M2M - Did You Know Plants Can Now Talk?

In the past you had shamans and traditional healers possessed the ability to talk to plants. Now with the progress in M2M technology the same skill set is imparted to normal folks like us. Using a small postage stamp size chip attached to the plants - the plants can now tell us when it needs watering. This goes back to one of the primary premises of M2M - Proactive monitoring. Provide water to the thirsty when it is needed not on some arbitrary schedule. This technology does the same to the plants. The sensor detects when the plants need watering and based on that turn on the sprinklers. The technology developed for NASA to conserve water for plant growth during long-term space flights has been adapted by researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder (UCB). Now, crops can tell farmers they need water. The farmers just need to clip a tiny sensor to their potato or corn leaves. When the plant feels it needs some moisture, data from the leaves will be sent wirelessly over the Internet to computers linked to irrigation equipment.
This technology will also be good for the environment by reducing the number of watering days for certain crops by up to a day or two each week. As agricultural activity accounts for about 40 percent of the total freshwater use in the U.S., a decrease in water used for irrigation will also decrease the pressure on lakes and reservoirs.

The challenges that plague all M2M systems affect this as well. How does this integrate into my current farming practice? How much does it cost to service and replace? Does it account for local variations - plant, weather, soil conditions etc.

Parallels can be drawn here to the traditional equipment service and support. In the traditional equipment monitoring space - M2M allows you to service equipment when the service is actually required. As part of normal routine maintenance parts are replaced even though they have not reached their end resulting in wastage.