By Yoke Har Lee
What do Britain's Cardiff Arms Park and the Cayuse Vineyard in America's Washington State have in common?
Both use New Zealand expertise in managing irrigation.
Aquaflex - a soil moisture measurement system - is catching the world's attention as it solves the problem of getting the soil just right.
The product is based on Lincoln Ventures' research and development, combined with the commercial know-how of Christchurch-based Streat Instruments. Lincoln Ventures is a company fully owned by Lincoln University.
Sales of Aquaflex have taken off, with 80 to 90 per cent being export bound. What is radical about the instrument is its ability to "take" a reading of the moisture content in soil over many points. The readings can be downloaded on to a PC for assessment or connected to other irrigation control systems.
Which is why people as diverse as cricket and football turf managers to grape and potato growers are using Aquaflex to manage their irrigation.
This new product has given a new fillip to Streat Instruments whose background started in developing moisture measurement controls for the wool industry but later moved into other materials like cotton, synthetics and textiles.
Streat Instruments, set up in 1964 by Garth Streat, has a products and automation division. It provides automation and process automation solutions to industries around the world.
Lincoln Ventures' research engineer Ian Woodhead said the idea for Aquaflex's development went back some 10 years when the team realised that a lot of soil moisture sensors available measured only at a single point. It has been known to soil scientists for sometime that moisture content can vary significantly over space and time.
"We realised that some sort of integrated device would be of a significant advantage," Mr Woodhead said.
The product took some 10 years to develop, much of it due to the lag time to put the project on full-scale development. At the same time, the project developed alongside the advances made in electronics.
The best feature of Aquaflex, said Mr Woodhead, was the ability of the sensors to measure over a distance and to average that out for a highly accurate reading.
The developers also understood several fundamental principles of soil characteristics, how moisture in soil affects its properties and irrigation schedules.
What made Aquaflex work was the development of a scientific/entrepreneurial model. Lincoln Ventures had the brain, but Streat Instruments had the commercial savvy.
Mr Woodhead said Streat Instruments brought to the partnership its production expertise, its product engineering know how, its ability to take a product from prototype stage to a workable production unit and its product marketing experience.
Peter Johansson, product sales manager for Streat Instruments, said the company also made the product user friendly. For example, the development of a soon-to-be released hand-held soil moisture measurer, designed to make it easy for the average farmer to use.
Typically, proper management of irrigation using Aquaflex could help turf managers save some 20 to 30 per cent in costs.
Mr Johansson said Aquaflex was specifically developed by Lincoln Ventures to overcome the problems associated with measuring soil moisture at one point.
The project received funding, initially from the Public Good Science Fund (for Lincoln Ventures), and later from Technology New Zealand (for Streat Instruments). The latter was to help the company assess the weak points to develop a robust sensor, according to Steve Krenek, Streat Instruments' technical manager.
Streat Instruments is targeting Aquaflex at three main markets - the agriculture sector, turf managers and industrial applications.
For Streat Instruments, having a new product under its wing meant a quick learning curve for the company whose background was not in soil and irrigation systems. "We had to adjust ourselves very quickly to a new and different field in soil moisture measurement and the irrigation industry," Mr Johansson said.
It reaches global customers through mail, the internet and trade fairs. Two fairs the company will be displaying its products at are Saltex, a turf exhibition cum trade fair and Agritech, an important agriculture and irrigation show in Israel. The company has also set up Aquaflex distributorships in New Zealand, Australia, the US and Europe.
In New Zealand, Aquaflex is on field trial at McCain's potato farm while in Britain the product is on trial at prestigious football stadiums such as Leeds United and Bolton Wanderers.
The Christchurch City Council is also about to begin trials with Aquaflex's sensors in the city's parks and reserves. Mr Johansson said in line with the various Australian authorities using Aquaflex systems, the Christchurch City Council will be able to monitor the moisture levels of parks throughout the city via a centrally-controlled terminal and adjust the irrigation patterns accordingly.
Commerce plus science equals winner
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