Science is not our marketing. It is our origin.

Asymetree was born at the CSIC Institute for Sustainable Agriculture. Every irrigation recommendation SAQIA gives rests on published, peer-reviewed research — and here you can check it.

About us

Asymetree is a CSIC knowledge-based company (EBC, Empresa de Base de Conocimiento) born at the Institute for Sustainable Agriculture (IAS-CSIC) in Córdoba, Spain. Our job is to take years of research by the Department of Agronomy and the AgroPhenoLab group out into the field.

On one side, the study of water–plant relations in Mediterranean tree crops: how much water an olive or almond tree really needs, and at which moments of the season a deficit costs yield. On the other, the ability to measure it, with drone remote sensing, in-house sensors and phenomics — that is, characterizing each variety and each tree by its size, its vigour and its water status.

That knowledge lived in scientific papers and field trials. SAQIA is the way to bring it to your farm: the same methods and the same sensors, applied to your trees, with your data.

The four scientific pillars

  1. Thermal remote sensing of water stress with drones

    A tree that transpires well cools itself; one that is thirsty heats up. Our team pioneered measuring that phenomenon from drones with thermal cameras and turning it into an operational index, the CWSI, which detects water stress tree by tree before it becomes visible.

  2. Phenomics and structural characterization with LiDAR

    Canopy volume determines how much water each tree demands. With LiDAR, the structure of the whole orchard — height, canopy, missing trees, topography — is measured in one morning with centimetre precision. It is the baseline against which any improvement is documented.

  3. Irrigation scheduling in tree crops: the IAS methodology

    Specific crop coefficients and regulated deficit irrigation: applying the deficit in the phenological windows where the tree tolerates it and irrigating in those where it doesn’t. Decades of IAS-CSIC trials in tree crops underpin the judgement with which SAQIA calculates every irrigation plan.

  4. Plant sensors of our own design

    We design and build the SAQIA-IR canopy temperature sensors ourselves, on the same principles we use in research: direct measurement on the plant, wireless, solar-powered and connected over LoRaWAN. That way we control the whole chain, from the measurement on the tree to the decision on your phone.

Publications

A selection of the work by our team and the IAS-CSIC group that SAQIA builds on, grouped by pillar. All linked to the original publication.

Thermal remote sensing of water stress with drones

  • Thermal and Narrowband Multispectral Remote Sensing for Vegetation Monitoring from an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

    J.A.J. Berni · P.J. Zarco-Tejada · L. Suárez · Elias Fereres

    IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 2009, 47 (3), 722–738

    First operational thermal and multispectral drone-based remote sensing system for monitoring vegetation water and nutritional status at individual-tree scale. An international reference work in drone-based agricultural remote sensing.

    doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2008.2010457

  • Mapping Canopy Conductance and CWSI in Olive Orchards Using High Resolution Thermal Remote Sensing Imagery

    J.A.J. Berni · P.J. Zarco-Tejada · G. Sepulcre-Cantó · Elias Fereres · F. Villalobos

    Remote Sensing of Environment, 2009, 113 (11), 2380–2388

    Methodology for mapping canopy conductance and the Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI) in olive orchards using high-resolution thermal imagery. Establishes the feasibility of detecting water stress tree by tree — the basis of differentiated irrigation management in woody crops.

    doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2009.06.018

Phenomics and structural characterization with LiDAR

  • LiDAR-based assessment of canopy size variability and its impact on irrigation efficiency and yield in almond orchards

    Open Access

    Rafael Orozco-Moran · Jose A. Jimenez-Berni · Elias Fereres · Francisco Orgaz

    Scientia Horticulturae, 2026, 357, 114652

    Quantifies the impact of tree structural heterogeneity, estimated from LiDAR-derived ground cover, on water–yield relationships in a commercial almond orchard. Conventional irrigation management ignores tree-size variability within management units, leading to inefficient water use.

    doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2026.114652

  • High throughput determination of plant height, crown cover, and above-ground biomass in wheat with LiDAR

    Open Access

    Jose A. Jimenez-Berni · D.M. Deery · P. Rozas-Larraondo · A.T.G. Condon · G.J. Rebetzke · R.A. James · W.D. Bovill · R.T. Furbank · X.R.R. Sirault

    Frontiers in Plant Science, 2018, 9, 237

    The origin of the LiDAR characterization we now apply to tree crops.

    High-throughput phenotyping methodology using ground-based LiDAR to automatically determine plant height, crown cover and above-ground biomass under field conditions, directly applicable to structural crop characterization.

    doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2018.00237

  • Field characterization of olive (Olea europaea L.) tree crown architecture using terrestrial laser scanning data

    I. Moorthy · J.R. Miller · Jose A. Jimenez-Berni · P.J. Zarco-Tejada · B. Hu · J. Chen

    Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 2011, 151 (2), 204–214

    Field characterization of olive tree crown architecture with terrestrial laser scanning (LiDAR): the structure of each tree measured directly, rather than estimated from a few manual measurements.

    doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2010.10.005

Irrigation scheduling in tree crops: the IAS methodology

  • Irrigation scheduling of an almond orchard using the water balance and remote and proximal sensing

    Open Access

    Rafael Orozco-Moran · Jose A. Jimenez-Berni · Elias Fereres · Francisco Orgaz

    Agricultural Water Management, 2025, 313, 109455

    Almond irrigation scheduling methodology integrating the water balance with remote and proximal sensing for individualized crop coefficient (Kc) estimation. Characterizing each tree with LiDAR and multispectral sensors allows irrigation doses to match the orchard’s real heterogeneity.

    doi.org/10.1016/J.AGWAT.2025.109455

  • Long-term almond yield response to deficit irrigation

    D. Moldero · Á. López-Bernal · L. Testi · I.J. Lorite · Elias Fereres · Francisco Orgaz

    Irrigation Science, 2021, 39 (4)

    Multi-season analysis of deficit irrigation effects on almond yield. Identifies water-reduction thresholds that optimize marginal productivity and the crop’s economic sustainability under scarcity.

    doi.org/10.1007/s00271-021-00720-8

  • Water requirements of mature almond trees in response to atmospheric demand

    M. López-López · M. Espadafor · L. Testi · I.J. Lorite · Francisco Orgaz · Elias Fereres

    Irrigation Science, 2018, 36 (4–5), 271–280

    Characterizes water requirements of mature almond trees under varying atmospheric demand in Mediterranean conditions, providing specific crop coefficients that underpin more efficient irrigation scheduling.

    doi.org/10.1007/s00271-018-0582-z

  • The effects of regulated and continuous deficit irrigation on the water use, growth and yield of olive trees

    F. Iniesta · L. Testi · Francisco Orgaz · F.J. Villalobos

    European Journal of Agronomy, 2009, 30 (4), 258–265

    Compares regulated and continuous deficit irrigation in olive and their effect on water use, growth and yield: the basis for applying the deficit at the moments when the tree tolerates it.

    doi.org/10.1016/j.eja.2008.12.004

  • Evapotranspiration of a young irrigated olive orchard in southern Spain

    L. Testi · F.J. Villalobos · Francisco Orgaz

    Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 2004, 121 (1–2), 1–18

    Measures the evapotranspiration of a young irrigated olive orchard in southern Spain: how much water the crop really uses, the starting point for calculating its irrigation needs.

    doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2003.08.005

The team

Technical visits, irrigation plans and end-of-season reviews are signed by people with a name, a face and a verifiable scientific track record.

Alejandro Aguilar Chacón

Alejandro Aguilar Chacón

Co-founder · Managing Director

Agronomist. Runs Asymetree and handles its management: administration and finance, contracts and proposals, relations with clients, suppliers and public administrations, and coordination of the projects on each farm. Your point of contact for the proposal, the contract and the follow-up of the service.

José A. Jiménez Berni

José A. Jiménez Berni

Co-founder · Scientific and technical support · Remote sensing and sensors

Tenured Scientist at CSIC (IAS) and head of the AgroPhenoLab group. Expert in drone remote sensing, LiDAR and proximal sensors for crop status diagnosis. Pioneer in the operational use of drone-mounted thermal cameras for agriculture.

Rafael Orozco Morán

Rafael Orozco Morán

Co-founder · Scientific and technical support · Precision agronomy

Specialist in precision management of woody crops. Has developed and validated LiDAR structural characterization methodologies and plant-sensor-based irrigation scheduling in commercial almond and olive orchards.

Gabriel Soriano Gayarre

Gabriel Soriano Gayarre

Co-founder · Scientific and technical support · Hardware and sensor engineering

Industrial engineer responsible for the design and manufacturing of the plant sensors and the field communications network. Integrates hardware, firmware and LoRaWAN systems for on-farm deployments.

«When SAQIA recommends an irrigation, there is no black box behind it: there is published scientific literature and years of fieldwork.»

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