I am Vijay Dattatreya Rikame from Vinchur Gavali, District - Nashik. I am a grape farmer owning 20 acres of land. For 20 years I have been cultivating various grape varieties like R K Sonaka, Super Sonaka, Manik Chaman, SSN, Jumbo, and Purple. We have done the cutting of this plot on 13th October and in this plot, we have installed the Fasal system similarly there are 2 more Fasal systems which I’ve installed in my other Grape plots, but till 1st November there was no alert from Fasal’s system to water this plot. Concerned, we contacted Fasal’s Bengaluru office and the representative there, immediately sent one of their customer support professionals to address our concerns around the irrigation alerts & soil moisture readings. Upon digging we were pleasantly surprised to see that the soil was moist till 2 feet from the ground level. Earlier we used to irrigate the plot for 4 hours every 4th day. When we started irrigating our plot for 2 hours every 4th day, Fasal’s system alerted us about the leaching of nutrients. After this experience, we realized that even though the soil has a good moisture-retaining capacity, it need not be irrigated for more than two hours. Fasal’s irrigation advisory which is being sent out as an actionable alert through the Fasal app came in very handy. These actionable alerts were super helpful for us in saving 60% of water, because of which the load on our feeder reservoir also decreased substantially. Working in tandem with Fasal’s system has been an educationally enriching experience for us; its precise irrigation advisories helped us to understand & plan out optimal irrigation schedules to maintain ideal moisture level conditions within the canopy. Now we know at each of the crop stages of grapes how much water is required for the plant’s optimal growth, how to factor in the climatic conditions in fertigation & irrigation schedules. Because of Fasal’s accurate pests & disease management-related actionable alerts we were able to take preventive sprays for powdery mildew. Occurrences of disease like Khodkeed (Decaying of tree bark) has also been reduced considerably after the installation of Fasal’s system. Usually, for an acre of grapes cultivation, a farmer needs to put in INR 50,000 towards labor charges for taking care of the grapes plant another INR 1,00,00 into manure considering grape cultivation is such an expensive affair, I feel the farmer should also keenly observe at each of the crop-stages of grapes how much water is required for the plant’s optimal growth and accordingly act upon it. Fasal’s system would help one understand this critical issue as well as guide him to act upon it. Fasal’s irrigation advisory takes into account all the necessary parameters (like the micro-climatic conditions, crop-stage, GDD, VPD, etc.) before sending out its precise irrigation alerts, like in winter the plant would require irrigation after 5 days similarly during the berry-sizing period it will need irrigation after every 3 days. Fasal’s system sends out these alerts through SMS & app notification, and these irrigation-related alerts, and, pests & disease-related actionable insights will help a farmer to practice his profession in a much better manner yielding very good results in terms produce quality and effective utilization of resources. I strongly believe every grape farmer should install the Fasal system, if one has 10 plots then one can install the Fasal system in one of the plots and see for themselves the benefits the critical utilities of its use cases (like precise irrigation advisory which has helped us in saving water, maintaining ideal moisture levels within the canopy to prevent cracking of grapes, etc,.) and from our personal experience we are confident about the fact that if the farmer works in tandem with the Fasal system’s advisories & actionable alerts then he/she will definitely go for more installations in his/her remaining plots.