From Aric Olson, President of Jain Irrigation, Inc.
It is a real honor to be an active member of the Irrigation Innovation Consortium (IIC). As one of the eight founding companies, Jain Irrigation is appreciative of this public-private partnership with FFAR and five founding universities. The consortium will accelerate putting cutting-edge research and development into farm applicable use. With resource match funding and university collaboration requirements for projects, we know the focus is on providing water- and energy-efficient technologies to growers of a variety of crops and with a national scope.
We are enthused about the current artificial intelligence and machine learning tools being brought to the market. With satellite and weather analytics for crop water needs, as well as extensive soil moisture monitoring, these tools will provide an extensive and complete solution of when to irrigate and for how long, so that crop needs are met without water and fertilizers being pushed past the root zone.
Through the IIC and the founding universities’ research farms, we’ll see these technologies tested and validated. And as a leader in irrigation technology, we will deploy these smart irrigation systems to help growers obtain more crop per drop in a manner that is sustainable for our environment. Sensing tools will be integrated with water and fertilizer application products to deliver water precisely and accurately in a closed loop and autonomous manner in which the grower is in complete control.
There are exciting times ahead for irrigated agriculture and models like the public-private partnership with the IIC and FFAR. I appreciate the founders’ vision and efforts to bring these entities together. We are expecting some major successes for the group in the coming years.
Aric Olson, the president of Jain Irrigation, Inc. (Fresno, CA) is a thought leader, frequent speaker, and panelist for domestic agriculture and water issues. He has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and an M.B.A. to go along with twenty-plus years of manufacturing company experience in which he held responsibilities for manufacturing, distribution, engineering, sales & marketing, and human resources. He is passionate about helping growers utilize leading commercialized technologies and data science for growing our food in a sustainable manner. He has been a member of Jain Irrigation’s management team responsible for successfully integrating eight major acquisitions into the leading global irrigation technology company in the world, in the last ten years. He is a past-president of the Irrigation Association and a founding committee member and chairperson of Blue Tech Valley.