Thermal imaging can help farmers optimize water use

Agriculture uses 70% of the world’s fresh water supplies and farmer demand for water will grow significantly in the next two decades as they increase production by 60% to feed the global population of 9.6 billion expected by 2050. Given the stress of climate change, optimizing water use in agriculture should be a key component of the food system transformation needed to produce more food while staying within the planet’s boundaries.

Research on using thermal imagery to optimize water use in potato recently published in Agronomy provides useful information and tools for more water-efficient agriculture that can contribute to that goal.