WaterForce is a leading company in the New Zealand irrigation industry with an IoT innovation - SCADAfarm

The irrigation company has just announced that Vodafone will supply its global SIM and cloud-based data management services to help take its innovation international.

SCADAfarm allows farmers to control, monitor and manage their irrigation and pump systems remotely across Vodafone's network.

By incorporating Vodafone's global SIM, SCADAfarm is operationally compatible with telecommunications networks in 70 countries around the world - boosting the kiwi company's global export opportunities.

Ron McFetridge, WaterForce CEO, says efficiently managing and monitoring irrigation and other farming systems has become increasingly important for local producers and their counterparts across the world.

“This is particularly true of the younger generations because they expect these processes to be digitised,” he says.

“They are looking to companies like WaterForce to provide innovative IoT solutions that make it easier for them to add value to their farms, increase productivity and assuage impact on the environment.

Within four years, SCADAfarm has evolved from an innovative irrigation system with remotely controlled pivots, to including a sophisticated pump station metering and data monitoring capability.

Ken Tunnicliffe, enterprise director for Vodafone, says the anticipation associated with IoT is attracting a lot of attention from agriculture companies.

“Vodafone is a global leader in the deployment of IoT networks and is well placed bring IoT product opportunities to life in partnership with forward-thinking companies like WaterForce,” he explains.

“IoT applications are starting to drive remarkable supply chain efficiencies throughout the primary sector, and interest will no doubt continue to boom as environmental sustainability, traceability and compliance become more important.

For WaterForce, this partnership with Vodafone will enable the company to shift its data management services into the cloud - boosting security and end user experience.

“Our global SIM has paved the way for many companies to manage and scale their business overseas, and the same potential exists for WaterForce,” says Tunnicliffe.

“We look forward to contributing to the continued success of this proud and long-standing Kiwi company.