California's Central Valley produces a quarter of the nation's food. With more than 250 different crops grown in the region, they require a lot of water.
With 75% of all irrigated land in California located in the Central Valley, farmers face water restrictions and other high costs to gain access to this valuable resource, and more are finding ways to relieve that pressure.
Paul Precissi knows a thing or two about pressure. As the owner of Precision Ag Services, he provides essential water-measuring tools to farmers — and business is booming.
"Too much [pressure] is a bad thing, and it's expensive. Not enough, you're going to bring in a poor quality crop. So, we strike that balance," he said.
That balance comes from a pressure bomb. It's essentially a blood pressure monitor for trees and other crop-yielding plants, and it all starts with a leaf.
"We want to grab our most terminal leaf right here, and we want to grab a leaf that kind of represents the rest of the tree," said Amdrew Malagon, a crop consultant for Precissi Ag Services.
Here's how it works. Samples of leaves from different trees are taken. After being confined for 10 minutes, the leaf reaches an equilibrium. After that, it's time to cut and use the pressure bomb.
The stem gets squeezed, measuring how much stress it takes to get moisture out of the leaf.
This allows farmers to see how much water is in the tree itself instead of the soil, saving money and water.
"Anything you can do to use those inputs — whether they be your water, your fertilizer, your manpower, your energy — that's where you want to be," Precissi said.
Not only does this help grow the best crop, but it also helps deter pests.
"Any crop that's deficient in nutrients or suffering from drought conditions just becomes that much more susceptible to insect pressure," Precissi said.
Precissi Ag Services is still looking to grow its customer base to other crops.
"We're doing almonds, walnuts, and olives," Malagon said. "That's what we have our programs for, and we kind of use data from the UC as well to see if you know if there is any other crops that could be that would want to use this system."
"The whole mission behind it is to help the grower keep growing instead of having to focus on all these odds and ends," Precissi said. "We're here to support them."
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