IrriSmart wins Rep. Andy Biggs’s 2022 Congressional App Challenge in Arizona’s Fifth District

When asked what inspired the creation of IrriSmart, the student said, ”Growing up in Arizona, I’ve witnessed constant water shortages plaguing our region, which have only been getting worse. In fact, Arizona is currently in its 27th year of a long term megadrought, and next year, Arizona will face some of its most drastic water cuts and lose 21% of its water from the Colorado River Basin. These water cuts will most severely impact the farmers in our region. Moreover, water shortage is not only a local issue but also a global issue. According to UNICEF, half of the world’s population could be living in areas facing water scarcity by as early as 2025. Many of these countries most affected by water scarcity are also those in developing regions in the Middle East and Africa. After learning about this, I decided to develop IrriSmart, a web application which provides farmers a precise calculation of necessary irrigation amount. Because much water is currently wasted during irrigation, IrriSmart can save thousands of gallons of water while still achieving high crop yield. Current smart irrigation systems which determine the necessary irrigation amount typically come with an initial investment cost and also require training to set up the sensor system, making farmers less likely to use this method. On the other hand, farmers only need to input a few parameters on IrriSmart (such as farm location, size, and crop planting date) to obtain a quick and accurate estimation of necessary irrigation amount. Free, accessible, irrigation management apps such as IrriSmart which utilize the increasing amount of data around us will be essential in a water scarce future, especially in drought-stricken developing nations.”