Canada is a global leader in potato production. In Atlantic Canada, the provinces of Prince Edward Island (PEI) and New Brunswick (NB) respectively contrib- ute 24.5% and 13.6% of the total potato production in Canada (Agriculture and Agri Food Canada 2017). A majority of felds in Atlantic Canada are non-irrigated and rely heavily on rainfall to meet water requirements for potato growth and productivity. Rainfall patterns are increasingly irregular because of climate change, resulting in insufcient water supply during critical growth periods, and can cause a signifcant decline in tuber yields in PEI and NB. For example, in 2017, total precipitation in May was signifcantly higher as compared to August (Government of Canada 2018). Weather conditions (Escuredo et al. 2018, Zrcková et al. 2018) and seasonal precipitation (Le et al. 2018) have major efects on potato cultivations. Potato production is sensitive to water deficiency in all stages during growing season (Lynch et al. 1995), and water stress affects both total potato yield (Elzner et al. 2018) and tuber quality (Ward 1988). The water requirement for Canadian potato production varies from 400 mm to 500 mm annually depending on the potato cultivar and weather conditions (Council 2003). The deficiency of water in root zones can lower the tuber number per plant and marketability if the plants are faced with moisture stress during the bulking stage. Evaluation of DualEM-II sensor for soil moisture content estimation in the potato fields of Atlantic Canada A A. F 1 , M Z 1 , F A 1,4 *, Q Z 2 , M B 1 , T E 2 , B A 1 , A W. S 3 1 Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, Canada 2 Department of Engineering, Agricultural Campus, Dalhousie University, Truro, Canada 3 Citrus Research and Education Center, University of Florida, Lake Alfred, USA 4 Government College University, Faisalabad, Pakistan *Corresponding author: farhat@gcuf.edu.pk; fabbas@upei.ca Citation: Farooque A.A., Zare M., Abbas F., Zaman Q., Bos M., Esau T., Acharya B., Schumann A.W. (2019): Evaluation of DualEM-II sensor for soil moisture content estimation in the potato felds of Atlantic Canada. Plant Soil Environ, 65: 290–297. Abstract: Te conventional gravimetric methods of estimating soil moisture content (θ) are laborious, time-consu- ming, and destructive to agricultural felds. We evaluated the performance of DualEM-II sensor in non-destructive way of θ prediction and for predicting θ variations within potato felds in Atlantic Canada. Values of θ were measured from four potato felds in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island using a pre-calibrated (R 2 = 0.98) time domain refectometry (TDR) from root zone of potato tubers under grid sampling arrangements. Horizontal co-planar (HCP) and perpendicular co-planar (PRP) readings were taken using DualEM-II sensor from the same locations of θ mea- surements. Tere was a better correlation between PRP and θ (r: 0.64–0.83) was calculated than between HCP and θ (r: 0.41–0.79). Tere was no signifcant diference (R 2 : 0.60–0.69; RMSE (root mean square error): 2.32–4.02) between the θ values measured with TDR (θ M ) and those predicted with DualEM-II (θ P ) confrming that the use of electro- magnetic induction technique, evaluated during this study, is labor saving, quick, non-destructive, and accurate and can be considered a precision agriculture tool for efciently managing soil water in potato felds. Keywords: irrigation management; monitoring water stress; precision farming; soil variability; tuberous crop Supported by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Canadian Horticulture Council, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and New Brunswick Department of Agriculture, Aquaculture and Fisheries (Canadian Agriculture Adoption Program). 290 Original Paper Plant, Soil and Environment, 65, 2019 (6): 290–297 https://doi.org/10.17221/72/2019-PSE