductors and advanced algorithms, announced that ICT International, an Internet of Things (IoT) solution provider for environmental applications, and Definium Technologies (Definium), a developer and manufacturer of IoT gateways and devices, are leveraging an advanced array of products based on Semtech’s LoRa devices and the LoRaWAN protocol to improve crop yield in Australian avocado plantations with a data-centric approach to farming.

“Avocado crops are highly susceptible to stress at key times throughout their growing cycle,” said Dr. Peter Cull, Director of ICT International. “Utilizing plant physiology sensors based on Semtech’s leading and proven LoRa devices enables the simple and accurate monitoring of moisture flow inside the plants, and allows farmers to respond quickly to stressors to improve yield. As a result, farmers maximize profit while reducing expenses related to product waste.”

“As the challenge of extracting high yields from crop farming continues to increase due to changing weather conditions, accurately monitoring environmental crop stress is crucial to ensuring we produce enough food to feed the world,” said Mike Cruse, CEO at Definium Technologies.

“Our collaboration with ICT International and Semtech to deliver precision environmental sensing solutions has broad applicability across the agricultural spectrum. These applications include grazing, row cropping, viticulture, and nut orchards, in addition to smart cities and mining.”

ICT International and Definium deployed a suite of LoRa-enabled sensors throughout a large-scale avocado farm in New South Wales, Australia to identify the ongoing causes of low crop yield. Through the use of soil moisture sensors, sap flow sensors, vapor-pressure deficit sensors, and weather stations, the data accurately identified periods of low soil moisture and high plant water stress, and matched those to excess fruit drop.

Semtech’s LoRa devices are widely adopted long-range, low-power solutions for IoT that gives telecom companies, IoT application makers and system integrators the feature set necessary to deploy low-cost, interoperable IoT networks, gateways, sensors, module products, and IoT services worldwide. IoT networks based on the LoRaWAN® specification have been deployed in 100 countries and Semtech is a founding member of the LoRa Alliance®, the fastest growing IoT alliance for low power wide area network applications. To learn more about how LoRa enables IoT, visit Semtech’s LoRa site.