Upskilling Urban Ag Professionals: Soil and Water Stewardship through Soil Sensing IoT and AI

The outcomes of the focus group included 1) Urban Ag partners’ (and their teams) baseline skillsets varied and most would benefit from foundational training on using AI tools for improving irrigation efficiencies, 2) Employees and volunteers have very limited time available for training, and 3) Personnel changes occur frequently indicating a need for innovate approaches to training and engagement. This evaluation indicated a need to pivot from the in-person one day training event to more on-demand online micro-learning and one-on-one assistance from our team.

Given this valuable input, we spent much of the summer 2024 redesigning the learning kit. We developed a more stand-alone experiment demonstration set up in which one kit was powering 2 different irrigation pumps for 2 potted plants. One plant was water completely by AI and the other with IoT and user-driven decisions.

Our revised approach increased the impacts of this project by helping participants better access, use and apply the key concepts offered in this funded grant proposal.

1. The input obtained was very valuable and we significantly modified our IoT/AI learning kit, as well as our training approaches. The initial 5 Urban Ag Innovator Participants identified key specific goals including learning to:
   1. Increase water conservation/decrease water use.
   2. Use natural resources more wisely in an effort to increase conservation and decrease costs.
   3. Improve soil health.
   4. Increase food production.
   5. Learn how to use ag technology to solve 1-4 now and into the future.
2.  Urban ag partners self-reported time constraints that prevented them from participating in workshops. Our grant team used this insight to utilize one-on-one consultations as our program's training delivery method for the remainder of the project.
3. Initial consultations with partners also identified a need to significantly modify our hands-on learning kit. Their input helped us perfect the design of the educational demonstration to better meet participants' needs and improve the user interface. For example, not all of our urban partners had electricity at their sites and very few had reliable Wi-Fi access. Example modifications completed:
   1. Educational demonstrations were converted from Wi-Fi to cellular internet, so they work in locations where partners need to use them. For example, we learned that they don’t have Wi-Fi in garden areas; however, cellular service can run the demonstrations in these areas.
   2. A solar powered energy source was added so that partners without electricity on site or garden locations not near an outlet can use the IoT/AI technology.
   3. An automated people counter was tested to track the number of people who observe the educational demonstration.  This tool proved to highly over-estimate participant numbers.  We replaced this with a new tool that utilizes radar and will be testing it Summer 2026 (after grant has ended). Others in Extension have learned about this technology from our project and are interested in adopting it for their programs if it proves to be successful.
4. One important outcome for the UBehavior/Durable learning piece was a clearer understanding of both the opportunities and challenges of implementing durable-learning approaches in community-based urban agriculture programs.  Our piloting partner responded positively to the approach and recognized the value of moving beyond one-time exposure to repeated practice and reflection for deeper learner engagement.  At the same time, the project revealed that durable-learning strategies can be difficult to implement in short-duration youth programs and volunteer-driven settings. Many community organizations operate under tight seasonal schedules and informal structures that limit repeated instructional contact. This insight helped the project team shift emphasis toward practical, flexible resources that future program leaders could adopt independently.

1. Experiment Demonstrations: 
   1. One garden manager was trained in a one-on-one session and successfully maintained the experiment demonstration for the end of the 2024 growing season.
      1. The participating organization realized the benefits of an AI enhanced irrigation system and want expanded it to additional garden plots in 2025. The community garden group was surprised to see the increased pepper production compared with what they normally are able to grow.
      2. The participating organization increased their knowledge of precision irrigation principles in urban food production and learned how to use soil sensing and IoT technologies in food increase production. 
      3. In our testing of using tomato plants and pepper plants in the experiment demonstration, we found the pepper plants worked better.  They grow quickly, respond well to irrigation and participants enjoy harvesting them (very visual).
      4. Also in our testing, we discovered that yellow lids on the water reservoir tubs attracted yellow jacket wasps. They made nests inside, so we switched to red lids to solve the issue.
   2. In the 2025 summer season (Year Two) experiment demonstrations were successfully implemented at six Community Gardens across the Northern Front Range, all of which also had youth programs and their employees were trained on the technology. 
   3. Throughout the entire project, the evaluation process included a blend of final interviews and secondary data analysis. Final evaluation interviews with four program participants from two urban ag farm settings revealed that the project successfully demonstrated that affordable, sensor-based irrigation can improve plant performance, increase water-use awareness, and reduce perceived barriers to agricultural technology. While youth exposure was high, deeper educational integration requires age-aligned materials and structural alignment with program formats. The greatest impact occurred among adult leaders and staff, who now view ag technology as accessible, practical, and scalable, positioning the program for sustained and expanded influence through strategic refinement.
      1. The interviews also revealed that 12 youth worked on a Harvest Team one day a week from June to September at one of the participating sites. These students regularly interacted with the experiment demonstration and learned about the important connections between agriculture and technology.

1. Experiment Demonstrations:  Six community garden partners successfully maintained their demonstrations and indicated approximately 2300 public community members visited their demonstrations over the course of the grant.
2. CSU Trial Gardens: One urban garden partner, the CSU Trial Gardens saw approximately 2000 people visited the demonstration throughout the project.
3. Ag Day Demonstration: Our team's presentation emphasized ag tech and the "crop per drop" concept. The experiential educational demonstration drew attention and supported a constant flow of people interested in learning more. The demonstration asked questions like, “How many tubs of water does it take to produce plants?” and demonstrated the concepts that ag tech helps produce more food for less water. The approximate 800 participants included statewide ag groups, key ag stakeholders and decisions makers, university administration, Colorado extension, college and high school students and youth. People reported that they enjoyed harvesting peppers from the demonstration plants.
4. Festival on the Oval Demonstration: Similar emphasis as the Ag Day Demonstrations, with approximately 400 participants including CSU faculty, students, parents of students and local community members.
5. Regenerative Ag Summit: The approximate 40 participants included ranchers, researchers, conservation professionals, public health experts, and community members to share tools, knowledge, and stories for sustaining life and livelihoods in drylands. Our community partner shared information on our WSARE project, including links to online learning resources and descriptions of the demonstrations.

Public Outreach Impacts: Besides gaining a general increased awareness of technology uses in agriculture, including urban agriculture, this project uncovered other impacts among the general public's participation.

• Community Ripple Effects/Exponential Impacts: Visitors frequently connected the technology to potential household water savings, suggesting broader behavioral influence beyond the farm and increased water stewardship awareness.
• Improved Plant Performance: At the community garden experiment demos, visitors were able to see first-hand the clear yield and plant health differences validated the practical effectiveness of AI irrigation in a real-world, low-tech community farm environment.
• Demonstration Power is Significant: At urban ag sites, the kits served as a visible, passive public education tool, where more than 2300 combined youth and community members were exposed to ag-tech concepts through tours, demonstrations, and yield comparisons.