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

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Commodities

Practices

• Crop Production: drought tolerance, irrigation, seed saving, water management
• Education and Training: demonstration, display, focus group, youth education
• Soil Management: soil quality/health
• Sustainable Communities: food access and security

We have developed high-quality, low-cost soil moisture probes that can significantly improve irrigation efficiency when used to automate watering. In this proposal, we couple this technology with an Upskilling micro-credentialed hands-on training kit with self-paced online learning. This training and technology is especially relevant for urban and peri-urban food production along Colorado’s Front Range. The Food Access Research Atlas shows that Denver, Loveland, and Fort Collins, CO, have significant low-income community populations with minimal access to fresh food. Unfortunately, this same urban area is prone to water restrictions and increasing water costs – making urban food production challenging in this arid zone. This project partners with urban food producers to create demonstration experiments to help our urban clientele see first-hand the impacts of precision irrigation tools and practices on crop and vegetable yields while reducing water use and costs. Stakeholder partners will follow a training program on Soil Internet-of-Things (IoT) technology using a hands-on kit that also teaches crucial irrigation principles. The program will follow cognitive science research, utilizing “Fit-Bit for Learning” and “Coaching Circle” models, which have proven successful in longer-term learning that better leads to behavior changes. This program pilot will empower Urban Ag Leaders to offer subsequent sensor-based irrigation training in their education/outreach programs. In addition, the micro-credential earning opportunity will also provide skills documentation for any participant, thereby allowing for potential new career pathways. It is often stated that “Colorado Runs on Water,” which is more true today with drought, water shortages, and climate change looming along the Front Range. With the rapidly growing urban population, we must train tech-savvy urban growers who can produce fresh food while conserving water resources.

The Project Objectives to be achieved by 2025 span three inter-connected sub-groups that we are targeting.  

1) Urban Food Innovators (“Trainers”) 
- Through participation in the Urban Food Innovators program, participants will gain... 

• Awareness of AI applications in urban food production. 
• Longer-term knowledge of precision irrigation principles and their use in urban food production. 
• Skills for utilizing soil sensing and IoT technology in urban food production. 
• Skills in designing irrigation experiment demonstrations. 
• Skills in implementing the U-Behavior principles for improved learning for those they train. 

2) Employees/Staff at Urban Food Innovator Locations 

• Increased knowledge of precision irrigation principles and their use in urban food production. 
• New skills for utilizing soil sensing and IoT technology in urban food production. 
• Skills in managing experiment demonstrations. 

3) Visitors to Urban Food Innovator Locations 

• Increased awareness of precision irrigation principles and use in urban food production. 
• Improved knowledge of soil sensing and IoT technology in urban food production. 
• Expanded Interest in pursuing agriculture careers.