Working in collaboration with Cambridge University, PepsiCo developed a crop monitoring tool to help farmers measure and optimise water usage by combining weather data and underground moisture probes. Thanks to its implementation, PepsiCo achieved up to 40% water savings in water-challenged regions of the EU.
Following a decade of successful use, PepsiCo has now evolved that tool and is rolling it out across all its potato programmes in Europe. Through an iPhone App, potato farmers will be able to mark a field and enter key data that will help both the farmer and PepsiCo to better understand and monitor the performance of the crops with a view to further increase yields and quality, while optimising the inputs needed such as water and fertiliser.
All insights and learnings are shared to ensure that growers and PepsiCo can benefit together and enhance agronomy protocols in the future.
A first example comes from Spain, where PepsiCo has piloted the use of an irrigation scheduling system with WhatsApp notifications based on the data captured, together with projected weather conditions and crop growth models.
