Wireless, Soil-Moisture Sensors Designed and Built Using Kerlink Reference Design and LoRa Technology Provide Farmers with Real-time Conditions across Their Fields
Thorigné-Fouillard, France and Amsterdam, The Netherlands – June 6, 2019, 06:00 p.m. CET – Kerlink, a specialist and global leader in solutions dedicated to the Internet of Things (IoT), and Sensoterra,
a leader in wireless soil-moisture-sensor solutions, today announced a partnership to empower farmers to make data-driven, land-management decisions and reduce their water consumption by up to 30 percent.
Using Kerlink’s LoRaWAN®-based Reference Design Low Power IoT platform to produce a new class of soil-moisture sensors, Sensoterra will launch its new sensors in the U.S., Europe, and the Asia Pacific (APAC) region beginning this year.
Soil moisture data is becoming a key component of sustainable farming programs globally as producers contend with increasingly erratic weather patterns and drier growing seasons. Measuring precise moisture conditions in their fields helps farmers maintain soil health, improve water conservation, and increase yields.
Sensoterra has been working with growers since its founding in 2014 to bring smart soil-moisture solutions to market. In addition to providing soil monitoring for row-crops, orchards, and soft fruits, the company’s technology also supports efficient water use in public and private landscaping projects and municipal parks and sports fields. The company’s current line of probes can measure soil-moisture down to 36 inches with 99.5 percent accuracy and the company’s software allow users to zoom into conditions around individual probes.
“Less than 2 percent of agricultural land worldwide is equipped for soil-moisture measurement, which presents a very large market for wireless soil-monitoring and a big opportunity to improve water conservation,” said Christine Fraser-Boer, chief operating officer, Sensoterra.
“Sensoterra is targeting that space, and Kerlink’s LPIoT Reference Design platform significantly lowered R&D costs and shortened time to market for our new moisture sensors. We expect U.S. Federal Communication Commission (FCC) certification of our new probe this year so that we can offer these sensitive, smart-farming sensors in the U.S. by year-end. Incorporating this platform in our sensors also allows us to quickly follow our U.S. rollout with launches in Europe and APAC.”
“Kerlink’s off-the-shelf reference design and production-ready bill of material eliminates up to 12 months of development time for LoRa devices, and cuts their R&D costs by up to 30 percent,” said Yann BAUDUIN, Kerlink, VP EMEA. “It is a powerful way for Sensoterra to bring its new soil-moisture-monitoring sensors to market quickly, and expand its business in a crucial smart-agriculture application.”
Kerlink LPIoT Reference Design gives designers, software developers, architects, and operation engineers step-by-step directions for quickly conceiving and producing IoT connected end-devices that deliver high performance, low energy consumption, and optimized radio performance. The platform is continuously updated with the latest low-power, wide-area (LPWA) specifications and standards and incorporates Semtech’s new SX1262 radio transceiver, which is ideal for long-range wireless applications and long battery life.
About Kerlink Group
Kerlink Group is a leading global provider of end-to-end network solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT), serving telecom operators, businesses and public authorities worldwide. Its growing suite of turnkey IoT services includes network planning, design and operational management that maximizes performance of its market-leading, carrier-grade infrastructure offering. The Group, widely recognized for its IoT expertise, also continually introduces innovative value-added services, such as network-based geolocation, remote end-device management and low-power IoT reference design, which allows its customers to quickly bring to market IoT-ready devices and to imagine innovative business models to monetize their deployments.
In just over 10 years, more than 100,000 Kerlink installations have been deployed in more than 69 countries. In 2017 Kerlink supplied more than 330 customers, including major telecom operators such as Tata Communications, and service providers such as GrDF and Suez. The company’s solutions are enabling IoT networks worldwide with major deployments in Europe, South Asia, South America and Oceania. Kerlink, a co-founder and board member of the LoRa AllianceTM, has invested more than €10 million in research in the past three years. In 2017, Kerlink Group generated revenues of nearly €25 million, more than 50 percent internationally. Since 2013, it has posted average annual growth of more than 62 percent. It has been listed on Euronext Growth Paris since May 2016 and was added to the EnterNext PEA-PME 150, an index of 150 fast-growing French SMEs, in 2017.
For more information, visit www.kerlink.com or follow us on Twitter @kerlink_news.
About Sensoterra
Sensoterra is a pioneering leader in the field of wireless soil moisture sensors, offering cutting-edge IoT soil moisture sensor solutions for smart agriculture. Our state-of-the-art Sensoterra soil moisture sensors are at the forefront of agriculture IoT, providing unparalleled soil moisture monitoring capabilities.
Our commitment to precision agriculture technology allows farmers to make informed decisions, optimize their irrigation systems, and embrace sustainable farming solutions. With Sensoterra, access to real-time soil moisture data is at your fingertips, enabling precise water management and water resource management for your agricultural operations.
Sensoterra, established in 2015, with its headquarters in Houten, The Netherlands, develops water management solutions for agriculture/horticulture, smart city management, and water governance. Sensoterra has over 12,000 sensors in the ground globally, and generates hundreds of thousands of data points for smart water management, daily. Learn more at www.sensoterra.com
Contact for more information, pictures and/or interview requests:
Jessica Nuboer
Marketing & Communications
Sensoterra
Email: [email protected]
