CASE/ Revalcon Intelligent Irrigation System

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Saving water, saving money: how Revalcon's smart irrigation system is transforming agriculture

Whether we realize it or not, most of us depend on irrigation in one way or another. From the rice paddies of China to the cotton plantations of California, the practice of irrigating fields in areas too dry for rainfed agriculture supports a huge and growing proportion of the crops grown around the world. About three out of every four liters of fresh water used by humans is for irrigation, producing about 40% of the world's crops, including grains, fruits, vegetables, and even biofuels. Without irrigation, agriculture as we know it would collapse. However, for such a vital component of modern agriculture, irrigation is often surprisingly inefficient. Of the billions of liters of water used in agriculture every day, a staggering 50% is wasted. Some of this is due to leaky pipes and faulty pumps. But a major source of waste is the farmers themselves, who often lack the information needed to effectively manage their irrigation systems. As a result, many well-meaning farmers inadvertently over-irrigate their land, pumping more water than their crops need.

Environmental impact of irrigation In addition to wasting water, overwatering can have serious environmental consequences. Runoff from over-irrigated fields strips away the topsoil, leading to soil erosion, nutrient loss, and water pollution. Meanwhile, the depletion of water sources such as rivers and aquifers is accelerating desertification in some parts of the world. Ironically, over-irrigation can also make life difficult for farmers: not only does it cost money to pump water, but excessively wet soils can stunt crop growth and encourage plant diseases. As the global availability of water decreases each year, the search for a solution to over-irrigation becomes more and more urgent. Now, an Armenian technology startup is taking advantage of its country's unique intellectual property (IP) laws to provide such a solution.

Revalcon: the solution for water conservation in agriculture Data Driven Irrigation The startup, Revalcon LLC, was founded in 2017 by three entrepreneurs, Seryozha Barkhudaryan, Artyom Tonoyan and Grigori Kartashyan, who believed that giving farmers access to technology and data would help them better manage their irrigation and waste less water. They were soon joined by Gevorg Baghdasaryan, who works as CEO of the company. Combining their diverse backgrounds in hardware development, software engineering, and water management, the Revalcon team set to work developing an integrated smart irrigation system. By measuring conditions in the field and sending this data to the farmer, their proposed system would allow them to make informed, data-driven decisions about when to irrigate and, just as important, when to turn off the taps. The result would be better for the plants and the planet. 'The idea is to empower farmers to grow higher yields with fewer resources,' explains Gevorg.

How does Revalcon's smart farming technology work? By 2019, Revalcon had brought this idea to life with the design and construction of a fully functioning irrigation management system. Your solution consists of a set of unique hardware and software. A series of solar-powered nodes, each about the size of a smartphone case, is connected to a farm's irrigation network. These nodes monitor wind, moisture, soil temperature, and the operation of pumps and valves in the irrigation system. This data is then fed via wireless LoRa technology to a centrally located server. The server is the brain of the operation: not only is it capable of receiving up to 12,000 messages from 100 nodes every day, but it also securely transmits all this data to the cloud.

Internet of things in agriculture Customized software makes data in the cloud immediately accessible and understandable to farmers. Revalcon customers can access information about their farm via SMS, email, an online interface and even a smartphone app. In addition, they can control their irrigation system remotely based on the information

collected by Revalcon hardware. "With real-time access to what's happening on the ground, farmers can turn their irrigation system on or off from anywhere in the world," explains Gevorg. "They can also plan and schedule their water use for the future."

Benefits of the Revalcon IoT system in agriculture The results of Revalcon's 'precision farming' speak for themselves: farms use up to 300% less water and reduce crop diseases by up to 25%. The system's solar panels reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, and its remote monitoring feature reduces the time farmers spend managing their irrigation network by up to a third.

Revalcon - an award-winning green company Recognition of the company's achievements is growing: in 2021, Revalcon reached the national final of the World Cup of Entrepreneurship and won Armenia's Green Agri-Tech Startup Clash 2021, a program designed to foster environmental innovation in the Agriculture. Revalcon is also the recipient of the ACBA Federation scholarship, a year-long business incubation program that supports entrepreneurs tackling agricultural issues in Armenia.

Revalcon Intellectual Property Protection With so much new technology in development, the Revalcon team is working hard to protect your intellectual property. "Today, technology is advancing so fast that it's hard to stay unique," says Gevorg. 'Protecting your intellectual property is a way to stay unique'. Fortunately, Revalcon's founders came from large, established companies, so they already knew how essential IP protection was when they founded the company in 2017.'

Revalcon Copyright and Patents Revalcon's name and drop logo are copyrighted in Armenia, where the company is registered.

The team's most precious intellectual property, its server, the cornerstone of the entire irrigation system, is patented in Armenia in 2020. Due to time constraints, the company made the decision to prioritize the server patent over its other less hardware. complicated. This includes nodes, which Revalcon hopes can also be patented in the near future. Unusually, Revalcon plans to patent the software that powers its irrigation system. This is thanks to a new law, passed only in July 2021, which makes Armenia the second country in the world after the US. US to explicitly allow software patenting. In other parts of the world, legal concerns about proving the uniqueness of software mean that it is difficult or simply impossible to patent it. Therefore, Revalcon's plan to patent its software will put it at the forefront of global intellectual property developments. As Gevorg and the team look to expand internationally, they are aware that the protection of intellectual property will play an increasingly important and demanding role for the company. 'We haven't faced too many challenges in Armenia,' comments Gevorg, 'but we know we will have to work very hard to secure our intellectual property in our target markets of North America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. In the coming years, we plan to direct 20% of our funds towards corporate and intellectual property protection in these markets. Software patenting, in particular, can be difficult compared to the recently streamlined process in Armenia. "We have a big job ahead of us," Gevorg acknowledges.

Sustainable Development Goals of Revalcon Regardless of the challenges facing the Revalcon team, the motivation remains the same: to provide farmers with the information they need to manage their irrigation systems in a way that is agriculturally, financially and environmentally sustainable. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which serve as a blueprint for a fairer and less wasteful world, have helped the startup focus its efforts on some of agriculture's biggest challenges. Revalcon's innovations contribute directly to SDG 2, which aims to eliminate hunger in the world; SDG 12, which promotes sustainable consumption and production, and SDG 13, which calls for action to tackle climate change. By bringing state-of-the-art technology to rural areas, the company also contributes to SDG 9, which fosters industry, innovation and infrastructure.

Looking to the future, Gevorg and the Revalcon team, now numbering 13, hope to use the technology to improve other areas of agriculture. "The sustainability of agriculture is of vital importance," concludes Gevorg. 'Even when other industrial had to close during the COVID-19 pandemic, agriculture was unable to close its doors, not even for a single day. It must continue, which means it must be sustainable. So at Revalcon we really believe that what we are doing is important, not only for farmers, but also for the environment and society in general. It is a great incentive to continue working and innovating.