Data-driven farming and AI are transforming water management in Chile

 

MAIPO RIVER BASIN, Chile — Under a blazing sun in this drought-stricken Andean valley, a Chilean agronomist and a farm worker examined moist soil from a freshly dug pit among rows of almond trees.

The agronomist detected excess moisture 15 inches below the surface and advised adjusting the irrigation schedule to improve water efficiency: two 10-hour sessions weekly instead of one 20-hour stretch.

“Ideally, it would be best to split irrigation into two sessions and space them out a bit,” said Pía González to the farmer.

Felipe Pereira, who runs the farm at the foothills of the snow-capped Andes, agreed to act after the cherry harvest in a few weeks, when more workers would be available. González logged her recommendation on an online platform using Microsoft technology with hundreds of data points about the plot — the centerpiece of a pioneering solution helping farmers decide how and when to irrigate.

González works at Kilimo, a water stewardship platform operating in seven countries in the Americas — including the U.S., Mexico and Chile — that collaborates with farmers to optimize agricultural water use and help companies advance their water security goals.

Its tool combines satellite images, weather and soil data, field advice and evapotranspiration estimates, which measure the amount of water lost from plants and the environment to the atmosphere. It recommends weekly irrigation levels while allowing staff to monitor plots and confirm water savings almost in near real time.

“The aim is to put more thought into the orchard — precision agriculture,” explained Pereira, a young farm manager passionate about bringing data and science to an industry that has been mostly informal and unstructured for too long.

Kilimo says the strategy is working. According to Kilimo, the three-year irrigation management project involving Pereira’s farm and 10 others has saved 60 million cubic feet of water in the Maipo River basin, one of the world’s most stressed waterways supplying Santiago, Chile’s capital, and the country’s farm heartland.

A separate drip irrigation initiative saved 14 million cubic feet for a total of 74 million cubic feet of water — enough to supply 10,000 households in Santiago in a year, according to Kilimo. 

Jairo Trad, CEO of Kilimo, calls it a win-win: farmers cut water use and costs, improve margins and earn annual incentives once savings are verified against a baseline using rigorous methodology. Communities benefit from reduced water waste, while Kilimo secures funding for future projects by proving results to corporate partners. These, in turn, meet water-security goals with verified, auditable outcomes.

“Water for agriculture is essentially free … The challenge was to give value to water,” said Trad.