A soil monitoring network setup by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) is providing important information to farmers.

The network, known as Real-Time In-Situ Soil Monitoring for Agriculture (RISMA), consists of 22 stations across Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario.

There are a dozen stations in Manitoba - nine in the Carman/Elm Creek area and three in Sturgeon Creek.

Jarrett Powers is a manager with AAFC's Science and Technology Branch in Winnipeg.

He says the stations will be monitoring soil moisture and temperatures, in addition to collecting weather information.

"Farmers are always interested in what the weather's doing," said Powers. "I know farmers have used it to monitor in the springtime, freeze-thaw, so they get some ideas of what the temperatures are doing on their soils. For seeding purposes, I know they're always interested in rainfall events. Spraying time, quite interested in wind speed, wind direction those sorts of things."

Powers adds the information they collect is also being used by the Universities of Manitoba and Guelph.

NASA will also be using the data in conjunction with a satellite it launched in January to monitor soil moisture.

The data is available at aafc.fieldvision.ca.