Jain Irrigation’s Jain Unity, the company’s patented automatic irrigation scheduling software and environmental services platform, has won the Irrigation Association’s (IA) 2020 People’s Choice Award in the Specialty Landscape Irrigation category of the New Product Contest.

The contest, which is usually held during the annual Irrigation Show and Education Week, was hosted online by the IA this year due to the pandemic.

The People’s Choice award was selected by those viewing the entries online and recognizes the favorite products released in the past 12 months based on innovation, design quality, increased water/resource-use efficiency, ease of use and product life expectancy.

Unity tracks the real-time state of moisture in a plant’s root zone to calculate and then activate a smart controller when best and how-to water. It also leverages predictive modeling of environmental changes in the future, such as forecast rainfall, to reduce the running of irrigation systems for refilling root zones and balancing nutrient loss to maintain peak plant health.

“We’re incredibly honored by this recognition of Jain Unity from our peers,” said Aric Olson, president of Jain Irrigation. “It acknowledges the importance of utilizing forecast weather data that increases precision in water management and ultimately, conservation of freshwater use for landscaping. Unity has set a new bar in irrigation technology by using predictive analytics to save more water than the prior generations of weather-based irrigation controllers.”

Unity connects to smart irrigation controllers on-site over 3G/4G/5G wireless networks while giving users remote access to those controllers from anywhere on their computer or smartphone. Unity automatically sends users a weekly notification that shows the amount of ET (evapotranspiration) moisture loss and replenishment by rain and/or running the irrigation system.