Introducing PLAN: Mobile Irrigation Management App | CropWatch

By Xin Qiao - Irrigation and Water Management Specialist, Joseph Oboamah - Graduate Student, Weizhen Liang - Post-Doctoral Research Associate, Gary Stone - Extension Educator

mobile phone showing app overlay on center pivot photo — Unlock real-time, in-field decision-making with UNL's new PLAN mobile app — bringing irrigation insights, crop water use and weather data straight to your fingertips.

Background

Since 2020, the PHREC Irrigation and Digital Agriculture lab has successfully operated a web-based dashboard to support the Peer Learning Agricultural Network (PLAN). This platform has enabled growers to access critical data including real-time soil moisture readings, disease outbreak risks, and weekly crop water use information for the Nebraska Panhandle region. Through collaboration with over 30 growers and various commercial partners via API (Application Programming Interface) integrations, our team has expanded coverage to more than 100 commercial fields spanning approximately 10,000 acres of farmland.

Introducing the PLAN Mobile App

While our web dashboard has proven valuable, field accessibility remained challenging. To address these roadblocks, we are pleased to announce the release of our new mobile application: PLAN.

This app incorporates most features from the website while introducing significant improvements for in-field usage. The key features for the PLAN mobile app include: real-time sensor data visualization, weekly crop water use reports, user-friendly irrigation scheduler, enhanced field monitoring capabilities, potential for AI integrations (Figure 1).

mobile app screens side by side — **Figure 1.** Screenshots of the PLAN app showcasing (from left): homepage with field overview and weather information, sensor page displaying real-time readings, and weekly crop water use information updated throughout the growing season by Gary Stone and Xin Qiao.

Irrigation Scheduler

The app features a specialized irrigation scheduler (Figure 2) designed particularly for users without commercial soil moisture probes. Using a straightforward "checkbook" method with an intuitive interface, users can input irrigation information while the app automatically calculates irrigation needs based on data from nearby weather stations and corresponding weekly crop water use information. This scheduler is currently in final development and will be available in May.

Availability and Access

The PLAN app is now available for download on the PHREC website.

Current status:

iOS version: Available now through TestFlight (official App Store release coming soon)
Android version: In development, coming soon

We encourage interested users to download the app and provide feedback using the floating comment icon within the application.

Stay Updated

For tutorials and the latest updates, please visit our YouTube channel.

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