Drought and precision irrigation in Romania

In the spring of 2026, entire regions in the west and south of the country recorded historically low rainfall. For a growing number of farmers, the question is no longer whether drought comes, but how you manage it year after year.

Irrigation looks like the obvious answer. But watering a field without knowing what is happening below the surface of the soil usually means water and energy spent for nothing — and sometimes lost yield too. What makes the difference isn’t the amount of water, but when and where you apply it.

Guesswork irrigation costs more than it seems

Romania has around 9 million hectares of arable land, but only about 1.6 million are equipped for irrigation. For those who do have access to water, the challenge has shifted from “do we have anything to irrigate with?” to “how much does it cost us to irrigate?”.

When the pumps start up by the calendar or by gut feeling, three costly things happen:

Apparent dryness: the surface of the ground may look dry, but at a depth of 30–40 cm — the active root zone — the water reserve may still be fine. Pumping at that moment does nothing for the plant; it only burns energy.
Nutrient leaching: excess water, applied for lack of data, washes fertilisers below root level and forces you into additional applications, with extra costs.
Premature wear: motors and pumps run for hours with no real benefit, which shortens their lifespan and inflates your maintenance bills.

Worth remembering: independent studies show that digital soil monitoring can cut water and energy use by 10–30% while maintaining or even increasing crop yields. Even so, barely 21% of local farms that irrigate rely on real-time data.

What you see when you measure the soil

Soil monitoring isn’t about more technology for its own sake. It’s about three concrete things you learn about each plot, instead of assuming them.

1. Visibility at root level

Industrial-grade sensors, placed within the crop, continuously measure soil moisture and temperature at several depths. You no longer have to guess when the maize is “thirsty” — you get precise data and an alert before the plant enters water stress, so you can act at the right moment.

2. Autonomy in open fields

The lack of a GSM or Wi-Fi signal in the middle of plots covering hundreds of hectares is a classic problem of agricultural digitalisation. The sensors in the field communicate via LoRaWAN — a long-range, very low-power technology — and have an internal battery that lasts up to 10 years. You bury them in the furrow and they do their job year after year, with no cables and no expensive infrastructure to run across the land.

3. Clear decisions, all in one place

Data from the air and from the soil is processed and turned into simple charts. You see the hyper-local weather, the soil’s water reserve and your irrigation history at a glance, straight from your phone or tablet. You set your own rules — for example, you are notified when moisture drops below a threshold, together with the volume of water needed to restore it (the FAO-56 method).

4. It grows with the farm

Whether you manage 50 or 5,000 hectares, adding new sensors is instant. As the farm grows, the data network keeps pace, without interruption.

You can’t control the rain, but you can control the water

You cannot control the lack of rain, but you can control every cubic metre of water you pump. The difference between irrigating reactively and irrigating on data is measured concretely — in water, energy and yield — not in luck. And the starting point is simple: to know, instead of assuming, what is happening below the surface of the soil.

Frequently asked questions

What does it cost? You pay an all-inclusive monthly subscription — with no upfront investment. The equipment remains our property and under our warranty, and installation and maintenance are included. You can estimate the amount in the calculator before any commitment.

Does it work without internet on the farm? Yes. The sensors communicate via LoRaWAN, over a range of kilometres; only the gateway needs a 4G signal, and its location is chosen at installation precisely on that basis.

How long do the sensors last without maintenance? They have an internal battery that lasts up to 10 years, with no cables and no infrastructure to run across the land. We check them during the annual service visit.

Do I need a building permit? No. The setup is temporary and fully removable — with no permanent foundations.