Good water management, healthy crops

Your crops thrive best with optimal soil and water management. Is the water too saline? Mineral poor? Too much or too little water? In order to respond adequately to developments in your plot, you want to be able to constantly look into the soil, or into the ditch, in order to know what is happening in the water system. Fixeau offers innovative and affordable solutions for this.

With Fixeau, we offer solutions to enable joint monitoring. With Fixeau View you gain insight into the water system based on data measurements and computer models. The measurements come from farmers, nature managers and water boards who use the Fixeau Pin and the Fixeau Mobile. We provide information and advice for both individuals and collectives, with which we can jointly optimize water management.

 

Fixeau works on the basis of a ‘crowdsourcing’ principle. The more datapoints (users), the better the data processing and insight of the platform. The more insight into the water and soil system, the better the advice. To this end, we have developed measuring instruments that meet the needs of farmers, nature managers and water boards

Aqua Pin

The Aqua Pin is a smart dipstick and measures the groundwater level, soil moisture and/or salinity in the plot. The modular construction of the Aqua Pin is tailored to the soil structure of the plot. The Pin is easy to place and install via an app on your mobile phone. The pin sends the data to the Fixeau-view dashboard where you can read and analyze the data.

Aqua Mobile

The Aqua Mobile is a hand-held meter that can be used to easily measure the salt content in the ditch and the drain water. You hold the electrical conductivity sensor (EC sensor) in the water and the measurements are saved and sent to the Fixeau-view dashboard. This provides real-time insight into the water quality of the water system.

Fixeau-view

Fixeau-view is your personal dashboard that gives you continuous insight into developments in your ground and surface water, simply on your smartphone, tablet or PC. The measurement data from your Aqua Pin and Aqua Mobile enter directly on the web platform, Fixeau-view. Fixeax-view has been developed for daily use with up-to-date data-based advisory services.

Shared insight

The collaboration of agricultural entrepreneurs and water boards focuses on improving measurements of the hydrological functioning of the agricultural plot and the adjacent ditch. Fixeau offers a combination of measuring instruments, a centralized platform and advice that automatically aggregates and provides insight into the measurement data. Complete and reliable measurement data contribute to arriving at the desired insights that increase awareness of issues at play such as the salinization process, effects and control of water level management and greater understanding and support for measures to be taken.

For farmers

Do I suffer from salinization? Why are there puddles on the land, due to soil compaction or less effective drainage? What influence do I have on the water quality? Fixeau provides information for the individual farmer who can use the knowledge for crop optimization, determine the extent to which salinization takes place, and who receive advice to make choices about drainage, soil and water level management. Fixeau provides insights at regional level to achieve better water quality, sufficient fresh water and sustainable production growth. Fixeau provides you with a factual basis as a reference for third party interventions and optimization of the water system.

 

For water managers

What is the relationship between ground and surface water? Does the groundwater level meet the reclamation standard? What is the influence of autonomous developments on the groundwater level? A good measuring network is important for good water management. The measuring point in the right place is not always possible and measurements deep into the water system are expensive. Fixeau helps by setting up a participatory monitoring network, together with agricultural entrepreneurs and/or nature managers who also benefit from better water management and better soil. This leads to awareness among all stakeholders of the (im)possibilities and support for and understanding of measures.

It is sometimes difficult to distinguish salinisation damage from drought damage. That is why it is good that farmers themselves measure what is happening in their plots and ditches, together with the water authority.
- Lammert Westerhuis, LTO Noord-afdelingsvoorzitter Hogeland