Automatic Fertilizer and Irrigation Controller System Main Buyer Country

When they talk aboutautomatic fertilizer application systems, many people immediately imagine something like a 'smart home' for the fields - they press a button and everything works. In reality, Russian agricultural producers have to explain ten times that a controller is not just a 'box with buttons', but a complex tool that needs to be integrated into the existing infrastructure. This is especially true for old farms that still use Soviet irrigation systems.

Features of the Russian market

Working with Shandong Lingyao Intelligent Agriculture Technology Co.,Ltd, we quickly realized that standard solutions forautomatic irrigationthey don't work here. Russian agronomists are accustomed to doing everything by eye and do not trust automation. I literally had to explain on my fingers how soil moisture sensors can reduce water consumption by 30-40%.

I remember a case in the Krasnodar region - a local agronomist first installed our controller, but continued to manually regulate watering. Only when I saw that the system itself adjusted the water supply before rain did I begin to trust the automation. Such moments show that the main task is not to sell equipment, but to change the approach to farming.

By the way, on the website https://www.lyzhihuinongye.ru we specially created a section with cases on adapting equipment to Russian conditions. Protection of electronics from frost is especially in demand - standard Chinese controllers fail at -25°C, but we had to develop frost-resistant versions.

Technical setup details

The most difficult moment incontroller system- this is the calibration of sensors for different types of soils. In the same Rostov region, chernozem requires certain settings, and in the Stavropol region - completely different. My colleagues and I from Shandong Linyao Intelligent Agriculture Technology LLC have developed a whole field testing methodology.

A common mistake is incorrect installation of humidity sensors. Once in the Voronezh region they were installed too close to the surface - after the first rain, the system decided that watering was not needed, although in the depths the soil was dry. I had to reset it to the recommended 20-30 cm.

Another important point is compatibility with Russian equipment. Our engineers spent about three months adapting communication protocols for local weather stations and pumping stations. Without this, even the most advanced controller is useless.

Economic efficiency

Many Russian agricultural producers are skeptical about the costs of automation. But when you show specific figures on fertilizer savings... In one of the farms in Tatarstan, after the introduction of our system, the consumption of nitrogen fertilizers decreased by 25% without loss of yield.

Particularly important for Russian conditions is the possibility of remote control. In the winter of 2022, the director of one of the farms near Moscow was able to switch the system to winter mode from Moscow when frosts unexpectedly struck. If I had to go to the field, the pipes would definitely burst.

By the way, it is for the Russian market that we at Shandong Linyao Intelligent Agriculture Technology LLC have developed a simplified version of the software with translation into Russian. It turned out that even experienced agronomists are not always ready to understand the English interface.

Implementation problems

The hardest thing is to convince the old mechanics. I remember that at one of the farms in the Volgograd region, the chief engineer first called our controller an “unnecessary toy.” Until he saw how the system automatically turned off the irrigation when a leak was detected - the same leak that he had been looking for for three days.

Another headache is Russian power grids. Power surges can damage even the most protected equipment. We had to additionally install stabilizers and uninterruptible power supplies, although initially they were not included in the project.

An interesting point - it turned out that many farms use outdated data formats. Our programmers had to write converters for compatibility with local accounting systems. Without this, integration would not be possible.

Development prospects

Now I see a trend towards integrating irrigation systems with drones for field monitoring. The same Shandong Linyao Intelligent Agriculture Technologies LLC is already testing a system where multispectral photography from drones automatically adjusts the irrigation and fertilization program.

Another direction is mobile applications for management. Russian farmers are actively switching to smartphones, and the ability to control watering directly from the phone is becoming a key advantage.

I think we can expect an increase in demand for precision systems in the coming years, especially in regions with water scarcity. Our latest projects in Kalmykia have shown that even in the driest areas, automation allows you to maintain yields.